Two more thyroid cancer patients in Fukushima

A committee of Fukushima prefectural government on February 13 reported that two teenagers under the age of 18 at the time of the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima 1 complex in March 2011 were diagnosed with cancer. armor, causing the total number of cases to increase to three.

>>> Fukushima children are contaminated with radiation below the danger threshold

Professor Shinichi Suzuki is examining the thyroid gland for local children who have come into contact with the nuclear power plant disaster. (Photo: KYODO)

At this committee meeting, Professor Shinichi Suzuki of Fukushima Medical University announced new facts about the impact of nuclear disaster on human health.

He said it was still too early to confirm the link between these cases and nuclear incidents similar to the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, which took at least four to five years to detect cases of prostate cancer. First armor. Professor Suzuki said that these three patients progressed quite well after surgery.

Radioactive iodine isotopes released into the environment in nuclear incidents tend to accumulate in the thyroid gland, especially in young children.

In the Chernobyl disaster, there was a significant increase in cases of thyroid cancer in children living in areas affected by nuclear incidents.

Local governments in Fukushima Prefecture, where the plant crashed in 2011, are conducting a thyroid test of children under 18 at the time of the nuclear crisis to determine whether Whether children are affected by radiation.

Of the 360,000 people, about 38,000 people passed the test in fiscal 2011. These 10 children, including the three cases of the above thyroid cancer, are suspected of having some forms of cancer. The average age of these 10 children is about 15 years old, including 7 women.

Currently 7 remaining cases are still undergoing medical tests at Fukushima Medical University.