Tuesday, December 20, 2011

#Radiation in Japan: Ministry of the Environment to Do a Special JECS Study on Radiation Effect on Children in Fukushima

The JECS - Japan Environment and Children Study - is a study to be carried out by the Ministry of the Environment headed by Goshi "Let's share the pain of Fukushima" Hosono to study the effect of environmental pollutants on the health of children.

According to the Study's website:

The Japan Environment and Children's Study (JECS), a birth cohort study involving 100,000 parent-child pairs, was launched in 2011 in order to evaluate the impact of various environmental factors on children's health and development. The concept plan of JECS was published in March 2010 after three years of development within expert groups and public discussions about the research hypotheses and aims. Pilot studies started in 2008 in four universities, and samples from two preceding cohorts (Hokkaido and Tohoku) are also used for establishing exposure measurement protocols. Recruitment of participating pregnant women started in January 2011, and will continue until 2013. Health outcomes and exposure measurements will continue until the participating children become 13 years old.

By "environmental pollutants" the Ministry was thinking mostly about chemicals. But Hosono announced on December 20 that in Fukushima Prefecture an extra study will be done to gather data on the effect of radiation on 25,000 children born of mothers who were exposed to radiation from the Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident during pregnancies for the next 13 years.

All the Ministry will do is to gather data and observe. Japan has learned well from the US-Japan joint radiation research after Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing - ABCC, which became RERF in 1975 and continues to this day.

NHK Japanese has an amusing headline. If you just read the headline, you don't know what "follow-up study" it is talking about.

NHK News Japanese (12/21/2011):

福島の子ども対象に追跡調査

Follow-up study on children in Fukushima

放射性物質が子どもの健康にどのような影響を与えるかを解明するため、環境省は福島県内の母親から生まれた子どもおよそ2万5000人を対象に、13歳になるまでの大規模な追跡調査を実施することを決めました。

To shed light on the effect of radioactive materials on the health of children, the Ministry of the Environment has decided to carry out a large-scale follow-up study on about 25,000 children born of mothers in Fukushima Prefecture until the children turn 13.

環境省は、身の回りの化学物質が子どもの健康に悪影響を及ぼしていないか確かめるために、ことし1月から全国10万人の子どもを対象に血液中の化学物質の濃度や発育状況などを胎児のときから13歳まで継続して調べる調査を行っています。調査項目に放射性物質は含まれていませんが、原発事故を受けて、子どもへの影響について関心が高まっていることから、環境省は福島県の子どもについては放射性物質の影響も調査することを決めました。

The Ministry of the Environment has been conducting the survey to study the negative effect of environmental chemicals on the health of children since January this year on 100,000 children throughout Japan [to be signed up gradually over the next 3 years, according to Sankei Shinbun]. The survey will track the concentration of chemicals in the blood, developmental status, etc of children from embryos [or fetuses; not clear] till they are 13 years old. The survey items do not include radioactive materials, but as the interest in the effect of radioactive materials on the health of children is heightened because of the nuclear accident the Ministry has decided to study the effect of radioactive materials on children in Fukushima Prefecture.

具体的には、福島県内の母親から生まれたおよそ2万5000人の子どもを対象に、母親の被ばく線量と子どもの先天的な異常をはじめ、アレルギーやぜん息も含めたさまざまな疾患との関係性について、13歳になるまで追跡調査します。調査にあたっては福島県がすでに全ての県民を対象に行っている被ばく線量の調査のデータも活用する方針です。環境省は、放射性物質と子どもの健康に関係性が確認できれば、健康のリスク管理や被ばく線量を抑えるための対策につなげていくことにしています。

About 25,000 children born of mothers residing inside Fukushima Prefecture will be the subjects of the study, which will track the radiation exposure level of the mothers, congenital abnormalities in the children, relationship between [radioactive materials, or radiation exposure] and various illnesses including allergies and asthma, until the children turn 13 years old. The survey will also make use of the radiation exposure survey done by the Fukushima prefectural government for all the residents in Fukushima. The Ministry of the Environment will utilize the result of the survey for the health risk management and for countermeasures to reduce radiation exposure, if the relationship between radioactive materials and the children's health is confirmed.

100,000 children in Japan are to be registered, tested and tracked, of whom 25,000 will be from Fukushima, with extra survey on radioactive materials.

According to Asahi Shinbun, the Ministry had initially planned to select only 7,000 children and their mothers in 14 municipalities in Fukushima Prefecture but it changed its mind and expanded to 25,000 children and their mothers throughout Fukushima. I wonder why.

But I don't know why the Ministry will study the children in Fukushima only, when there are places outside Fukushima with even higher radiation levels and contamination than some of the cities inside Fukushima. I guess they don't want to spend much money.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yep, the government's gotta document this genocide project in Japan.

Anonymous said...

And 25 years from now people can have the discussion all over again on whether there are any harmful effects from exposure to radioactivity and the benefits of nuclear power. More studies, more surveys, more research, more money.
So the 25,000 children of Fukushima will be tracked for all the health problems learned in Chernobyl.Paper the government offices, TEPCO, and power plants everywhere with the pictures of the children of Chernobyl. Look daily on the danger and no harm to human health we have created.
Shut it down

Anonymous said...

they are saying that they will check children in Fukushima to give the impression that the contamination will only affect people living in fukushima. Imagine the reaction of the public if they would announce that they will check the health of children in Tokyo! They could make people living in Tokyo realize that they also have been explosed to levels of radionuclides that will affect them. The biggest secrect of all about the Fukushima radionuclides, the thing the governement is trying to hide above all, is that Tokyo has been severely contaminated and will host very high levels of radiation contamination related disease. No wonder when the governement/TEPCO talk about possible health impacts, they try to focus all the attention to Fukushima prefecture. This makes people living in Tokyo feel as it is a Fukushima problem and have little to do with them.

Anonymous said...

Anon@December 20, 2011 7:12 PM
Yes - I have been thinking lately how the nuclear power industry pretends that Chernobyl did not harm human health. All that data, all those destroyed lives and the nuclear power pimps still claim it was over hyped and it concluded long ago. So I already know the 'results' of the Fukushima study in advance "Over hyped, over years ago."
Also, I wanted to add that I see the study will conclude when the children approach reproductive maturity - don't want any unfortunate data about genetic abnormalities from offspring of these children, do we?

Anonymous said...

And if the Japanese are true to their course to date, we of the comments will undoubtedly be forced refer to the study's results as, yes, 'aborted'.

.

Anonymous said...

Do these researchers from the Ministry of the Environment think that they, themselves, are immune to radiation exposure? I wonder how many of them (and their families) will live to see this survey completed.

Anonymous said...

Rather a good point, 8:46, as after the newsanchor contracted cancer by promoting Fuku produce, a sane response would be at avoid radiation as fully as possible.

The Japanese do seem to have a strong entertainer streak in them, show's on.

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