The Fukushima Prefectural Government said Monday that residents in three municipalities near its crippled nuclear plant were exposed to as much as 23 millisieverts of radiation in the four months after the meltdowns triggered by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
The limit for the general public is 1 millisievert a year.
"As annual radiation exposure of up to 100 millisieverts poses no specific cancer risks, the estimated radiation is unlikely to cause any adverse health effect," Fukushima Medical University Vice President Shunichi Yamashita said at the press conference held to announce the figure. "It is important to reduce future radiation exposure as much as possible."