Fukushima fallout
From: Chris Busby, ENN.com. The
Ecologist, More from this Affiliate
A new study finds that radioactive Iodine from Fukushima has caused a significant increase in hypothyroidism among babies in California, 5,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean.
A new study finds that radioactive Iodine from Fukushima has caused a significant increase in hypothyroidism among babies in California, 5,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean.
The Fukushima
catastrophe has been dismissed as a potential cause of health effects even in
Japan, let alone as far away as California.
A new study of the effects of tiny quantities of radioactive fallout from Fukushima on the health of babies born in California shows a significant excess of hypothyroidism caused by the radioactive contamination travelling 5,000 miles across the Pacific. The article will be published next week in the peer-reviewed journal Open Journal of Pediatrics.
A new study of the effects of tiny quantities of radioactive fallout from Fukushima on the health of babies born in California shows a significant excess of hypothyroidism caused by the radioactive contamination travelling 5,000 miles across the Pacific. The article will be published next week in the peer-reviewed journal Open Journal of Pediatrics.
Congenital
hypothyroidism is a rare but serious condition normally affecting about one
child in 2,000, and one that demands clinical intervention - the growth of
children suffering from the condition is affected if they are left untreated.
All babies born in California are monitored at birth for Thyroid Stimulating
Hormone (TSH) levels in blood, since high levels indicate hypothyroidism.
Joe Mangano and Janette
Sherman of the Radiation and Public Health Project in New York, and Christopher
Busby, guest researcher at Jacobs University, Bremen, examined congenital
hypothyroidism (CH) rates in newborns using data obtained from the State of
California over the period of the Fukushima explosions.
Their results are
published in their paper Changes in confirmed plus borderline cases of
congenital hypothyroidism in California as a function of environmental fallout
from the Fukushima nuclear meltdown.
The researchers compared data for babies exposed to radioactive Iodine-131 and born between March 17th and Dec 31st 2011 with unexposed babies born in 2011 before the exposures plus those born in 2012.
The researchers compared data for babies exposed to radioactive Iodine-131 and born between March 17th and Dec 31st 2011 with unexposed babies born in 2011 before the exposures plus those born in 2012.
Confirmed cases of
hypothyroidism, defined as those with TSH level greater than 29 units increased
by 21% in the group of babies that were exposed to excess radioactive Iodine in
the womb. The same group of children had a 27% increase in 'borderline cases'.
Contrary to many
reports, the explosion of the reactors and spent fuel pools at Fukushima
produced levels of radioactive contamination which were comparable with the
Chernobyl releases in 1986.
Read more at ENN
Affiliate, Ecologist.
