(Fukushima) Nuclear plant worker dies of acute leukemia

[kristopher]

Nuclear plant worker dies of acute leukemia

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- A worker in his 40s who had been engaged in recovery work at the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has died of acute leukemia, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Tuesday.

Tokyo Electric said the worker's death is not linked with his work at the plant, citing results of medical examination by doctors.

The man had been exposed to 0.5 millisievert of radiation at the plant and showed no internal exposure to radiation, said the power company, known as TEPCO.

The dosage is much smaller than 5 millisieverts or higher per year -- the benchmark for recognizing a death as work-related -- TEPCO said, citing the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare's criteria on work-related deaths. The ministry's criteria also put the incubation period to develop symptoms of acute leukemia at one year.

TEPCO said ...

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110830p2g00m0dm08...

[marmar]

1. Of course TEPCO says that..

nt

[FBaggins]

2. Someone call Guinness

The fastest case of leukemia in history.

[hlthe2b]

3. Horrible development that I fear will not be an isolated occurrence...

Sad, very sad.

[caraher]

4. Clearly unrelated

The poor guy worked there one week in August:

"TEPCO said the man had been involved with duties on radiation control at the plant for a week starting in early August. He later complained of poor health and underwent medical checkups before his death."

0.5 mSv is basically a chest x-ray. If you had a chest x-ray in early August and died of leukemia a few weeks later would it be remotely plausible to blame it on the chest x-ray?

I don't trust TEPCO but this has nothing to do with one week's radiation exposure. If he'd died from radiation working at the plant this fast it would have been from acute radiation sickness, which is completely different from leukemia.

[madokie]

5. I say that you take what TEPCO says and multiply that by 100 and you will be close to the truth

I have no idea whether the man died because of his tenure of one week but I will say that the nuclear industry as a whole are not honest nor forthcoming with the truth even when its hitting them in the face. That industry simply can't allow the truth be known cause if it was we'd be dismantling those reactors so fast it'd make one's head spin.