Inactivity tells on health of Fukushima children

December 26, 2012

Stuck indoors, Fukushima children have highest obesity rates

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201212260025

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

Children in Fukushima Prefecture have the highest obesity rates in Japan in seven age groups, education ministry statistics showed, a possible result of the restrictions on outdoor activities due to lingering fears of radiation.

The ministry’s preliminary statistics released Dec. 25 were based on 4.9 percent of all reports of health checkups in schools across Japan between April and June 2012.

Obese children, who are defined as those weighing at least 20 percent more than the standard weights defined by age and height, accounted for 2.39 percent of all 5-year-olds in Japan. But they accounted for 4.86 percent of 5-year-olds in Fukushima Prefecture, the highest rate in Japan.

The prefecture also had the highest obesity rates for children aged 6, 7, 8, 9, 14 and 17.

Officials at the Fukushima Prefectural Board of Education noted that schoolchildren's outdoor activities have been restricted since the tsunami on March 11, 2011, crippled the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

"Children cannot play outdoors (even apart from gym classes), so they now engage in less physical exercise," an education board official said. "That may be one cause."

Education ministry officials said the Tohoku region has long been characterized by higher obesity rates. After comparable data became available in fiscal 2006, Fukushima Prefecture had the highest obesity rates for 16-year-olds in fiscal 2006, 5-year-olds in fiscal 2008, 9-year-olds in fiscal 2009, and 15-year-olds in fiscal 2010.

But never before had Fukushima Prefecture topped so many age groups.

In June 2011, three months after the start of the nuclear crisis, 71 of all 481 public elementary schools in Fukushima Prefecture refrained from holding gym classes and other activities outdoors, while 242 others restricted overall outdoor activity to one to four hours a day.

In May 2012, 21 percent of all schools, or 98, were still imposing partial restrictions on outdoor activity.

Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures were not included in the annual statistics for fiscal 2011, because the three prefectures in the Tohoku region were struggling to rebuild from the devastation of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.

Indoor playgrounds built in Fukushima, but children getting fat due to lack of exercise

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20121226p2a00m0na017000c.html

KORIYAMA, Fukushima -- While dozens of indoor playgrounds for children have been built in Fukushima Prefecture following the outbreak of the nuclear crisis, an increasing number of children are getting fat mainly because of a lack of exercise over fears of radiation exposure, according to a survey released by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology on Dec. 25.

Indoor playgrounds have so far been built at 37 locations in 18 municipalities in Fukushima Prefecture in an effort to protect children from radiation released from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant. PEP Kids Koriyama, built in Koriyama a year ago, is one of the major indoor playgrounds in the prefecture. The playground is always filled with children. A total of 350,000 people have visited the facility, which is equipped with one of the biggest sandboxes in the prefecture as well as trampolines, bicycles and other equipment.

However, pediatrician Shintaro Kikuchi, the 42-year-old founder and head of PEP Kids Koriyama, said the opportunities for children to use indoor playgrounds are limited because of the need to travel to visit them and restrictions on time.

"The environment for children to do exercise is a far cry from what it was before the nuclear accident, in which children could freely play outdoors," he said.

Watching her 8-year-old son splashing about, Mie Sawamura, a 31-year-old mother of two children in Koriyama, commented, "He was skinny before the earthquake disaster, maybe because he played around outside all day long. But he was found to be slightly obese in a medical checkup at school."

Sawamura's son has gained about 7 to 8 kilograms over the past year and a half. She said she wants her son to fulfill his dream of joining a soccer club, but she has yet to decide what to do because of her concerns about radiation.

The Fukushima Prefectural Board of Education commented that the survey results reflected "stress caused by restrictions imposed on outdoor activities last fiscal year and changes in living environments in the process of evacuation." The education board believes that the opportunities for children to do exercise outside schools have also been on the decline. Following decontamination work at school playgrounds this year, 90 percent of all elementary schools, or 429 elementary schools in the prefecture, resumed their normal outdoor activities. But 55 other elementary schools, or 11 percent of all elementary schools, remain partially restricted.

"It's clear that the longer children stay indoors, the less exercise they do and the more food they eat between meals," Kikuchi said. "Dietary education is also necessary."

Shinzo Kimura, associate professor at Dokkyo Medical University, said, "Exercise is important for children's growth and concentration on learning. Because outdoor activities (in areas affected by the nuclear disaster) increase radiation exposure, it is necessary for children to fix a time and do exercise intensively in that time."

Inactivity amid nuclear crisis leaving Fukushima children out of shape

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20121226a5.html

Kyodo

Children in nuclear disaster-hit Fukushima Prefecture are getting fatter due to lack of outdoor exercise amid daily radiation exposure limitations, the government said Tuesday in its school health report.

The preliminary report, released by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, showed an increase in children from kindergarten to high school age who weighed 20 percent more than the standard according to their height.

In Fukushima, 449 schools, or 56 percent of public schools, had curtailed outdoor activities during school time as of June last year to minimize exposure to radiation released from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 atomic plant. Such restrictions were still in place at 71 elementary and junior high schools this September, according to the prefectural board of education. It is believed schools based the amount of time they allowed kids to spend outdoors on local atmospheric radioactive fallout readings.

The obesity trend was noticeable among early elementary school students, with the rate among first-graders standing at 9.7 percent, up 4.7 percentage points from the previous survey in fiscal 2010 through March 2011, which was when the fallout crisis started. The rate for third-graders came to 13.5 percent, up 5.1 points.

As for ninth-graders, the rate was 11.5 percent, up 0.6 point, while that for high school seniors stood at 14.1 percent, up 1.4 points, according to the latest survey, which is based on health checkups conducted between April and June.

The board of education received reports on the increase in overweight students even though schools have adopted various measures to complement the lack of outdoor exercise, including pushing kids to use stairways and halls to increase walking, an official said.

Children in northern regions that experience more severe winters are prone to gain weight because they are inclined to curb outdoor activities when it's cold. But a ministry official noted the obesity trend seen in children in Fukushima should not be attributed only to the usual cold winters, and the report meanwhile did not indicate if its findings were linked to seasonal factors.

Given the problematic trend, the board of education may dispatch sports trainers to schools and encourage students to engage in community sports activities, an official said.