Sunday, November 29, 2015

Japan earthquake: Fukushima radiation scans for babies



Scientists in Japan have developed an infant radiation scanner designed to measure trace amounts of radiation poisoning in Fukushima prefecture.

The scanners were developed as an alternative to more-mainstream scanners used by adults, according to one of the lead scientists on the project.

"The machine that's designed for adults, you have to stand for two minutes," Prof. Ryugo Hayano with the University of Tokyo told the BBC. "Babies cannot stand."

Instead, the scanner is designed so that infants and toddlers can lay down on their stomachs while the tests are performed. The scan takes a few minutes, and parents are given the results of the scans almost immediately afterward.

To date, hundreds of babies have been tested for radiation poisoning following the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami of March 2011. The disaster caused several failures at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that triggered the evacuation of a 30 kilometer (19 mile) zone around the plant.

Hayano said the test was developed mainly to alleviative the concerns of mothers who felt their infants might have eaten or otherwise been exposed to something with radioactive material. None of the babies tested in the four years since the fallout have tested positive for radiation poisoning.

"We couldn't find any baby that had detectable levels of radiation in the body," Hayano said. "Also, we knew already that the risk is so low in Fukushima, so that making the baby scanner was a scientific unnecessary result."

Hayano said the scanner still benefits the medical industry because it helps reassure mothers that their children are safe.

grasswire.com
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