Thyroid checks

 November 27, 2013

Fukushima verifying thyroid check results

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20131127_40.html

Fukushima Prefecture has held the first meeting of an expert panel to examine ongoing medical checks of local young people for thyroid cancer.

The prefecture is checking the thyroid glands of 360,000 people who were 18 or younger at the time of the March 2011 nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. 26 of the subjects have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

Radioactive substances emitted from the plant can accumulate in the gland and cause cancer.

At the meeting on Wednesday, experts stressed the importance of establishing a system for more checks. They said the prefecture should ask more local hospitals to do them.

Others called for similar large-scale checks outside the prefecture, and inviting opinions from thyroid experts to verify the relation between radiation exposure and the cancer.

The prefecture is expected to finish the current round of checks by the end of March.

The panel plans to continue verifying the method and results of the tests.