Fukushima 10 years after the disaster

[izentrop]

Nuclear energy is low carbon, but it must be managed seriously. On the other hand, too often, it is described as dangerous or even potentially apocalyptic. The example of the Fukushima accident shows that you have to be right about it and study the benefit / risk balance based on proven scientific data ...

In June 2011, the Japanese health authorities launched four epidemiological studies to monitor the state of health of all people in the population affected by the accident. They include basic monitoring of all residents of Fukushima province, special monitoring of children, in particular with regard to the risk of thyroid cancer, monitoring of pregnant women during and after the accident, as well as follow-up of people who have been evacuated. These medical follow-ups were provided by the Fukushima Medical University, in collaboration with other Japanese medical centers.

The information collected makes it possible first of all to assess the doses received by the population. Especially, among the 459 people for whom an exposure to an external dose 620 was estimated, 1% had received during the first four months after the accident (period concentrating most of the exposure) external doses less than 62 millisievert (mSv) and fifteen people (1%) would have received doses greater than 0,003 mSv (for a maximum of 25 mSv) [1]. These values ​​can be compared to average natural radioactivity in France (3 mSv / year) or in certain regions of India (Kerala 26 mSv / year [2]), degrees of exposure that have no known health effect. They are also below the value of 100 mSv below which no long-term health effect has been demonstrated [3]. In the same way, they remain much lower than the doses of appearance of the first short-term health effects (redness, degradation of cells, 1000 mSv) or fatal doses (10 000 mSv) [4]. Thus, taking into account the doses received, no health effect was expected on the population. https://www.pseudo-sciences.org/Consequ ... -Fukushima

Like what, more fear than harm ...

[GuyGadebois]

Always the same pseudo-sciences, Afis, Seppi ... Fake news and company.

(Release, figures updated in June 2019)

5 years later, the appalling record of Fukushima ...
https://www.lepoint.fr/monde/fukushima- ... 557_24.php

[izentrop]

If you want to be taken seriously, give the source of your painting. A political newspaper is not a valid source.

Regarding the incidence of thyroid cancer 2 in children, which was particularly marked during the Chernobyl accident (around 6 cases [000]), follow-up until 6 shows that there is no significant difference between the children of Fukushima prefecture and the other children of Japan [1] (while the effects were visible in the first years after the Chernobyl accident).
Concerning the workers of the nuclear power plant injured, a dozen deaths unrelated to radioactivity (linked to the tsunami, cardiac arrests, accidents, non-radiation related illnesses ...) are to be deplored. [8]. Regarding the impact of radiation, according to the UNSCEAR (United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, a scientific committee of the UN), in its 2013 report, for the group of 174 workers who received more than 100 mSv (140 mSv on average), 2 to 3 cases of additional cancers could occur [7,8] in addition to the range of 65 to 75 expected naturally in the absence of exposure 3. Given the statistical hazard, this increase will be too small to be detected. In addition, for about a third of workers, it is estimated that their risk of having thyroid cancer is slightly increased (up to 20% for the youngest, a few percent for the oldest), but the increase also probably won't be detectable. In contrast, people who have received doses greater than 500 mSv (less than six people) have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease in the long term [8].

The fears of the newspaper Le Point at 5 years of the disaster seem for the most part unfounded.

[Christophe]

a .org either!

[GuyGadebois]

If you want to be taken seriously, give the source of your painting. A political newspaper is not a valid source.

If you want to be taken seriously, avoid relaying the fake news sites of the OGMo-nucleo-chimiolâtre fachosphere. And especially out of respect for the victims and for yourself, avoid sentences like "Like what, more fear than harm ...".

And finally, this table is Japanese (translated, of course) and relates the reality of screenings carried out on site, while your article is pure nuclear pro marketing.

[Christophe]

Especially since it's not over !!

Tens of thousands of Tons of waste to be treated ... the fukushima site is far from clean ...

ps: why 19 years old ??

[GuyGadebois]

Especially since it's not over !!

Tens of thousands of Tons of waste to be treated ... the fukushima site is far from clean ...

ps: why 19 years old ??

Because he can count, Izy ...

[GuyGadebois]

March 8, 2019
Fukushima: a 15-fold risk of thyroid cancer

Fukushima eight years later

An article by Dr Alex Rosen, president of IPPNW *, published under the original title 15-faches Risiko für Schilddrüsenkrebs, 8 Jahre Fukushima, translated by Yveline Girard and published with the author's permission.



This March marks the eighth anniversary of the Fukushima disaster. Children born in the year of the reactor merger now attend primary school, while many children and adolescents who, at that time, ingested radioactive iodine while breathing or in their food, reached 'adulthood. Much time has passed since the overwhelming images of the explosions in the Fukushima Dai-ichi reactors in March 2011. The subject has almost disappeared from public consciousness, and in Japan, more and more people would like to stifle the events of this era and their consequences. And yet the catastrophe continues.

Day after day, contaminated water from the buildings that housed the damaged reactors is poured into the ocean and into the groundwater. Until recently, the operator Tepco was forced to admit having deceived the government and public opinion on the real state of the contaminated water stored on the grounds of the power stations for years. Contrary to the company's allegations that this water would have contained only Tritium, the Japanese authorities have found that 750 tonnes of the 000 tonnes of water exceed one hundred times the maximum level authorized by the state and that 'they also contain a high concentration of radioactive isotopes like strontium-890. In some samples analyzed by the authorities, the concentration of strontium-000 was 90 times higher than the maximum allowed. However, shortly before, TEPCO had announced its plan to discharge the contaminated water into the Pacific. For now, these new revelations have put an end to this plan.

Meanwhile, since the disaster, entire villages and neighborhoods in urbanized areas have been cleaned up of radioactive fallout at the cost of hard ant work. However, the largely inaccessible wooded and mountainous regions of northeastern Japan represent an uncontrollable reservoir of radioactive particles. Each storm, each flood, each forest fire and each flight of pollen can cover cesium-137 with already decontaminated areas. This is how many localities, which according to the Japanese pro-nuclear government should be repopulated for a long time, have increased levels of radiation. And as a result, people don't go back there. More than 50 of the 000 initially displaced still live today, eight years after the start of the disaster, in refugee homes or makeshift accommodation. And the state plans to cut aid to them. The government therefore plans to force them to return quickly to the place where they lived. The UN Human Rights Commission has been obliged to examine the situation of these displaced persons.



166 cases of proven cancer, 38 children awaiting surgery

The fact that radiation causes health problems is nowhere as evident as in the increase in cases of thyroid cancer. Since 2011, the thyroid of people under the age of 18 at the time of nuclear reactor fusion has been examined every two years. The first series of screenings took place from 2011 to 2014, the second from 2014 to 2016, the third from 2016 to 2018, the fourth, in progress, from 2018. While the exploitation of data from the first series is finished, that of the second, third, and fourth especially is still incomplete. However, it is already possible to draw conclusions from the available results. While these examinations were originally carried out to reassure the population about the consequences of the accident, they did in fact reveal worrying results.

According to data from the Japanese Cancer Registry, the incidence rate (the number of new cases per year) of thyroid cancer in children before the disaster was around 0,35 per 100 children. With a population of 000 children in Fukushima prefecture, the expected number of new cases would therefore be only 360 per year, i.e. 000 since the accident began at the power station in March 1.

However, in this time interval, fine needle thyroid biopsies revealed cancer cells in 205 children. 167 of these children had to be operated on in the meantime due to the extremely rapid development of the tumor, the presence of metastases or the threat to vital organs. In 166 cases, the histological diagnosis of thyroid carcinoma was confirmed, only one case of benign tumor was found. Thirty-eight children are still awaiting operation. These figures are based on the latest publications from the Fukushima Medical University (FMU) dated December 27, 2018, which take into account all the examination results available at the end of September 2018.

The FMU also stated in its latest publication that of the 217 children who received comprehensive tests (513% of the 64,6 children involved), 336 (or 669%) had nodules or cysts on the thyroid. What is particularly worrying is the number of pathologies detected in children who during previous exams did not yet present any worrying symptom: in 141 children (275% °), the third series of cyst screenings was detected and nodules which did not exist during the second series. In 65 of them, the size of the nodules exceeded 22 mm, and the cysts 108 mm, so that additional examinations were necessary.

In addition, in 577 children with cysts or small nodules during the second screening, their growth was such that more detailed examinations were also required.

In 54 of the children with abnormal results, fine needle biopsies were performed. In 18 cases, cancer was suspected. Thirteen children have since been operated on and the diagnosis of thyroid carcinoma has been confirmed.

Thus, since last year, in the third screening, 5 confirmed cases of cancer and 6 suspected cancer have been added to the previous cases. Thirty-five percent of the data from this third screening have not yet been used, so that no definitive conclusions can be drawn yet.



A screening effect?

On the nuclear lobby side, we are still trying to relate the high number of thyroid cancers in Fukushima to what is called the screening effect. This argument could still have passed for the 101 cases of cancer in the first series of screenings, but it no longer holds for the second or the third series. The cases that were detected then are necessarily new. If we exclusively consider the cases of thyroid cancer which were detected during the second and third series of screenings, we arrive at the total number of 65 new cases (52 for the second series and 13 for the third ). For a study population of 270 children and an interval of 000 years (April 4,5 to September 2014), this represents an incidence of approximately 2018 new cases of thyroid cancer per 5,3 people who had less 100 years old at the time of the reactor merger. As already explained above, the usual rate of this cancer is 000% per 18 in Japan. As a result, the rate of new cancer cases in Fukushima Prefecture is more than fifteen times the Japanese average. In other words: people who were children in Fukushima when the explosion occurred have a 0,35 times higher risk than others of developing thyroid cancer. This result is extremely significant and cannot in any case be explained or put into perspective by the screening effect.

In addition, it must be considered that at the same time, more than 87 children from the population who were originally examined came out of the study, that one third of the data in the third series of screenings is not yet known and that all cases of cancer that are detected and treated outside official hospitals are not taken into account in the statistics, so the actual number of cases is certainly much higher.



Thyroid cancer: a common disease?

In view of this worrying development, it is worth recalling that thyroid cancer, despite the relatively good therapeutic prospects, is not a harmless disease, whatever the nuclear lobby may say. It can have important consequences for the quality of life of patients and their state of health. Thyroid surgery carries significant risks, patients must take life-long medication, have regular blood tests, and live in constant anxiety about recurrence. According to a study by the Japanese foundation for the support of children with thyroid cancer, 10% of operated patients have already experienced a recurrence, that is to say that they have developed new cancerous tumors, which had to be operated again. In Fukushima prefecture, cancer recurred after a few years in 8 of the 84 children treated for cancer.



Geographic distribution of thyroid cancer cases

Last year already we indicated that the geographical distribution of cases of thyroid cancer in children coincided with the degree of contamination with radioactive iodine-131 in the different regions of the prefecture: www.ippnw.de/commonFiles/pdfs/Atomenerg...z_2018.pdf

The lowest rate, 7,7 suspected cancer after biopsy per 100 children per year, was found in the Aizu region, the least contaminated with radioactive particles. With 000 cases per 9,9, we then found the part of Hamadori, also little contaminated by radiation. The rate was higher (100 cases per 000 per year) in Nakadori which was more contaminated, the highest rate being found in the 13,4 most contaminated localities around the plant (100 cases per 000 per year). The incidences of this study do not only concern confirmed cases after operation, but also suspected cancer after biopsy, which is why they are higher than the figures cited above.



Attempts to empty the study of all meaning

These data seem to bother those responsible for the FMU. It is true that they contradict the thesis defended since the start of the nuclear disaster that the multiple fusions of hearts have not caused any increase in cancer. From the start, the FMU has been under heavy pressure from a pro-nuclear central government and the country's powerful nuclear industry. The FMU also receives financial and logistical support from the atom's international lobby, in this case the IAEA. All this calls into question the scientific independence of the FMU.

Already last year, we drew attention to the fact that the FMU itself was doing everything to overturn studies on thyroid conditions. Thus, contrary to what was initially planned and which had been announced, from the age of 25, exams will no longer take place every two years but only every five years. In addition, it has been learned that FMU collaborators pass through schools to inform children of their right to refuse exams and their right to ignorance. Recently, the “Opt-out” option appeared on the forms, that is, the possibility of leaving the study. This is quite remarkable, inasmuch as participation has always been voluntary and already 20 to 30% of children are not part of the cohorts taking the exams. Critics also point out that from the age of 18, examination fees will not be borne by the public authorities but borne by patients and their families. Presumably, the efforts of the FMU are aimed at decreasing the participation rate in examinations and, in the long term, making the study lose all value by distorting the test results, a result which would not be displeasing to the nuclear industry in Japan.

It should also be emphasized again that the FMU figures represent only part of the illnesses that actually occurred. This does not take into account the other ailments linked to radiation apart from thyroid cancer, any more than it is interested in affections reaching people aged over 18 at the time of heart fusion, those who were not registered in Fukushima prefecture at that time, those who have moved since or who for personal reasons did not take part in the screenings. Another fact that shows how official statistics are manipulated is the refusal to take into account cases of thyroid cancer diagnosed outside of hospitals belonging to the FMU. In early 2017, the family of a child suffering from thyroid cancer publicly denounced that the child's case was not included in official FMU data. Study leaders argued that the child's diagnosis was not made by them, but by a partner clinic to which the boy was referred to confirm the diagnosis and follow up on treatment. The fact that the boy lived in Fukushima at the time of the nuclear accident, that he took part in FMU screening and that he had to be operated on for newly diagnosed thyroid cancer does not all was not considered relevant by the study leaders.

In late December, another case of thyroid cancer, which was not included in official FMU statistics, was reported. The patient certainly lived in Fukushima prefecture at the time of the hearts' fusion and he had participated in the first screening of the University; but as he had been evacuated from his hometown, Koriyama, the diagnosis of thyroid cancer and the operation took place outside the prefecture and, therefore, were not included in official statistics.

How many other cases of thyroid cancer affecting children have not been reported, how many cases have occurred outside the prefecture or in people who at the time of the accident were already over 18 years old, all this has never been the subject of any scientific research and we can assume that we will never know.



The right to health

We observe in Fukushima a significant increase in the rates of new cases of thyroid cancer in children and at the same time, due to the particular dependence of the study leaders on the nuclear lobby and the restrictive bias of the study, these figures are probably systematically underestimated.

In addition, we can expect an increase in other kinds of cancer and other diseases caused or aggravated by ionizing radiation. The FMU thyroid tests are the only serial tests capable of providing relevant results on the health consequences of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. And in the current state of things, they risk being manipulated by the supporters of nuclear energy.

The people of Fukushima and the Japanese have an inalienable right to health and to live in a healthy environment. In this context, thyroid tests in children do not only benefit patients whose cancers are detected early and who can thus be treated, but the whole population who suffered the effects of the radiation released during the accident. The pursuit of thyroid tests in compliance with the rules and their scientific monitoring are therefore of general interest and must in no case be hindered by political or economic reasons.


Dr. Alex Rosen, President of IPPNW *

Sources: Proceedings of the 33rd Prefectural Oversight Committee Meeting for Fukushima Health Management Survey, December 27th, 2018
https://www.pref.fukushima.lg.jp/site/p ... ai-33.html
NHK: Thyroid cancer relapses in some Fukushima children. 01.03.2018.
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20180301_24
Sheldrick A, Tsukimori O. "Fukushima nuclear plant owner apologizes for still-radioactive water". Reuters, 11.10.2018.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japa ... SKCN1ML15N

* The International Association of Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) is an international pacifist organization of physicians committed to nuclear disarmament. Founded in 1980, the organization won the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education in 1984 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985 for its "important and competent information work", which improved global awareness of the consequences of nuclear war and acute radiation syndrome.
The organization has nearly 150 members in more than 000 countries.
The IPPNW Europe website: http://www.ippnw.eu/fr/accueil.html

That of IPPNW Germany: https://www.ippnw.de/

[izentrop]

UNSCEAR is still more credible than your Dr Alex Rosen, you have to stop conspiracy theories.
On that, good night ...

Yep yes 9 years .. Can you correct Christophe steuplait?

[Christophe]

Is the IAEA also more credible? With its 40 official deaths for Chernobyl?

Good night