A former Fukushima worker has contracted cancer. While the ministry of health has finally acknowledged this as a workplace accident, it still denies a direct, causal relationship. As Susanne Steffen in Tokyo reports, many predict a wave of compensation claims from ill workers in the months and years to come.
Japanese officials have recognised the first case of cancer linked to the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, but they refuse to admit a direct causal link between radiation exposure following the 2011 disaster and cancer. (Photo credit: IEAE Imagebank)
For the first time ever, the Japanese ministry of health has acknowledged a case of cancer from a Fukushima worker as a workplace accident. In doing so, it indirectly concedes a possible causal relationship with the radiation exposure in the damaged nuclear power plant.
Worked at Fukushima for several months
According to Japanese media reports, the case involves a 41-year-old man from the city of Kitakyushu in southern Japan. The man had worked for several months between 2012 and 2013 for a subcontractor of Tepco, Fukushima’s operator, in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which had been completely destroyed by the massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami in March 2011. According to media reports, the man helped install covers on the reactor buildings and was said to have spent a considerable amount of his time in the vicinity of reactor blocks 3 and 4.
During his work at Fukushima he accumulated a radiation dose of 15.7 millisievert overall. In a subsequent contract in an intact southern Japanese nuclear power plant, his cumulative radiation dose increased by 4 millisievert to a total of 19.8.
Ministry plays it down
The man was diagnosed with acute leukaemia in January 2014. Following a thorough examination, the ministry of health has now classified the case as a workplace accident, but at the same time it insists that this should not be understood as an admission of an absolute, valid causal link.
“Our decision does not mean that there is scientific proof of a causal link between radiation exposure and health problems”, said a ministry spokesperson at a press conference on Tuesday.
The decision was instead based on a 1976 regulation which states that leukaemia that occurs more than one year after a work-related exposure to radiation of more than 5 millisievert may be classified as a workplace accident, explained the spokesperson. The man is now entitled to be reimbursed for his medical expenses as well as financial compensation for the time that he cannot work.
Scientific evidence inconclusive
In the past few decades in Japan a total of 13 nuclear power plant workers have received compensation for radiation-induced cancer. But scientists are still undecided if low radiation doses of less than 100 millisievert can be directly linked to types of leukaemia. Of the around 45,000 people who have worked in the damaged nuclear power plant since the nuclear catastrophe, nearly half have been exposed to radiation levels of more than 5 millisievert, according to Tepco. And around 9,000 workers have been exposed to radiation levels of more than 20 millisievert.
More compensation claims expected
The current case is not the first time that a cancer-stricken Fukushima worker has sought to have his illness recognised as a workplace accident. According to information from the Asahi newspaper, seven other workers have pursued claims; most were shot down but three are still underway. In those cases, the type of cancer and the amount of radiation exposure have not been revealed.
Given the large number of workers with high to very high levels of radiation exposure, experts anticipate a rapid increase in compensation claims put forth by sick employees who had worked in the Fukushima nuclear power plant in the months and years that followed the catastrophic accident.
