311 Children's Thyroid Cancer Lawsuit

Plaintiff woman gives statement: “I can’t even think about what’s going to happen in the future.”

Here’s how it looked at the third trial yesterday.

Typically, one or two in 1 million people have pediatric thyroid cancer

Over 300 cases have been tested so far with approximately 38,000 people. “The plaintiff also argues that in epidemiology survey by experts using data from the town’s rural health survey, etc., the plaintiff’s thyroid cancer to be seen as a cancer causing outbreak (outburst) was an extremely high value of 94,9~99/3%. In the past, the causal relationship between the events and the disease that cause this 50-70% probability, has been recognized, and the causal relationship of damage and thyroid cancer is “with a high level of coincidence (and sometimes it’s good to treat it as proven.”

Supporters’ meeting for the thyroid cancer lawsuit. The plaintiffs’ lawyers explained their claims in the trial.

November 10, 2022

On November 9, the third oral argument was held at the Tokyo District Court in a lawsuit filed by seven men and women, aged 17 to 28, who were living in Fukushima Prefecture at the time of the accident, claiming that they developed thyroid cancer as a result of the accident at TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. In their statements, the plaintiffs expressed their anxiety about the future, saying, “We can’t even think about the future.

　The plaintiff, a woman in her 20s who was in the first year of junior high school and living in Nakadori at the time of the accident, made a statement of opinion. After the second surgery, the wound, which extended down to her ear, did not close easily, and after she was discharged from the hospital, she said, “I was very upset when fluid started flowing from my neck.

　Recently, her cancer recurred, and there is talk of a third surgery. While she was frankly worried about her future and said, “The present, the future, in fact, it’s not good,” she added, “I am glad that it was me who got sick and not my relatives or friends.

Supporters’ meeting for the thyroid cancer lawsuit. Plaintiffs’ lawyers explained their claims in the trial November 9, 2022, Kasumigaseki, Tokyo; photo by Tetsuya Kasai.

Since the nuclear accident, more than 300 people in the prefecture have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer or suspected thyroid cancer. The woman told the judge, “I want to tell the judge that there are more than 300 people who are worried and their families are also worried. I hope that the current situation will change, even if only a little.

　On the day of the hearing, the plaintiffs mainly presented rebuttals and statements of opinion in response to TEPCO’s claims. In response to TEPCO’s claim that the plaintiffs were exposed to low levels of radiation (less than 100 millisieverts) and that the risk of developing thyroid cancer did not increase, the plaintiffs pointed out that “there is a risk even at much lower levels than 100 millisieverts,” citing overseas papers.

Plaintiffs’ lawyers hold a press conference on the thyroid cancer lawsuit.

The plaintiffs also claimed that an epidemiological survey conducted by experts using data from the prefectural health survey showed that the “probability of cause” of the plaintiffs’ thyroid cancer being attributable to radiation exposure was extremely high, ranging from 94.9% to 99.3%. In past pollution lawsuits, a causal relationship between the causative event and the disease was recognized even when the probability was 50-70%, and the causal relationship between radiation exposure and thyroid cancer “can be treated as proven with a high degree of probability,” he said.

　The two plaintiffs are scheduled to present their arguments on January 25 and March 15 next year, respectively. （The two plaintiffs are scheduled to present their opinions on January 25 and March 15.)
https://www.asahi.com/articles/ASQC97SZSQC9UGTB001.html?iref=pc_photo_gallery_bottom

November 20, 2022 Posted by dunrenard | Fuk 2022 | 311 Children's Thyroid Cancer Lawsuit, Fukushima Radiation | Leave a comment

Signatures submitted for “Hear the Plaintiffs” – Childhood Thyroid Cancer Trial

Aug. 23, 2022
Please allow all of the young plaintiffs to make a statement.”

On August 3, a support group for the plaintiffs in the 311 Childhood Thyroid Cancer Trial, who are suing Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) for thyroid cancer caused by exposure to radiation as a result of the accident at TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, submitted a petition to the court asking for statements of opinion from all the plaintiffs. On February 2 and 3, a group of supporters of the plaintiffs submitted signatures to the court demanding that all plaintiffs make a statement of their opinions.

The signatures were submitted by the 311 Thyroid Cancer Children Support Network. The group submitted 6,395 signatures to the Tokyo District Court, which it had been calling for since June, demanding that all plaintiffs state their opinions and that the case be tried in “grand court. At a press conference held prior to the submission, attorney Kenjiro Kitamura stressed the importance of the statements of opinion, saying, “It is extremely important to hear directly from the plaintiffs themselves about the reality of the damage, including their suffering and thoughts.

Attorney Yuki Saito, who is in charge of the two plaintiffs, explained that the plaintiffs in this trial are of a relatively young generation, and that “the plaintiffs became ill when they were small children and suppressed their feelings so that their parents would not worry. He stated that it is extremely difficult to have multiple plaintiffs present their opinions on a single trial date because it takes a lot of effort just to prepare one plaintiff’s opinion statement.

After the opinion statements, the plaintiffs were able to talk about their feelings with each other.

A plaintiff who participated in the press conference also reflected, “Around the time I joined this trial, I rarely talked about my painful experiences and feelings to other people,” and added, “Plaintiff No. 2 spent two months last time (for the first oral argument) to talk about his suffering. After facing her suffering and putting it into words, and delivering her voice directly to the judge, she was able to learn about the feelings of others in similar situations, and she was able to talk about her feelings with other plaintiffs.” and expressed the plaintiffs’ thoughts and feelings

Attorney Kitamura commented that the plaintiffs, who had kept their minds closed, were beginning to face up to the damage they had suffered through the trial, “For them, it is like rubbing salt in the wound, but I think it is a necessary step for them to take a new step forward. He added, “No matter how painful it is, facing it is inherently redeeming.” He added emphatically, “I think it is absolutely necessary for us to really move forward from now on.”
https://www.ourplanet-tv.org/45580/?fbclid=IwAR2-4z48xWnIEyPJdZwD9RE_HNi8X8BSfnfSfRWRHTp5I8uSHa-B33YkZkc

August 28, 2022 Posted by dunrenard | Fuk 2022 | 311 Children's Thyroid Cancer Lawsuit, Fukushima Daiichi | Leave a comment

The Fukushima taboo

March 6, 2022

“Coming out” on thyroid cancer from Fukushima is an act of bravery in today’s Japan

By Linda Pentz Gunter

In the midst of the arcane fight over whether to include nuclear power in the European Union’s green “Taxonomy”, five former prime ministers of Japan made an unprecedented statement. They roundly condemned any inclusion of nuclear power as a green or sustainable energy, even as a so-called bridging fuel.

The current Japanese government glossed over the climate arguments in the former prime ministers’ argument, quickly seizing upon one tiny phrase concerning conditions in Japan post-Fukushima that read: “many children are suffering from thyroid cancer”.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party even went so far as to approve a resolution condemning the five former prime ministers, one of whom, Junichiro Koizumi, is from that party. The resolution alleges that their statement was not “scientific” and that they were reigniting prejudice and encouraging people to view people from Fukushima as pariahs.

The party’s Policy Research Board said it would submit its resolution to current prime minister, Fumio Kishida.

On the same day — January 27, 2022 — as the former prime minister’s letter was submitted to the EU, six young people who were children at time of the March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, filed a lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court against TEPCO, the owner and operator of the nuclear plant.

The six, ages 17 to 27, hold the company responsible for the thyroid cancers each of them developed after being exposed to the radiation released by the nuclear disaster.

In filing suit and thus making the issue public, the six were immediately on the receiving end of an unprecedented level of abuse for speaking out. In this video of their testimony, they were obliged to keep their physical appearances concealed for fear of further reprisals.

Voice of 6 plaintiffs who “spent 10 years without telling anyone” – Childhood thyroid cancer patients file lawsuit against TEPCO.

“Coming out” on thyroid cancer — or indeed about any negative health impacts resulting from the Fukushima nuclear disaster — remains largely taboo in Japan. Studies that conclude the medical impacts are significant or even substantial, are met with equal hostility, stoniness or just plain silence.

When epidemiologist, Toshihide Tsuda and colleagues, published a paper in 2016 — Thyroid Cancer Detection by Ultrasound Among Residents Ages 18 Years and Younger in Fukushima, Japan: 2011 to 2014 — it was reportedly largely ignored rather than challenged.

The study concluded: “An excess of thyroid cancer has been detected by ultrasound among children and adolescents in Fukushima Prefecture within 4 years of the release, and is unlikely to be explained by a screening surge.”

This contradicted the prevailing and enduring view among the establishment that there are now more thyroid cancers found among children after Fukushima simply because there is more testing.

The “more testing” myth served as a convenient pretext to reduce testing for thyroid cancers in schools — on the basis such testing would upset children too much, hardly “scientific”.

The very public lawsuit may transform all this, as the testimonies leave an indelible picture of the toll taken on children and families by the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

In a two-part series, investigative journalist, Natsuko Katayama, reported on the case for the Tokyo Shimbun on January 19 and January 27 this year.

She wrote that among the plaintiffs, “Two of them had a lobe of the thyroid removed, and the other four had to have the whole thyroid removed because of recurrence (in the case of one of them, metastasis had spread to the lungs). All of them had to stop their studies or their professional activity in order to undergo these surgical procedures and medical treatments. They live in fear and anxiety of a recurrence, and their daily lives have been curtailed due to fatigue and weakness caused by the disease.”

One of the plaintiffs said they had all kept silent about their thyroid cancers for 10 years, not daring to go public because of the inevitable backlash of discrimination.

Toshihide Tsuda: “Pediatric Thyroid Cancer after the Fukushima Accident”

Many of those suffering illnesses related to the Fukushima nuclear disaster find themselves the new “Hibakusha”, the name originally given to those ostracized and rejected by Japanese society because of their exposure to radiation from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings.

Choking with emotion, one of the plaintiffs described in the press conference how she and the others had to give up their work and educational hopes and dreams due to the constrictions of illness and the necessary treatments. “Four of the six plaintiffs have had a recurrence or mestatasis of their disease,” she said.

Thyroid cancers among those exposed to Fukushima radiation as children have increased 20 times the expected rate, with about 80% metastasizing, meaning surgery was medically indicated and screening necessary.

“I am very worried about the future and cannot think about marriage or other plans,” said one of the young women, also a plaintiff in the trial, whose voice could be heard at the press conference, and whose cancer had returned and spread. All of them have faced considerable financial hardships due to the expense of their treatment and the loss of work.

The plaintiffs expressed the hope that the trial would help other children suffering from thyroid cancer, believed to number at least 300. But, with the suppression of testing and reporting, and the taboo surrounding any admission of thyroid cancer, the numbers could well be a lot higher.

The plaintiffs’ lawyers argue that Tepco will need to prove that there is no causal relationship between their clients’ thyroid cancer and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. It seeks compensation for the victims.

“I try to believe that all will be well,” said one of the plaintiffs, a 26-year old woman who was 17 at the time her thyroid cancer was diagnosed, “even as I ask myself, ‘why me’?”

The 3.11 Children’s Thyroid Cancer Network was launched to support this lawsuit.

Headline image shows 2013 IAEA team member overseeing TEPCO moving nuclear fuel assemblies from Reactor Unit 4 to the Common Spent Fuel Pool. (Photo: IAEA)

March 7, 2022 Posted by dunrenard | Fuk 2022 | 311 Children's Thyroid Cancer Lawsuit, Fukushima Radiation | Leave a comment