DR.TSUBOKURA'S RADIATION LECTURE VOL.165

Author: Masaharu Tsubokura M.D., PhD.

Editor: Yudai Kaneda

329　 Radiation Exposure from Food

May 29, 2021

In March of this year, a United Nations panel (UNSCEAR) issued a report on radiation exposure and the health effects of the recent nuclear accident.

In this report, the committee commented that the high number of thyroid cancers found after the accident was probably unrelated to radiation exposure.

Several reasons have been mentioned for this. The first was that the thyroid gland was exposed to limited radiation. The second reason was that most of the thyroid cancers found after the accident were discovered too early for radiation to be the cause.

Third, the patients who had thyroid cancer after the nuclear accident were mainly in the older age group of children (e.g., around 15 years old, rather than under 5 years old).

Most of the patients diagnosed with thyroid cancer after the Chernobyl accident were under five years old at the time of the accident. Considering effects of radiation, the effects may be more significant in younger people.

Considering that fewer thyroid cancers have been found in younger people and more in older people after the accident differs from what might be expected from the effects of radiation. This is another reason to believe that the thyroid cancers found after the accident are unrelated to radiation exposure.

330　 Genetic Abnormalities, Type Differences

June 5, 2021

In March of this year, a United Nations panel (UNSCEAR) issued a report on radiation exposure and the health effects of the recent nuclear accident. The committee stated that the high number of thyroid cancers found after the accident were probably unrelated to radiation exposure.

One of the reasons for this is that the genetic abnormality of thyroid cancer found after the recent nuclear accident differs in type from that found after the Chernobyl accident and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Specific genetic abnormalities were found in the thyroid cancers of people exposed to high levels of radiation after the Chernobyl accident and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The genetic abnormality could possibly be a marker to know whether radiation caused the thyroid cancer.

On the other hand, when the thyroid cancers genes found after the recent nuclear accident were examined, almost no genetic abnormalities that were characteristic of the aftermath of this Chernobyl accident were discovered. In contrast, the same type of genetic abnormality commonly found in thyroid cancer is often found in adults and older people who have not been exposed to radiation in Japan.

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The Japanese version of the manuscript was originally published in Fukushima Minyu, a local newspaper in Fukushima prefecture, Japan, on May 29 and June 5 2021 was reproduced for MRIC Global under the author's permission.