A Fukushima day-care group sent letters earlier this month warning its members of what it sees as fraudulent tests to measure internal radiation exposure among kindergarteners and preschoolers.
A Fukushima day-care group sent letters earlier this month warning its members of what it sees as fraudulent tests to measure internal radiation exposure among kindergarteners and preschoolers.
The Fukushima prefectural branch of Nihon Hoiku Kyokai told its members that "a civil group has called on us to beware because it is a fraud," the letter said.
Orders for the tests were received by the Japan QRS Health Management Association, and the tests were conducted by various laboratories, one of which was the Seirikagaku Laboratory, a Tokyo-based medical ultrasonography lab. The tests cost 8,400 yen ($108) per child.
Representatives of the health association and lab said the tests are conducted by taking 20-30 pieces of hair, each 3-4 centimeters long, and putting it on a device called a quantum resonance spectrometer (QRS) under a weak electric current. They said a numerical indicator on the spectrometer can determine levels of internal radiation exposure from eight substances, including iodine, cesium-137 and strontium. More than 500 people have received the tests since last summer, according to representatives of the health association and lab.
About 60 people, including kindergartners, submitted to the tests in November at a kindergarten in Fukushima city. About 80 subjects, including children and their parents, underwent the tests in August at a day-care center in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture.
"How can you tell about ... radiation exposure using hair?" said Yoshitomo Sakamoto, the head the Fukushima prefectural branch of Nihon Hoiku Kyokai.
Many scientists have also questioned the effectiveness and legitimacy of the QRS.
"The QRS is an offspring of a device developed by a U.S. physician about a century ago, but it is not recognized as medical equipment either in the United States or Japan," said Macoto Kikuchi, a physics professor at Osaka University, who co-authored a book titled "Okashina Kagaku" (Suspicious science). "It is perceived as 'bogus' by scientists. The extent of internal exposure should be indicated in units of becquerels. Assessment of health should be impossible without figures (in becquerels).
"The tests are very problematic, because they may overlook people who are really suffering from internal exposure."
But Takeshi Kawaguchi, president of Seirikagaku Laboratory, said the QRS is an effective tool and its value goes far beyond detecting internal exposure to radiation.
"No child has so far been found with internal radiation," Kawaguchi said. "A QRS can tell about 3,000 items, including cancer, back pain and mental distress, at likelihoods of 70 to 80 percent."