JAPAN: Radiation hot spots in Fukushima prompt government plans to handout radiation monitors to children and start thorough medical checks

Record ID: 464301

  • Title: JAPAN: Radiation hot spots in Fukushima prompt government plans to handout radiation monitors to children and start thorough medical checks
  • Date: 1st July 2011
  • Summary: FUKUSHIMA CITY, FUKUSHIMA PREFECTURE, JAPAN (FILE - APRIL 6, 2011) (REUTERS) STUDENTS GREETING NEW TEACHER STUDENTS LOOKING AT NEW TEACHER MOTHER AND DAUGHTER LOOKING THROUGH NEW SCHOOL DOCUMENTS VARIOUS OF CHILDREN IN THE CLASSROOM STUDENTS WALKING OUT OF CLASSROOM
  • Embargoed: 16th July 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan, Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes,Health
  • Reuters ID: LVA8ZFYBUSBPK3PRLO29WCMU1SGO
  • Story Text: Amid mounting anxiety of radiation hotspots over 65 kilometers from crippled nuclear plants in Fukushima, city officials recently announced plans to equip children with radiation monitors after summer holidays end in September.
    Already most schools in the Fukushima prefecture are equipped with dosimeters and teachers have to record hourly radiation readings to help create a contamination map. The government regularly removes top soil from school playgrounds, feared to have accumulated a high amount of radiation.
    Reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant went into meltdown after the earthquake hit northeastern Japan on March 11, forcing 80,000 residents to evacuate from its vicinity as engineers battled radiation leaks, hydrogen explosions and overheating fuel rods.
    Activists, however, question if radiation monitors can protect children from radiation exposure.
    "It can do nothing for the children if the area is actually dangerous. What can they do if the meters show a dangerous level of radiation? That's a measure that has no valid effect," said Japanese novelist and activist Randy Taguchi.
    "I cannot understand the Japanese government doing such an unreasonable thing that countries around the world would say is weird," added Hirohiko Yoshida, vice-chair of the "Protect the Children of Fukushima", an NGO project looking at relocating as many children as possible away from the prefecture.
    Earlier this week, local government in Fukushima began thorough medical checks that they plan to conduct on all of Fukushima's 2 million residents.
    The first group of ten residents, originally from the town of Namie near the nuclear plant, arrived at the National Institute of Radiological Sciences in Chiba City for intensive medical checks, including thyroid tests, to detect signs of internal radiation exposure. .
    "All Fukushima residents are extremely worried about their health and these measures we hope will address these issues," said Hirofumi Kawashima, a Fukushima Prefectural government official.
    Local media report that medical checks for most other residents of Fukushima prefecture will begin in August.
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  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: Footage contains identifiable children: users must ensure that they comply with local laws and regulations governing the publishing of this material.
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