TOKYO, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- Four more kids are suspected of suffering thyroid cancer in the latest survey on the possible health impact of the Fukushima nuclear crisis in 2011, local media reported on Wednesday.
The children, who were six to 17 years old at the time of the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, had been diagnosed as not having the cancer in the first survey that was conducted within three years of the accident, Japan's Kyodo News quoted unnamed sources as reporting.
The new survey started in April this year and covered 385,000 Fukushima kids, including children born a year after the nuclear crisis, compared to the first survey that covered 370,000 who were aged 18 or younger, said Kyodo.
Researchers at Fukushima Medical University will work to confirm if the four have developed the cancer and carefully study if the cases are due to the influence of radiation.
If confirmed, they would be the first cases of an increase in thyroid cancer since the first survey. The Fukushima prefectural government said in August that 57 children in the first survey had been confirmed with thyroid cancer and 24 others were suspected of having it, according to the report.
|
