• Only slight risk of cancer after Japan tsunami, WHO says

    By Maria Cheng, Associated Press
    People exposed to the highest doses of radiation during Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in 2011 may have a slightly higher risk of cancer but one so small it probably won't be detectable, the World Health Organization said in a report released Thursday. 

    A group of experts convened by the agency assessed the risk of various cancers based on estimates of how much radiation people at the epicenter of the nuclear disaster received, namely those directly under the plumes of radiation in the most affected communities in Fukushima, a rural agricultural area about 150 miles north of Tokyo.

    Some 110,000 people living around the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant were evacuated after the big March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami knocked out the plant's power and cooling systems, causing meltdowns in three reactors and spewing radiation into the surrounding air, soil and water.

    Experts calculated that people in the most affected regions had an additional 4 to 7 percent overall risk of developing cancers, including leukemia and breast cancer. In Japan, men have about a 41 percent lifetime risk of developing cancer of an organ, while a woman's lifetime risk is about 29 percent. For those most hit by the radiation after Fukushima, their chances of cancer would rise by about 1 percent.

    "These are pretty small proportional increases," said Richard Wakeford of the University of Manchester, one of the authors of the report.

    "The additional risk is quite small and will probably be hidden by the noise of other (cancer) risks like people's lifestyle choices and statistical fluctuations," he said. "It's more important not to start smoking than having been in Fukushima."

    Experts had been particularly worried about a spike in thyroid cancer, since iodine released in nuclear accidents is absorbed by the thyroid, especially in children. After the Chernobyl disaster, about 6,000 children exposed to radiation later developed thyroid cancer because many drank contaminated milk after the accident.

    In Japan, dairy radiation levels were closely monitored, but children are not big milk drinkers there.

    WHO estimated that women exposed as infants to the most radiation after the Fukushima accident would have a 70 percent higher chance of getting thyroid cancer in their lifetimes. But thyroid cancer is extremely rare and the normal lifetime risk of developing it is about 0.75 percent. That lifetime risk would be 0.5 percent higher for those women who got the highest radiation doses as babies.

    Wakeford said the increase in such cancers may be so small it will probably not be observable.

    For people beyond the most directly affected areas of Fukushima, Wakeford said the projected risk from the radiation dropped dramatically. "The risks to everyone else were just infinitesimal."

    Some experts said it was surprising that any increase in cancer was even predicted and believe that the low-dose radiation people in Fukushima received hasn't been proven to raise the chances of cancer.

    "On the basis of the radiation doses people have received, there is no reason to think there would be an increase in cancer in the next 50 years," said Wade Allison, an emeritus professor of physics at Oxford University, who was not connected to the WHO report. "The very small increase in cancers means that it's even less than the risk of crossing the road," he said.

    Gerry Thomas, a professor of molecular pathology at Imperial College London, accused the WHO of hyping the cancer risk.

    "It's understandable that WHO wants to err on the side of caution, but telling the Japanese about a barely significant personal risk may not be helpful," she said.

    Thomas said the WHO report used inflated estimates of radiation doses and didn't properly take into account Japan's quick evacuation of people from Fukushima.

    "This will fuel fears in Japan that could be more dangerous than the physical effects of radiation," she said, noting that people living under stress have higher rates of heart problems, suicide and mental illness.

    2 comments

    Show more
    Explore related topics: , , ,

  • After Fukushima, residents spared of nuclear contamination

    By Christopher Wanjek, LiveScience

    Residents near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan may have been spared the brunt of the deadly radiation that spewed from the failed reactors in March 2011, according to a study appearing tomorrow (Aug. 15) in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

    Doctors from Tokyo University measured levels of radioactive cesium, a measure of radiation exposure, in nearly 10,000 children and adults living in Minamisoma, a city just 14 miles (23 kilometers) north of the Fukushima Daiichi plant. They found the residents' exposure to be minimal, equivalent on average to less than half of a chest X-ray.

    The study is hopeful news for the millions of Japanese in the Fukushima area, although their lives and livelihoods have been forever tainted by the catastrophe.

    The earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on March 11, 2011, took more than 15,000 lives and devastated the Tohoku region in north central Japan. Hundreds of thousands of buildings were destroyed and nearly a half million people were displaced. [ In Pictures: Japan Earthquake & Tsunami ]

    The tsunami knocked out the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, ultimately causing a meltdown in three of its reactors. Deadly radiation soon blew across the region. Residents within a 12-mile (19 km) ring around the plant — including most in Minamisoma — were evacuated. Worrisome levels of radiation were found in the region's water and soil during the subsequent months.

    As horrific as the events were, few if any people have died from the radiation exposure. Deaths thus far have been attributed to the earthquake and tsunami and hospital evacuations.

    The study reported in JAMA is the first to measure radiation exposure in humans after the nuclear accident, the Tokyo researchers said.

    Like others in the region, many residents of Minamisoma returned to their homes a few months after the accident to try to rebuild their lives. The city had been hit hard by the tsunami itself; hundreds of homes were washed away, and hundreds of people had died.

    In September 2011 researchers began to enroll nearly a quarter of the city's population in a study to measure levels of two types of radioactive cesium isotopes: cesium-134 and cesium-137, with half-lives of two years and 30 years, respectively. (A half-life is the time it takes for half of the radioactive material to decay.) These isotopes are representative of total nuclear radiation exposure, the researchers said.

    Only about a third of the residents studied had detectable levels of cesium, and this included about 16 percent of the children and 38 percent of adults. The radiation dose for nearly all participants was less than 1 millisievert, a level considered safe for the public. Only one person had a higher level, and that was 1.07 mSv. For reference, a CT scan of the head is about 1.5 mSv.

    So while at least one city in the affected area dodged the bullet, the Japanese aren't yet completely safe from radiation contamination.

    "I don't think most people will experience long-term health problems related to the nuclear accident if we can keep providing safe and uncontaminated food to the residents," Masaharu Tsubokura, first author on the report, told LiveScience. "In Chernobyl, residents nearby the nuclear plant were still exposed to radiation even decades after the incident because of the intake of the contaminated food. Food control is the key issue in lowering internal contamination."

    Japan will have to continue monitoring for food contamination for decades, Tsubokura said. The researchers added that this glimmer of good news about low radiation exposure must be viewed in the full scope of the disaster, where most residents in the area have suffered a great emotional and financial burden.

    More from LiveScience: 

  • Nuke pill frenzy fizzles in U.S. as Fukushima fades

    By JoNel Aleccia, Senior Writer, NBC News

    Worries about fallout from Japan’s nuclear reactor disaster fueled a roller-coaster year for radiation protection drugs, sending U.S. sales soaring, then diving -- all despite expert warnings there was virtually no danger to Americans.

    “The earthquake hit and all heck broke loose,” said George Love, vice president for the firm that manufactures ThyroShield, a liquid form of potassium iodide. “Then it really did die down very quickly.”

    Suppliers of ThyroShield and two other government-approved types of potassium iodide, known as KI, say demand exhausted supply in the days and weeks after the Fukushima crisis. Consumers -- particularly on the West Coast but also across the nation -- clamored for the drug that can protect the thyroid from radiation damage, perhaps preventing cancer.

    “It was absolutely crazy,” said Troy Jones, owner of NukePills.com, who had nine staffers shipping pills 20 hours a day at the height of the crisis in mid-March and April. The North Carolina-based business sells a 14-pill pack of 130 milligram tablets for about $10 online.

    “I shipped 7,000 orders in four days. Normally, it’s under 100 a day,” Jones added.

    It’s not clear exactly how much potassium iodide was sold in the U.S. in the early weeks after the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami that critically damaged Japan’s Fukushima nuclear reactors.

    But Alan Morris, president of Anbex, Inc., a Williamsburg, Va., firm that makes IOSAT potassium iodide pills, estimated that the company produced 10 million pills in a month. "We got rid of them all," he said.

    In addition, more than 400 people called the nation’s poison lines seeking advice about radiation and potassium iodide, said Loreeta Canton, spokeswoman for the American Association of Poison Control Centers. Some 38 people reported exposures to potassium iodide, including worries or problems after ingesting the drug. Nine reported mild reactions.

    By early summer, however, demand for potassium iodide had fizzled, leaving some suppliers with extra inventory. Fleming Pharmaceuticals of Fenton, Mo., which makes ThyroShield, is now trying to sell the rights to the brand, Love said. It’s part of a larger company strategy that led to sales of the rights to other drugs last year, but the bust in the potassium iodide market was a factor, Love said.  

    Peter Taylor / for msnbc.com

    Troy Jones, owner of NukePills.com, said at one point last year, his business was only one in the U.S. with available supplies of potassium iodide.

    “Had the boom part of that continued, would it have been a different outcome?” he said.

    Jones, of NukePills.com, buys vast quantities of potassium iodide from manufacturers and then resells it to distributors and consumers. For him, demand leveled off after about four or five months, he said, but now remains about 50 percent higher than before the disaster.

    The market for potassium iodide is still jittery, added Jones. Sales jumped after a 5.8-magnitude August earthquake rocked Virginia and cut power to two nuclear reactors outside Richmond.

    “If the word 'radiation' is in some news report, I get orders,” Jones said.

    In addition, some of the product he sold to consumers last year will be set to expire soon, perhaps prompting new sales. Potassium iodide pills expire seven years after manufacture, according to extended guidelines from the federal Food and Drug Administration. But there's no danger to taking outdated pills and they'll still be effective because the material is essentially stable according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Older pills simply might not dissolve as quickly, studies have shown.

    Potassium iodide works during exposure by saturating the thyroid with iodine, preventing absorption of harmful radioactive iodine.

    Morris, of Anbex, said he's still making potassium iodide, but mostly for European and Asian markets. "We are doing far more business these days with governments of other countries," he said.

    The larger problem, said Morris, is that the disaster didn’t spark the kind of attention he’d hoped from state and federal government officials in the U.S.

    There are no plans, for instance, to overturn a waiver that allows distribution of potassium iodide only within the 10-mile emergency planning zones around nuclear power plants, rather than the 20-mile range authorized by U.S. law.

    “The public felt terribly threatened by this,” Morris said. “We better not pretend that it couldn’t happen here because, of course, it could happen here.”

    Morris worries that without better planning, there won't be enough potassium iodide to treat people who need it during a disaster.

    But federal officials -- along with medical experts at the time -- said that the danger from Fukushima to people in the U.S. was always very low. They note that the drug only protects against future thyroid cancer, not other radiation damage. They say they're confident in plans that largely call for people to evacuate and avoid contamination in case of a nuclear accident in this country.

    “The staff has determined that the existing 10-mile distribution zone remains acceptable while we continue to evaluate information from Fukushima,” said David McIntyre, a spokesman for the NRC.

    Twenty-two U.S. states have received potassium iodide from the NRC; none requested additional amounts as a result of the Japan disaster, he added.

    Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said KI is not a required medication in the Strategic National Stockpile, a resource for emergencies. The SNS contains some KI, in liquid form, but spokesman Jason McDonald said the agency is prohibited from disclosing how much.

    For his part, McIntyre suggested that media “hysteria” was to blame for last year’s interest in potassium iodide.

    “Any ‘demand’ for KI was driven by the media and alarmist Internet postings,’” he said.

    Related:

    Demand for potassium iodide spikes; NukePills.com is there

    Popping potassium iodide already? Really bad idea

    Despite fears, radiation health risk remains low, experts say

    Population rises near U.S. nuclear reactors