A recent study which was revealed this week mentioned that very low levels of radioactivity was found in people who lived near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant when it suffered the meltdowns. The paper was published in the American Medical Association Journal.
It measured cesium levels in 8,066 adults and 1,432 children and found an average doses of less than 1 millisievert which are considered as safe. This was the first kind of study which measured external exposures to cesium in a large number of people from the disaster.
The research has shown that the contamination decreased overtime particularly in children in part. This was due to the precautions taken with their food, water and outdoor activity.
The report said, “No case of acute health problems has been reported so far; however, assessments of the long-term effect of radiation requires ongoing monitoring of exposure and the health conditions of the affected communities”. But the actual radiation doses which were inflicted just after the incident are not known but the exposure is thought to be very small. David J Brenner, a radiation physicist at Columbia University said that they need to improve the estimations of the radiation dose that people in and near Fukushima prefecture actually received.
