Fukushima Health Survey 21.7.2012
After examining more than 38,000 children from the area, doctors found that more than 13,000 have cysts or nodules as large as 5 millimeters on their thyroids, the Sixth Report of Fukushima Prefecture Health Management Survey states.
In comparison, a 2001 analysis by the Japan Thyroid Association found no nodules in children in the city of Nagasaki, which suffered a nuclear attack in August of 1945, and only 0.8 per cent had cysts on their thyroids.
“Yes, 35.8 per cent of children in the study have lumps or cysts, but this is not the same as cancer,” says Naomi Takagi, an associate professor at Fukushima University Medical School Hospital, which administered the tests.
“This is an early test, and we will only see the effects of radiation exposure after four or five years” she added.
” Children who were under 18 when the nuclear disaster struck last year will be subject to continuous thyroid examinations every two years until they reach 20 years of age, and after that, every five years for the rest of their lives.” That’s the official line of the Fukushima Prefecture which gives no indication as to how many children that is. No statement available regards testing these cysts for cancerous cells.
No statement is available for other areas that had significant radioactive downfall.