A report just released in Geneva by the World Health Organization (WHO) reveals that the accident at the Fukushima nuclear plant increased the risk of cancer in subjects exposed to high doses of radiation . This is the first analysis of the effects on health worldwide due to exposure to radiation after the accident in 2011.
Specifically, people in the most affected regions had a 4-7% increase in the risk of developing breast cancer and leukemia , among others. In general, experts assure that the increase has been very low and that it will possibly remain “hidden by the noise of other risks of suffering tumors related to lifestyle choices and statistical fluctuations”, according to Ruchar Wakeford, of the University of Manchester. “It is more important not to start smoking than to have been in Fukushima,” he adds.
As for thyroid cancer , of which there was a significant increase after the Chernobyl accident in Ukraine, experts estimate that within a radius of 20 km around the plant damaged by a violent earthquake followed by a tsunami, the risk of cancer Thyroid levels among women and children has increased 1.25%, compared with 0.75%, the common rate.
Experts say that it is necessary to continue with environmental monitoring, in particular related to water and food supplies. The study also shows that the Fukushima accident does not represent a perceptible increase in the incidence of cancer in the rest of Japan or outside the country .
