Earth and Environmental Sciences (SEES)
International nuclear accident expert comments on WHO report
Thu, 28 Feb 2013 15:55:00 GMT
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has released the results of a comprehensive assessment by international experts on the health risks associated with the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (NPP) disaster in Japan in 2011.
The report has found that, for the general population inside and outside of Japan, the predicted health risks are low, with no real increase in cancer rates expected.
For people in the most contaminated area, the estimated increased risks of cancer are between 4 and 7 per cent, with people living outside of this area hardly experiencing any increase in risk at all.
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.
As well as the direct health impact on the population, the report notes that the psychosocial impact may have a consequence on health and well-being. These should not be ignored as part of the overall response, say the experts.
Professor Jim Smith, Professor of Environmental Science at the University of Portsmouth, is an international expert in nuclear accidents. His extensive experience studying the environmental impacts of the Chernobyl accident, and how to apply the lessons learnt from this to the Fukushima community, means he has a substantial reputation in this field.
He said: "The additional health risk to the most affected population at Fukushima is very much less than health risks of smoking or being very overweight. The additional radiation risk is also likely to be lower than the health risk from passive smoking, or living in a city with relatively high levels of air pollution.
"The WHO report is a major step forward in our understanding of the likely health consequences of the Fukushima accident. Apart from the emergency workers, the most affected people were those who remained in some highly contaminated towns and villages to the northwest of the power station for up to four months before evacuation. The report found that these people received a lifetime radiation dose of up to 50 milli-Sieverts (mSv) and therefore have a significant, but relatively small, additional risk of contracting cancer in later life.
“Whilst serious, this additional radiation exposure is not high compared to exposures received by all people worldwide from natural background radiation and diagnostic medical procedures. For example, the average British person receives over 150 mSv during their lifetime from background radiation, and in some areas natural radiation exposures are much higher. Around 200 emergency workers at Fukushima received an average radiation dose of about 200 mSv.
“The report does not yet present data on numbers of people who received particular radiation doses, so it is not as yet possible to estimate overall health consequences. However, the report's findings imply that, as expected, the health consequences of Fukushima (in particular the incidence of thyroid cancer) will be much less than those of the Chernobyl accident. The report highlights the importance of potential social and psychological impacts of the accident on the affected populations as well as the direct health effects."