Physical and mental fatigue have been the main causes of death among evacuees following last year’s earthquake and tsunami, including 34 who died of stress over the Fukushima nuclear disaster, a survey showed.
Physical and mental fatigue have been the main causes of death among evacuees following last year’s earthquake and tsunami, including 34 who died of stress over the Fukushima nuclear disaster, a survey showed.According to the survey, released by the Reconstruction Agency on Aug. 21, 1,632 people in 10 prefectures had died as an indirect consequence of the Great East Japan Earthquake as of March 31.The figure included 761 deaths in Fukushima Prefecture and 829 in Iwate and Miyagi prefectures. The three prefectures accounted for 97 percent of the death toll.The agency found the causes of 1,263 deaths in 18 municipalities of the three prefectures. More than one cause could be given for each death.“Physical and psychological fatigue from life at evacuation centers and elsewhere” caused 433 deaths, or 59 percent of the total, in Fukushima Prefecture. The same reason was cited in 205 deaths, or 39 percent, in Iwate and Miyagi prefectures.The survey showed that travel to evacuation centers took a heavy toll after the disaster hit the Tohoku region on March 11 last year.In Fukushima Prefecture, which hosts the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, as many as 380 deaths, or 52 percent, were attributed to the “physical and psychological burden from traveling to evacuation centers and elsewhere.” In Miyagi and Iwate prefectures, that cause was cited in 21 deaths, or 4 percent.A lack of information about the nuclear accident and repeated travel when evacuation zones were expanded became huge problems for the evacuees, the agency said.“Fukushima Prefecture had a greater number of disaster-related deaths than in other prefectures,” an agency official said. “It has been largely affected by evacuation following the nuclear accident.”People 70 or older accounted for 90 percent of the deaths in the survey, with 50 percent dying within one month of the Great East Japan Earthquake and the start of the nuclear accident, and 80 percent dying within three months.The agency said laws should be enacted carrying stipulations that will improve the lives of the evacuees, such as securing food and preparing for the cold weather at evacuation centers, in addition to promptly releasing information on the nuclear accident.