Whole-body counter surveys of Miharu-town school children for four consecutive years after the Fukushima NPP accident

Ryugo S. HAYANO; Masaharu TSUBOKURA; Makoto MIYAZAKI; Hideo SATOU; Katsumi SATO; Shin MASAKI; Yu SAKUMA

doi:10.2183/pjab.91.92

Original Article

Whole-body counter surveys of Miharu-town school children for four consecutive years after the Fukushima NPP accident

Ryugo S. HAYANO , Masaharu TSUBOKURA, Makoto MIYAZAKI, Hideo SATOU, Katsumi SATO, Shin MASAKI, Yu SAKUMA

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Keywords: Fukushima Dai-ichi accident, radioactive cesium, whole-body counting, committed effective dose

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2015 Volume 91 Issue 3 Pages 92-98

DOI https://doi.org/10.2183/pjab.91.92

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Abstract

Comprehensive whole-body counter surveys of Miharu-town school children have been conducted for four consecutive years, in 2011–2014. This represents the only long-term sampling-bias-free study of its type conducted after the Fukushima Dai-ichi accident. For the first time in 2014, a new device called the Babyscan, which has a low ^134/137Cs MDA of <50 Bq/body, was used to screen the children shorter than 130 cm. No child in this group was found to have detectable level of radiocesium. Using the MDAs, upper limits of daily intake of radiocesium were estimated for each child. For those screened with the Babyscan, the upper intake limits were found to be ≲1 Bq/day for ¹³⁷Cs. Analysis of a questionnaire filled out by the children’s parents regarding their food and water consumption shows that the majority of Miharu children regularly consume local and/or home-grown rice and vegetables. This however does not increase the body burden.

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