Friday, October 25, 2013

Japan Mayor Offers Children Safe Haven From Radiation



The Japanese government has detected 44 confirmed and suspected cases of thyroid cancer among 217,000 youngsters.

MATSUMOTO, Japan—A generation ago, Dr. Akira Sugenoya performed lifesaving cancer surgery on more than 100 children after the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe. Today, as mayor of a central Japanese city, he‘s trying to avoid a repeat of his own history.
Beginning in April, parents living in the shadow of the Fukushima nuclear disaster will be able to send their children about 200 miles away to his city, Matsumoto, to go to school.
The city will pay $140,000 (14 million yen) a year for a six-bedroom house and caretakers; parents won‘t pay tuition but will cover expenses such as utilities and meals.
“If my fears turn out to be unfounded, nothing would be better news,” Sugenoya said. “But if they become reality, then there is little time before it‘s too late.”
Sugenoya has been critical of the government‘s response to the three meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which exploded after the March 2011 tsunami and is still releasing radiation into the air and sea. Decommissioning will take decades, and experts disagree over how much the disaster will affect the health of area residents.
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Thyroid Cancer
The single sickness confirmed by the International Atomic Energy Agency to have been caused by low-dose radiation from Chernobyl is thyroid cancer, which if properly treated with surgery is rarely fatal. Sugenoya, a thyroid specialist, volunteered to work in Belarus, close to the Ukraine power plant, in 1991 after hearing about thousands of cases of thyroid cancer there.

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