FUKUSHIMA--One more person was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in Fukushima Prefecture in a follow-up survey conducted last year.
It brings the total number of thyroid cancer cases to 116 among children and young adults in the prefecture who were age 18 or younger at the time of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant disaster, the Fukushima Prefectural government announced Feb. 15.
The survey involves keeping tabs on about 380,000 young people who were living in Fukushima Prefecture at the time of the disaster, triggered by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. The new patient received the check-up between October and December last year.
Since the doses of radiation found in the thyroids of Fukushima residents are lower than that in those affected by the Chernobyl nuclear accident, and no case has been found among infants in Fukushima--whereas the number of infant thyroid cancer cases rose following the disaster at the Chernobyl plant--the prefectural health investigation committee considers that the 116 cases are not related to the disaster.