When a tsunami rack up the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant on March 11 , 2011 , it sent the plant into nuclear nuclear meltdown , releasing radioactive textile into the surrounding environment . On March 12 , over 100,000 people living within 20 kilometer ( 12 mi ) of the disaster website were evacuate , and those within 30 km ( 19 naut mi ) were warned to stay inside to downplay risk of exposure . Since then , there have been various claims and counterclaims on increased incidences of cancer among local residents .
calendar month after the incident , the University of Fukushima begin anunprecedented screeningof tike for former sign of thyroid gland genus Cancer . The disease can be because of exposure to radioactive iodine 131 , and can suggest signboard of irradiation - related cancers . They screened hundreds of thousands of small fry , which is the long time group most at risk of develop thyroid cancer after exposure , who were living in the Fukushima Prefecture .
What they found was astounding : Almost half of the300,476 childrenso far tested had cysts on their thyroids , while over 100 were subsequently diagnosed with cancer , a much higher rate of the disease than had previously been recorded .
Predictably , this data point has been seized upon by those want to prove the dangers of atomic power , yet scientist have issue forth out powerfully against rendering that designate the increment in thyroid cancer diagnosis are due to radioactivity picture . rather , they think this addition in rates is simply due to sampling .
As the study study more child than had ever been look at antecedently , they just find that cyst and nodule on the thyroid gland are far more common than was antecedently believed . “ The evidence suggests that the great absolute majority and perhaps all of the cases so far discovered are not due to radiation sickness , ” Dillwyn Williams , a thyroid malignant neoplastic disease specialist from Cambridge University , say Science .
In fact , scientists had already predicted that the endangerment of cancer in those living near the site was belike quite low . While it is the secondly - largest nuclear disaster to have ever befall , it was nowhere near the same scale as Chernobyl , belching just a tenth of the radiation , much of which was blown out to sea . Those doer who give birth the brunt of the pic have so far not experience anything like those who cleaned up Chernobyl , though they will have to be shield every yr for the rest of their lives , and one doer has since developed leukaemia .
In fact , the biggest threat to the people of the Fukushima Prefecture isnot cerebrate to be from malignant neoplastic disease , but “ genial and social well - being . ” The catastrophe cause monumental Sturm und Drang , interrupt people ’s job , and get heavy mental tension on tens of thousands of people . Those who were evacuate arefive timesmore potential to suffer from psychological distress than the ease of Japan , and over 14 percent are recorded as stand psychological trauma , compared with just 4 percentage of the rest of the universe .
Main image : IAEA Imagebank / Flick CC BY - SA 2.0
