Citation

Kobashi Y, Sawano T, Crump A, Kami M, Tsubokura M. J. Radiat. Res. (Tokyo) 2019; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Department of Public Health, Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine, Fukushima City, Fukushima 960-1295, Japan.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Japan Radiation Research Society, Publisher Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/jrr/rrz069

PMID

31740952

Abstract

Interest in the risk of adverse health effects due to radiation exposure at low doses (<100 mGy) and low-dose rates intensified markedly following Japan’s 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident. However, a recent paper entitled ’Nationwide increase in complex congenital heart diseases after the Fukushima nuclear accident’ [1], analysing the increase in congenital heart disease (CHD) in Japan, is extremely troubling for a variety of reasons, particularly as there is no evidence linking the article’s main findings to the actual disaster.

Investigating and verifying the health effects of ionizing nuclear radiation accidents is essential to protect public health, as well as to provide information to countries around the world that may suffer similar events. Knowledge and understanding is critical for emergency preparedness. Japan suffered the joint devastation of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and the subsequent tsunami and nuclear accident at Fukushima, in addition to having experienced the devastating effects of two nuclear bombs in the 1940s. Proper, comprehensive scientific study of all these events and their health impacts are helping to generate a body of evidence upon which the world can base future effective and life-saving policies and plans ...

Language: en