1 Mar 2013

Higher cancer risk after Fukushima disaster - WHO

3:07 pm on 1 March 2013

People living closest to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan have been warned they have an increased risk of cancer after the disaster two years ago.

But a World Health Organisation report says those outside the immediate area should not be affected.

The magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011 killed nearly 19,000 people and devastated the Fukushima Daiichi plant in northeast Japan, triggering meltdowns, spewing radiation and forcing about 160,000 to flee their homes.

The group of experts appointed by the WHO have concluded that for most of the 110,000 people living close to the Fukushima nuclear plant, the increased likelihood of getting cancer is just 1% - so small, they say, it may not be possible to measure, the BBC reports.

One of the experts said smoking cigarettes far exceeded the risk from the radiation released by the explosions at Fukushima in northeast Japan.

The report is already causing controversy, with environmental group Greenpeace immediately condemning its conclusions.

It was the worst nuclear accident since a reactor exploded at the Chernobyl power plant in Ukraine in 1986.