Dangerous levels of radiation now leaking from Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant today have forced 140,000 people to seal themselves indoors. In a nationally televised statement, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said radiation had spread from four of the six reactors at the nuclear facility along Japan's northeastern coast.
Japanese officials told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)"radioactivity is being released directly into the atmosphere." About 150 people from populations around the Fukushima site have received monitoring for radiation levels, reports the IAEA. The group adds the results of measurements on some of these people have been reported, and measures to decontaminate 23 people have been taken. The IAEA says it will continue to monitor these developments as evacuation of the surrounding population is continuing. Japanese authorities have also distributed iodine tablets to the evacuation centers but no decision has yet been taken on their administration.
A person's radiation exposure due to all natural sources amounts on average to about 2.4 millisievert (mSv) per year, notes the IAEA. A sievert (Sv) is a unit of effective dose of radiation. Depending on geographical location, this figure can vary by several hundred percent. To put this in some perspective, one chest X-ray will give about 0.2 mSv of radiation dose.
One U.S. radiation experts says however, that children and women who are pregnant are at greater immediate risk from any radiation released by nuclear reactors in Japan.
"All humans exposed to radiation suffer harm," Dr. Janette Sherman, adjunct professor at the environmental institute at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo and the Radiation and Public Health Project told United Press International. "The fetus, infant and child are much more susceptible than adults for two reasons. First, the immune system in the young is underdeveloped, and less able to repair damage from radiation exposure. Second, young cells are dividing very rapidly, and a cell damaged by radiation in a fetus or infant is much more likely to result in a birth defect or cancer than in an adult."
However, adults should also be monitored because people absorb radiation from reactor emissions via inhalation, food and water, added Sherman."What harm we can expect to occur from the Japanese nuclear plant emissions has been well-documented in the people, animals, birds, and plants that were exposed to fallout to Chernobyl," Sherman said.
Japanese officials told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)"radioactivity is being released directly into the atmosphere." About 150 people from populations around the Fukushima site have received monitoring for radiation levels, reports the IAEA. The group adds the results of measurements on some of these people have been reported, and measures to decontaminate 23 people have been taken. The IAEA says it will continue to monitor these developments as evacuation of the surrounding population is continuing. Japanese authorities have also distributed iodine tablets to the evacuation centers but no decision has yet been taken on their administration.
A person's radiation exposure due to all natural sources amounts on average to about 2.4 millisievert (mSv) per year, notes the IAEA. A sievert (Sv) is a unit of effective dose of radiation. Depending on geographical location, this figure can vary by several hundred percent. To put this in some perspective, one chest X-ray will give about 0.2 mSv of radiation dose.
One U.S. radiation experts says however, that children and women who are pregnant are at greater immediate risk from any radiation released by nuclear reactors in Japan.
"All humans exposed to radiation suffer harm," Dr. Janette Sherman, adjunct professor at the environmental institute at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo and the Radiation and Public Health Project told United Press International. "The fetus, infant and child are much more susceptible than adults for two reasons. First, the immune system in the young is underdeveloped, and less able to repair damage from radiation exposure. Second, young cells are dividing very rapidly, and a cell damaged by radiation in a fetus or infant is much more likely to result in a birth defect or cancer than in an adult."
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