A disturbing new study suggests that children exposed to the Fukushima nuclear accident may be developing thyroid cancer at an elevated rate.
The rates are soaring to more than 50 times the typical levels of thyroid cancer found in the general population.
NPR reports:
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The work, led by Toshihide Tsuda of Okayama University, is based on a large public health survey that was set up in Japan’s Fukushima prefecture following the accident. As part of the survey, children who were living near the plant at the time of the accident have been offered regular thyroid screenings.
Thyroid cancer can be caused by radioactive iodine released in a nuclear accident. Children are particularly susceptible because their thyroids are growing rapidly. Thyroid cancer was listed as a possible health risk in a World Health Organization report on Fukushima, though the report stated it would be difficult to link cancer cases to the accident.
In the past year or so, the Fukushima Health Survey of more than 150,000 children has turned up 25 “suspicious or malignant cases” of thyroid cancer. Thyroid screenings in previous years have also found numerous cases.
As the Daily Sheeple point out however, excuses are being made with these latest findings, as officials claim that more intensive screening practices are responsible for the higher numbers of thyroid cancer.
It is – apparently – the monitoring that is to blame for the crazy spike in the numbers, not the radiation:
Japanese officials believe the screening process itself may be behind the numbers. Increased vigilance might be turning up thyroid abnormalities that otherwise would have gone undetected.
But the new paper contradicts that view. The increase in cancer is “unlikely to be caused by a screening surge,” the paper says. It claims thyroid cancer rates are highly elevated throughout Fukushima.
A tightly controlled state media state has been actively countering the report, unleashing other experts who are claiming that the study is not reliable, and is making links not supported by the evidence.
Above all, authorities are insistent that the nuclear accident cannot be linked conclusively with cancer in any of the cases..
More of that from the official “nothing to see here” and “everything is fine” departments.
But the truth is, that these children are just the canaries in the coalmine. The truth is much worse than we know… and the toll it will take on human life has only begun to surface.
Niamh Harris
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