There is a low risk that cancer rates will rise among nonnewborn residents near the Fukushima No. 1 power plant despite the triple-meltdown crisis that started last year, a preliminary report by the World Health Organization indicates.
The report, released Sunday, said the possibility that cancer risks will significantly rise among adults and children, excluding newborns, is low based on the statistics of actual cancer incidence. How complete those statistics are is unclear.
However, there are also data showing newborns in the town of Namie and the village of Iitate in Fukushima Prefecture could suffer from cancer, leukemia or other illnesses in the future.
The preliminary report is based on the assumption that the residents lived in the affected areas for four months after the nuclear crisis started and continued to eat local produce.
In reality, most of the residents were evacuated.
A final report will be released in December at the earliest.