Fukushima starts thyroid tests for children

Only Thyroid Testing?? What about internal radiation testing.

Why are the results not being made public? Surely that would help with thegreat reassurance project - unless the results arent reassuring. Keeping this data private will only lead to more fear, concern and speculation. Will this government ever learn??

The evry fact that they dont intend to make the results public suggests to me they have something to hide.

Local doctors carrying out the tests? So I'm guessing nothing will be found and the kids will go off with a bag of medicine to take.

What are these children to the health authorities, seems to me they are being treated like lab specimens

NIcky.

What is hard to understand with "starting to test" and "long-term survey" and the numer of kids to be tested is not small either.

You think they got data to release before they even started they survey??

The evry fact that they dont intend to make the results public suggests to me they have something to hide.

Stretching things a bit here?

Well well well! It's about time! Stupid Tepco!

All kids should have been long gone from the entire area.

Surely this should have started months ago. Seriously, Japan needs to stop worrying about so many international problems- for now anyway, and start dealing PROPERLY with its own issues. Those issues are only growing.

tamanegi.

Should but unfeasible and unrealistic. Unless you want to remove the kids forcefully from their family dump into a new environment/school(if one can be found with an opening) and they will need accommodation, etc too.

Or you will need to resettle the WHOLE family providing them with accommodation, new jobs, etc besides there might not be any openings(skill differences, etc) who will pay for it.

The people will pay for it that is YOU and me(the tax-payers).

Sorry, but many posters here don't look at things from a realistic angle and thus demand that everything is sorted now, etc.

Maybe your home-country can achieve those miracles but I wouldn't hold my breath(mine can't).

Will the truth of these results ever come out? Somehow I don't think so!

This COINCIDENTALLY starts just when the IAEA comes over to look at the decontamination process? As transparent as ever, that TEPCO!

"The thyroid testing program is intended to allay those fears and build a database that might help deal with future disasters."

Yeah, well, when like the other tests where children tested 100% positive for radioactive iodine or what have you, how are they going to 'allay the fears' when these tests turn up positive as well? Will they FINALLY suggest the families, or at least their children, leave the area? or will they once again be told, "Despite the radiation findings it is at acceptable levels and not enough to harm them"? Or will they just not release the results?

This needs to be done for not just Fukushima, but the whole of Japan, to see how far the contamination spread, and to protect young lives.

The mandatory test should be performed for ALL (not just children) who are living within 100 km radius.

The thyroid tests take only about 5 minutes per child. This will be a two and a half year process to test 360,000 children for Fukushima Prefecture. (internet)

If Ozawa was PM this delay would not have occurred.

7 months after the event. No point doing full body scans now. Be healthy everyone.

7 months it took to start testing, at least 7 years before results are released, 70 years before law suits close to settling Care and concern? Only in Japan.

@zichi What's the source of this??? <<The iodine-137 in children's thyroids dropped by more than 50% once they had left the prefecture.

@thepro @nicky washida Most likely the ministry is requesting that parents take the children to the doctors for the blood tests. The blood tests are taken sent to a lab. If there are abnormalities the doctors report it to the health department and the doctors would refer the children to an endocrinologist.

Of course, this will all be limited to Fukushima prefecture. Strontium has just been discovered in Yokohama (yup, that's about 250km from Fukushima): http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/10/strontium-90-discovered-in-yokohama.html

@reinaert albrecht Wait... a blog that cites an "independent journalist" who's information you have to pay to access.. and who's translation does not include the source of the information or the location... and you find that a credible source???

@goinggoinggone

This needs to be done for not just Fukushima, but the whole of Japan, to see how far the contamination spread, and to protect young lives.

I was just thinking the same thing but every year because the contamination is still spreading.

Yasumi Iwakami, Children in Fukushima have started to suffer from severe health hazards.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=172yLH06YWw&feature=player_embedded#! >

The link thing did not work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=172yLH06YWw&feature=player_embedded#!

@ITS ME:

What is hard to understand with "starting to test" and "long-term survey" and the numer of kids to be tested is not small either.

You think they got data to release before they even started they survey??

Sorry - quote button not working again. What I meant was that it states clearly in the report that they will not be making the results public. That is what i was referring to.

You also said:

The evry fact that they dont intend to make the results public suggests to me they have something to hide.

Stretching things a bit here?

Do you think? I dont, given previous recent history and it doesnt seem that too many people disagree with me either.

Nicky.

Ever heard of Doctor/Patient confidentiality? How would you feel of the government published data/facts about your own family.

Like I said reality check.

Or should those rules be suspended now?

I don't think they need to release names. Just the number of kids with issues.

Many cases of thyroid cancer can be found early. In fact, most thyroid cancers are now found much earlier than in the past and can be treated successfully. Most early thyroid cancers are found when patients ask their doctors about neck lumps or nodules they have noticed. Others are found by health care professionals during a routine checkup. Although it's unusual, some thyroid cancers may not cause symptoms until after they reach an advanced stage.

http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/ThyroidCancer/DetailedGuide/thyroid-cancer-detection

I think the family doctor or pediatrician can detect thyroid cancer.

The thyroid testing program is intended to allay those fears and build a database that might help deal with future disasters.

So in other words, they are doing the testing to make people feel more at ease and to create a scientific study. No mention of doing it for the CHILDREN!

I didn't think it would have been too much to ask the powers that be to let Joe Watanabe Public know what's going on. Regarding patient cum doctor confidentiality, people aren't interested in names. They are interested in 'where' and 'to what level'. Any reports that data from these tests will not be released for public knowledge would in some quarters tear apart the tissue thin level of confidence in bureaucracy that is left. The public have a right to know what's going on....or so I would hope. And I so hope for the families that are directly being affected by this whole farce. There comes a time when ignorance stops being bliss.........Give us the facts then at least we know what we're dealing with instead of being in a limbo constantly with conflicting info and opinions.

And WHERE will these test results be posted so we can see them?????? Why is no one testing MY thyroid here in Tokyo, gdi. How soon will it be when children, and generally folks, start developing cancers and dropping dead? I am...increasingly concerned. (meaning: totally freaked out).

@johnnygogogo

@reinaert albrecht Wait... a blog that cites an "independent journalist" who's information you have to pay to access.. and who's translation does not include the source of the information or the location... and you find that a credible source???

First off, this is a journal that's not available online, so you have to pay for it just like any journal or newspaper, not very special here. As to credible sources: you can hardly say that a company and a government that has quite knowingly held back information for months can be qualified as a credible source either...

@ Reinaert Albrecht

Thanks for your earlier post I googled the Independent Journalists name Iwakami Yasumi and came across his web journal and I posted a youtube link of his about Fukushima's childrens plight it's subtitled. The website is in Japanese but if you right click your mouse the should be a micrsoft translater option.

http://iwakamiyasumi.com/archives/category/webjournal/page/3

@reinaert albrecht Unless the source of the information is cited it is hardly academically or journalistically credible. It is just a rumor. Believing "anonymous sources" is just as foolish as blindly believing "official sources". If you cited the story in a paper at university and it was the basis of your thesis, the professor would have to fail you. Sources have to be verifiable or independently verifiable. That's something that's learned in every essay or science course you'll ever take. I have some doubts as to the authenticity of the "translation" as the source of the data is not included.

@YODA SAYS, " CLOUDED WITH UNCERTAINTY FUKUSHIMA AND TEPCO IS !!!! "

Nicky.

Ever heard of Doctor/Patient confidentiality? How would you feel of the government published data/facts about your own family.

Like I said reality check.

Quote button STILL not working.

Who said anything about releasing individual data? They release flu statistics every year. How is this any different? Suggesting the government are keeping data from the public because of revealing the true extent of the contamination is hardly a "stretch" given the data they have kept from the public in the past, and how is wanting to know the extent of the contamination up there through public health data outside the realms of "reality"?

You may trust the government. Good for you. But I dont and I am concerned. I am not scaremongering, not spreading baseless rumours, just asking a simple question - why are the results not to be made public. Forgive me if you disagree, but I dont think it is an unreasonable question.

Above post.

I agree with you Nicky. The Nation has a right to know the results of the testing. I hope that a day comes when the officials in Japan stop treating the public like immature children. It is very, very insulting...

Nicky.

As I said before what results to be made public they don't exist yet. And since neither you nor me live in the affected/tested area what will those published results do for us?

How will it affect you, me or our families? That is the reality, like it or not, knowing those figures will protect our families how, make them healthier/sicker, etc?

@it's me

Like Nicky, all we seek is the truth. Nothing more, nothing less. How is keeping the results secret being open and honest to everyone who is concerned?

That is my point.

Sorry, but I got way more daily issues and concerns that affect my family directly, than some figures off people I don't know nor will ever meet.

Those figures are meaningless to me as they don't affect us. Cold-hearted not all all feel bad for those people but I need to look after mine first of all.

Priorities, focus and perspective.

@ IT"S ME: no problem. If you want to disagree and feel that your priorities are elsewhere, full respect to you. But me and many others want to know the truth about what has happened. It may not affect us directly, no, but having the information may help us to make decisions that affect our future - for example if we can see the full extent of the health impact. Therefore I feel that releasing this data IS in the public interest, and in my interest.

As I have also already said before I KNOW the results dont exist yet! Isnt it obvious that I am referring to when they do exist??! I may be blonde but I am not so dumb that I expect results when the tests havent even been done!

Im not saying the government are definitely hiding something. It just suggests to me that they feel there is something likely to come out of the results that will cause some kind of public disorder and therefore they dont want to make the results public. That makes me nervous. I would rather know the worst and be able to make decisions about mine and my familys life based on it, then live in blissful ignorance.

@johnnygogogo

Here's some update for you and everyone http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/10/update-on-strontium-90-in-yokohama-city.html