All authors read and approved the final manuscript. It may therefore be inferred that respondents did not differ considerably in these basic characteristics. Immediate effects of the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster on depressive symptoms among mothers with infants: a prefectural-wide cross-sectional study from the Fukushima Health Management Survey BMC Psychiatry. Kinoshita N, Sueki K, Sasa K, Kitagawa J, Ikarashi S, Nishimura T, et al. These findings indicate that, in a post-disaster setting, attention should still be paid to known risk factors for mental health problems. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. A large area in Soso, the region in which the damaged nuclear power plant is located, was designated as an evacuation zone due to environmental radiation contamination. [http://www.stat.go.jp/english/index.htm]. Fukushima residents suffered no harmful health effects after the the Fukushima power plant disaster. In the immediate aftermath of the accident, an area of about four square miles became known as the "Red Forest" because so many trees turned reddish-brown and died after absorbing high levels of radiation. This proportion was found to be higher among mothers in the region in which the damaged nuclear power plant is located and lower in regions that were less affected by the nuclear accident. What happened after the Fukushima accident? The following year, UNSCEAR published a report on the levels and effects Most emergency workers and people living in contaminated areas received relatively low whole-body radiation doses, according to a United Nations study published in 2008. Immediately after the Fukushima accident in 2011, radiation levels increased in food, water, and the ocean near the Fukushima Daiichi plant. The earthquakes, its aftershocks, and the powerful tsunami it triggered led to the deaths and injuries of thousands of people. The release of radioactive materials after the accident has caused radionuclide pollution at a large scale to the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and pedosphere both around the FDNPP and the entire northern hemisphere (Buesseler, 2012; Madigan et al., 2012; Schiermeier, 2011 . Assessment of individual radionuclide distributions from the Fukushima nuclear accident covering central-east Japan. As the Greenpeace ship sails up the eastern coast of Japan, in the vicinity of . The ethics committee of Fukushima Medical University approved this study (No. In this paper, we focus on the results of a screen for depressive symptoms among new mothers and its association with geographical region and interruption of obstetrical care after the Fukushima nuclear accident, which occurred after the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011. Specifically, where the prefectural average is set at 100, the average per capita income in Soso was 77.6, compared to 103.7 in Kenchu, 107.5 in Kenpoku, 103.5 in Kennan, 100.5 in Iwaki, 93.4 in Aizu, and 85.5 in Minamiaizu. EJB contributed to analysis planning, data interpretation, and manuscript writing. Because residents living near Fukishima were rapidly evacuated, few people were directly harmed by the radiation. Because of the threat of radiation exposure, some 150,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes. Ehrlich M, Harville E, Xiong X, Buekens P, Pridjian G, Elkind-Hirsch K. Loss of resources and hurricane experience as predictors of postpartum depression among women in southern Louisiana. In addition, there have been more than 2,000 disaster-related deaths. Risk communication proved to be essential and should be carried out by trained specialists. Prehosp Disaster Med. BMC Psychiatry 15, 59 (2015). Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011: Northern Japans nuclear emergency. On April 6 plant officials announced that those cracks had been sealed, and later that month workers began to pump the irradiated water to an on-site storage building until it could be properly treated. 1997;17:35974. Even more radioactivity was washed into the ocean or deposited there from the atmosphere. Google Scholar. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-015-0443-8, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-015-0443-8. Alternate titles: Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, Fukushima nuclear accident. Following similar findings conducted after previous radiation disasters that indicate that mothers of young children are a high-risk group for mental health consequences [1,2], our results suggest that upgrading the level mental health support for mothers with infants should be considered a high priority in the acute phase of a nuclear disaster response. Fukushima accident, also called Fukushima nuclear accident or Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, Nuclear accident at the Tokyo Electric and Power Co. (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi ("Number One") plant in northern Japan, which became the second worst nuclear accident in the history of nuclear power generation.Tsunami waves generated by the main shock of the Japan earthquake on March 11, 2011 . The survey aims were explained to all respondents in a cover letter that was sent out with the questionnaire. In contrast, the mountainous regions of Aizu and Minamiaizu recorded the lowest levels of radiation among these regions. On March 11, 2011, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake 80 miles off the Northeast Coast of Japan triggered a series of tsunamis that struck nearby shorelines with only a few minutes' warning. Cite this article. 2013;8, CD004667. What are the public health lessons learned from the response to Fukushima? Additionally, we recommend that mental health care providers pay careful attention to mothers whose antenatal care suffers interruption, such as those having to self-refer to a different facility, following a disaster. The present findings also confirm the importance of established risk factors for depressive symptoms. 2011;135:3416. < 1 year old) in the most affected area in the Fukushima prefecture. There were two major methodological limitations in the current study. The evacuation involved a total of over 400,000 individuals, 160,000 of them from within 20km of Fukushima. has estimated individual doses based on typical scenarios of evacuation and time spent indoors and outdoors. In. Deaths from prolonged and unnecessary evacuations due to fears over the radiation: 1,000+, almost entirely in the elderly whose medical care was disrupted or for whom the psychological stress Continue Reading 244 28 Sponsored by Forbes Advisor AG managed and analyzed data and wrote the manuscript. A decade after a powerful earthquake and tsunami set off the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown in . In Japan, the tradition of Satogaeri Bunben (pregnant women returning to their parental home during the perinatal period), which is believed to provide better maternal support, has recently been shown to have no preventable effect on postpartum depression, due in part to negative influences of interruption of perinatal care [26]. 2012;42:3036 (In Japanese). Evrard, O., Laceby, J. P., & Nakao, A. There were public health consequences related to the response actions to the disaster, such as evacuation and relocation of people. Following a major earthquake, a 15-metre tsunami disabled the power supply and cooling of three Fukushima Daiichi reactors, causing a nuclear accident beginning on 11 March 2011. 2011;378:317. This finding is in line with a previous study of pregnant women affected by Hurricane Katrina, which found that maternal depression was associated with a loss of resources, including social support network and daily routine [27]. That survey built on the Japanese pregnancy registration system, the aim of which is to provide free access to antenatal care and well-child visits, and assessed the health of both mothers and their newborns. Therefore, careful interpretation and further investigation are warranted regarding regional variations in the depressive states of new mothers. As such, in this disaster cohort, younger maternal age, first-time motherhood, past abortion history, psychiatric history, obstetrical complications, and infant abnormalities were all significantly associated with depressive symptoms [18-21]. A sensitivity analysis based on the assumption that non-respondents would have similar prevalence to delayed responders estimated that the proportion would be 26.5%. Suzuki Y, Weissbecker I. Post-disaster mental health care in Japan. Soil, 5(2), 333-350. . Part of the population was able to return following decontamination measures. Those holes partially exposed the nuclear material in the cores. The explosion, along with a fire touched off by rising temperatures in spent fuel rods stored in reactor 4, led to the release of higher levels of radiation from the plant. With regard to obstetrical care, we asked women whether they changed the medical facility in which they were receiving antenatal and obstetrical care following the disaster. For example, the national census collects information on educational levels only every ten years and the rate of incomplete information in the latest 2010 survey was 12% [15]. Through these partnerships, it contributes to the development, promotion, and harmonization of international radiation safety standards. The proportion of infants with a low birth weight was 7.3%, while 2.6% were born with a congenital anomaly. Months later, radiation levels remained high in the evacuation zone, and government officials remarked that the area might be uninhabitable for decades. In the present study, the risk was elevated in a region nearest to the damaged nuclear power plant. The accident was rated level 7 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale, due to high . Shusanki Igaku. A standard health-effects model was used to estimate human exposure to radioactivity. WHO works closely with FAO through theInternational Food Safety Authorities Network (INFOSAN)to ensure that A sharp increase inmortalityamong elderly people who were put in temporary housings has been reported, along with increased risk of non-communicable diseases, such asdiabetesand mental health problems. The earthquake led to the loss of off-site and on-site electrical power which caused the loss of the cooling function at the three operating reactor units as well as at the spent fuel pools. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Moreover, as part of the occupational health programmes, a special protocol for medical follow-up of emergency workers is being implemented. Fujimori K, Kyozuka H, Yasuda S, Goto A, Yasumura S, Ota M, et al. Maternal confidence in Fukushima mothers before and after the nuclear power plant disaster in Northeast Japan: a series of cross-sectional studies. The Pregnancy and Birth Survey Group of the Fukushima Health Management Survey: Pregnancy and birth survey after the Great East Japan Earthquake and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident in Fukushima Prefecture. J Womens Health (Larchmt). PLoS One. In more than 140 papers, he and colleagues have documented the relatively low radiation exposure of Fukushima residents and the health impacts of the evacuationa high death toll among the elderly, increases in chronic diseases, and a decline in general well-being. Is there any risk from radioactive food contamination in Japan today? The median time from delivery to returning the questionnaire was 175days for all mothers. Nevertheless, the highly-sensitive thyroid screening of those under 18 years old at the time of the accident is expected to detect a large number of thyroid cysts and solid nodules, including a number of thyroid cancers that would not have been detected without such intensive screening. All three cores largely melted in the first three days. Whats happening at Fukushima plant 12 years after meltdown? But another major study published in 2021, close to the 35th anniversary of the disaster, found no evidence of additional DNA damage in children born to parents who were exposed to radiation . We found that a high proportion of mothers who were pregnant at the time of the Fukushima nuclear disaster exhibited depressive symptoms. Springer Nature. One thing is certain about the human costs of the radiation leaking from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan: they will pale in comparison to the . Article . This survey was supported in part by the national Health Fund for Children and Adults Affected by the Nuclear Incident.. Nearly 20,000 people died in the disaster, the majority from drowning, and more than 2500 people are still missing. Is there a risk of radiation-induced thyroid cancer among children of Fukushima prefecture? The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction post-2015 underlines that response to major disasters should include social mobilization and empowerment of local communities. A third explosion occurred on March 15 in the building surrounding reactor 2. Fukushima Health Management Survey Group. The leak was severe enough to prompt Japans Nuclear Regulation Authority to classify it as a level-3 nuclear incident. Titled "Levels and effects of radiation exposure due to the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station: Implications of information published since the UNSCEAR 2013 Report", the UNSCEAR 2020 report summarizes all relevant scientific information (peer reviewed literature and monitoring data) available up to the end of 2019. J Pediatr Psychol. Based on the above findings, we recommend that during the prioritization and resource allocation of mental health support, close attention be paid to regional variations in risk for mental health among new mothers. 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