Photo: EPA
American scientists believe that the Fukushima nuclear fallout has impacted the health of babies born in California around the time of the Japanese power plant disaster. An upcoming review has revealed an increase in the number of newborns with congenital hypothyroidism, a rare but serious condition normally affecting about one child in 2,000.
Hypothyroidism
is a condition in which the thyroid gland does not make enough thyroid
hormone.
The researchers believe the condition was triggered by the
radioactive contamination traveling 5,000 miles across the Pacific.
In their study, which is to be published next week in peer-reviewed Open Journal of Pediatrics,
the scientists examined congenital hypothyroidism rates in newborns and
compared data for babies exposed to radioactive Iodine-131 and born
between March 17 and December 31, 2011 with unexposed newborns delivered
before the meltdown plus those born in 2012.
The results have been revealed in a paper titled “Changes
in confirmed plus borderline cases of congenital hypothyroidism in
California as a function of environmental fallout from the Fukushima
nuclear meltdown.”
It
showed that hypothyroidism increased by 21% in the group of babies that
were exposed to excess radioactive Iodine in the womb, while
“borderline cases” in the same group surged by 27%.
After
the Fukushima Daiichi explosion, the winds blew the toxic iodine and
other volatile radio nuclides out to sea and to the Pacific. Although
much of the toxic waste dispersed on its way to the US West Coast, small
amounts of I-131 were measured in milk and led to widespread concern.
One
of the reasons for this is that radio-Iodine is associated with thyroid
cancer in children. According to the Global Research Center, which
studies the effects of globalization, the past six months saw an
increase in thyroid cancer among children aged 0-18 from the affected
prefecture following the Fukushima catastrophe, with up to 53 cases
confirmed.
Meanwhile,
the Japanese authority has been repetitively dismissing the catastrophe
as a potential cause of health effects in Japan, let alone California,
citing the official estimates that claim the “dose” was too “low” for
unborn babies to be affected.
Global Research
