Relevance Of Fukushima Nuclear Accident to India: Nuclear Radiation Risk and Interventions to Mitigate Adverse Fallout

Authors

  • Kapil Yadav All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi
  • Neha Varshney All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi
  • OP Aslesh Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi
  • MG Karmakar ICCIDD
  • Chandrakant S Pandav All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi

Keywords:

Nuclear accident, radiation risk, mitigation

Abstract

The environmental radiation release from Fukushima nuclear power following tsunami in Japan has once again highlighted the omnipotent risk of radiation injury in the today’s world. India is at a real risk from radiation fallout both due to nuclear power plant accidents and nuclear warfare threat. The risk from nuclear radiation accident in India is further increased by the region being endemic for iodine deficiency as adverse effects following nuclear radiation fallout like thyroid cancer is significantly higher in iodine deficient populations .There is need to institute disaster preparedness measures to mitigate the damage in case of a nuclear accident. Interventions to control adverse fallout of nuclear radiation include evacuation, sheltering and food controls as well as iodine prophylaxis.

References

Widespread destruction from Japan earthquake, tsunamis - CNN [Internet]. [cited 2011 May 29];Available from: http://articles.cnn.com/2011-03-11/world/japan.quake_1_hokkaido tsunami-east-japan-railway?_s=PM:WORLD

Tokaimura Accident [Internet]. [cited 2011 May 29];Available from:http://www.mun.ca/biology/scarr/4241_Tokaimura_Accident.html

India nuclear plant with French reactors gets green go-ahead [Internet]. [cited 2011 May29];Available from: http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/India_nuclear_plant_with_French_reactors_gets_green_go-ahead_999.html.

Victor R Preedy, Gerand N Burrow, Ronald Ross Watson. Comprehensive handbook of iodine nutritional, biochemical, pathological and therapeutic aspects. London: Academic Press Elsevier ;2009.

Moulder JE. Report on an interagency workshop on the radiobiology of nuclear terrorism. Molecular and cellular biology dose (1–10) radiation and potential mechanisms of radiation protection (Bethesda, Maryland, December 17–18, 2001). Radiat Res.2002; 158 :118 –124.

WHO | Health effects of the Chernobyl accident: an overview [Internet]. [cited 2011 May 29];Available from: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs303/en/index.html/.

United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation. Exposures and effects on the Chernobyl accident. Annex J. In: Sources and Effects of Ionizing Radiation. Volume II: Effects 2000.

Robbins J, Schneider AB. Thyroid cancer following exposure to radioactive iodine. Review in Endocrine & Metabolic Disorders 2000; 1:197-203.

Astakhova LN, Anspaugh LR, Beebe GW, Bouville A, Drozdovitch VV, Garber V, Gravrilin YI, Khrouch VT, Kuvshinnikov AV, Kuzmenkov YN, Minenko VP, Moschik KV, Nalivko AS, Robbins J, Shemiakina EV, Shinkarev S, Tochitskaya VI, Waclawiw MA. Chernobyl-related thyroid cancer in children in Belarus: a case-control study. Radiation Research. 1998; 150:349-356.

Human Health Fact Sheet, August 2005 Argonne National Laboratory, EVS [ cited at 2011 june 9] ; Available at http://www.evs.anl.gov/pub/doc/Iodine.pdf/.

Japan, Radiation and breast feeding. Availbale from www.iccidd.org/media/Iodine_and_Japan%20news%20release.doc/. Accessed on 27-08-2012.

Nuclear Power Plants in India - Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited [Internet]. [cited 2011 May 29];Available from: http://www.npcil.nic.in/main/AllProjectOperationDisplay.aspx/.

Benjamin K. Sovacool. A Critical Evaluation of Nuclear Power and Renewable Electricity in Asia, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Vol. 40, No. 3, August 2010, pp. 380–400.

Indian Meteorological Department. Seismo-Zoning map [Internet]. [cited 2011 May 28];Available from: http://www.imd.gov.in/section/seismo/static/seismo-zone.htm/.

Revised Policy Guidelines on National Iodine Deficiency Disorders Control Programme; IDD and Nutrition Cell. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. 2006.

Thompson, D.E. et al. Cancer incidence in atomic bomb survivors. Part II: Solid tumors, 1958–1987. Radiation research, 137: S17–S67, 1994.

Committee on Environmental Health Radiation Disasters and Children. Pediatrics. 2003;111:1455-1466.

Nauman J. Results of studies performed with the MZ-XVII program on a national scale; summary and conclusions. Endokrynol Pol. 1991; 42(2): 359-67.

Downloads

Published

2012-09-30

How to Cite

1.
Yadav K, Varshney N, Aslesh O, Karmakar M, Pandav CS. Relevance Of Fukushima Nuclear Accident to India: Nuclear Radiation Risk and Interventions to Mitigate Adverse Fallout. Natl J Community Med [Internet]. 2012 Sep. 30 [cited 2024 Nov. 21];3(03):563-7. Available from: https://njcmindia.com/index.php/file/article/view/1766

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 03 (2012)

Section

View Point

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

The authors retain the copyright of their article, with first publication rights granted to Medsci Publications.