Agency talks to Tokaimura residents about radiation exposure

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Agency talks to Tokaimura residents about radiation exposure

MITO, Japan, Feb. 19 (Kyodo) - Some 200 residents of Tokaimura 
turned out Saturday to hear the Science and Technology Agency 
talk about radiation exposure resulting from last September's 
accident at a uranium processing plant in the Ibaraki Prefecture 
village. 

Following an opening address by Tokaimura Mayor Tatsuya 
Murakami at a cultural center in the village, Kenkichi Hirose, chief 
of the agency's Nuclear Safety Division, talked about the estimated 
radiation exposure on the residents and its possible effects. 

In a report it compiled in December, the agency said 119 residents 
were exposed to more than the 1-millisievert limit on annual 
permissible levels of radiation. 

The accident, Japan's worst nuclear disaster, occurred Sept. 30 at 
a plant run by JCO Co. 

Hirose mentioned the maximum estimated radiation exposure on 
residents was 21 millisieverts and explained, ''There are no data 
that links exposure to up to 50 millisieverts of radiation with an 
increase in the incidence of cancer or leukemia.'' 

A researcher with the National Institute of Radiological Sciences 
explained that DNA testing will not be offered to residents because 
there have not been any conclusions reached as to whether 
radiation can be pinpointed as the cause of damage to human 
DNA. 

Village government officials, meanwhile, talked about a survey it 
recently took in which about 40% of Tokaimura residents 
responded they want to see a stop to the use of atomic energy. 

In the question-and-answer session, residents asked questions 
about their health. 

The number of people exposed to radiation in the accident, 
including workers inside the plant, totaled 439, according to the 
agency's report. 

The three workers who directly triggered the accident were 
hospitalized after suffering massive radiation poisoning. One of 
them, Hisashi Ouchi, 35, died of multiple organ failure last 
December, becoming the first casualty of an accident at a nuclear 
facility in Japan.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	
Director, Technical				Extension 2306 				     	
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Division		Fax:(714) 668-3149 	                   		    
ICN Biomedicals, Inc.				E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 				                           
ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue  		E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com          	          
Costa Mesa, CA 92626

Personal Website:  http://www.geocities.com/scperle
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com
************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html