Health Concerns Related to Fukushima Essay

Tags: health issues radiation risk health japan history hiroshima

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Ground Zero at Fukushima

The meltdown of the Fukushima Nuclear Plant in 2011 in Japan resulted in concerns of the spread of thyroid cancer among the population. The epidemiology of radiation has long been studied and the consensus opinion is that the lower the exposure to radiation, the lower the risk (Boice, 2012). While an increase in thyroid cancer among the population in the vicinity of the Fukushima disaster has been identified, these findings have been questioned by many researchers like Takahashi et al. (2016) because of the limitations of the methodology flawed assessment techniques involved. To date, the research has shown that exposure to radiation is low in the area, and that in areas where groundshine radiation levels are higher, evacuation protocols have been followed to reduce the risk of exposure among the populace.

The epidemiological considerations that arise in the wake of a disaster are based on the what, where, when and why questions associated with the population and the health issues that are related to the disaster. In any disaster, the epidemiological concern is with the risks to the populace’s health and how those risks are identified and communicated in terms of effecting public policy that protects the public and addresses the disaster-related issues directly.

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What makes disaster planning or emergency preparedness effective in terms of mitigating or preventing negative aftereffects depends upon the extent to which the epidemiologists have done their work, identified the public health threats that might flow from a disaster, and shown what steps can be taken to protect the public from these threats. Emergency preparedness measures should be based on the epidemiological considerations and should be implemented with alacrity in the event of a disaster occurring—even beforehand in terms of safety regulations that should be followed by stakeholders to prevent massive public health exposure in the first place in the event of a disaster.

With the Fukushima Nuclear Plant meltdown, the risk of exposing the populace of Japan to nuclear radiation was feared; however, the nature of the meltdown kept the radiation levels mostly low in areas where the population might have been at risk, and in the one region where people might have been most exposed to higher levels of radiation, the populace was evacuated. The public health issue was primarily a risk of thyroid cancer related to exposure to high radiation levels, but as the research has….....

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References

Boice Jr, J. D. (2012). Radiation epidemiology: a perspective on Fukushima. Journal of Radiological Protection, 32(1), N33.

Takahashi, H., Ohira, T., Yasumura, S., Nollet, K. E., Ohtsuru, A., Tanigawa, K. & Ohto, H. (2016). Re: Thyroid cancer among young people in Fukushima. Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.), 27(3), e21.

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