Over 50,000 Workers at Fukushima Exposed to Radiation Exceeding Industrial Accident Threshold, 17 Battling Cancer

It has been found that approximately 50,000 workers deployed to handle the aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant explosion have suffered annual radiation exposure exceeding the Japanese government's criteria for recognizing leukemia as an industrial accident.

Among them, 17 individuals are known to have been officially recognized as having developed cancer due to radiation exposure.

Jiji Press reported today that Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) data showed a total cumulative total of 53,145 workers deployed to handle the radioactive material leakage accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant had exceeded 5 millisieverts (mSv) in annual radiation dose by the end of March—a level used by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare as one of the criteria for recognizing leukemia as an industrial accident.

Japan sets the statutory exposure limit for radiation workers at 50 mSv per year and 100 mSv over five years.

However, while this serves as a management standard to prevent illnesses caused by radiation exposure, the threshold for industrial accident recognition is set lower at 5 mSv per year.

Among the more than 53,000 workers exposed to over 5 mSv annually, 609 individuals also exceeded the legal exposure limit of 50 mSv per year.

However, the number of individuals exposed to more than 50 mSv per year decreased to 403 in fiscal 2010, 205 in fiscal 2011, and 1 in fiscal 2012, with no such cases recorded since fiscal 2013.

Among workers deployed for the Fukushima plant accident cleanup, 17 cases have been granted industrial accident compensation after the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare recognized a causal relationship between their work at the plant and the onset of solid tumors or blood cancers such as leukemia.

According to Jiji Press, these included 8 cases of leukemia, and 2 cases each of pharyngeal cancer, thyroid cancer, lung cancer, and colon cancer, with at least 2 of these individuals having died.

The media outlet pointed out that since the completion of the decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is scheduled for 2041 to 2051, a large number of workers will inevitably continue to be deployed, raising the possibility that the number of industrial accident approvals related to radiation exposure will also increase.

(Photo: Kyodo, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.