Thyroid cancer patients sue over Fukushima radiation

They were aged from six to 16 in 2011 when three reactors melted down after their cooling systems were knocked out by a tsunami.

The damaged No. 4 reactor building at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in 2012. Picture: Kyodo News

Six young Japanese men and women are to sue the company behind the Fukushima nuclear disaster for cancers contracted as children that they claim were caused by radiation from the stricken plant.

The plaintiffs were aged between six and 16 in 2011 when three reactors melted down after cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear station were knocked out by a tsunami. Tens of thousands of people were driven out of their homes and part of the area around the plant remains uninhabitable.

Despite the 18,500 deaths caused by the tsunami, there is no conclusive evidence that anyone so far has died or become seriously ill as a result of radiation from the plant. A UN committee of scientists concluded last year that “no adverse health effects among Fukushima residents have been documented that could be directly attributed to radiation exposure from the accident”.

Now aged between 17 and 27, the plaintiffs all developed thyroid cancer, which can be caused by radioactive iodine. Children and young people are especially vulnerable to it. Unlike many cancers, it appears quickly; following the world’s worst nuclear accident at Chernobyl it was diagnosed after one year.

All the plaintiffs had their thyroid partly or completely removed, requiring them to take hormonal drugs for the rest of their lives. In one, the cancer spread to the lungs.

After the disaster, the Fukushima prefecture carried out thyroid cancer tests on 380,000 people aged 18 or younger living in the prefecture at the time. Of these, 266 were diagnosed with the disease, a much higher rate than normal. Some scientists argue that the massive program of testing has pushed up the apparent rate by revealing incipient cancer before it naturally would have been reported, and by detecting cancer cells that would not necessarily develop into a dangerous form of the disease.

Lawyers in the new case, which will be filed in Tokyo next week, say that because their cancers have progressed and there is no evidence of hereditary factors, it is very likely they were caused by the nuclear disaster. They are demanding $7.6m from Tokyo Electric Power Company, which operates the Fukushima plant.

Hiroyuki Kawai, a lawyer in the case, said: “There is strong social pressure to believe that cancer is not caused by the accident, so it took a lot of courage for the six plaintiffs to file the lawsuit.”

The Times