Tragically, on Friday March 11th 2011, Japan was struck with a historic 9.0 earthquake, which brought unspeakable destruction to the country and its people. The true crisis of this natural disaster; however does not lie in the demolition of the cities or landscape. Experts say that Japan should be fully capable of rebuilding themselves (especially with outside volunteer efforts) because they are a rich country holding the second largest economy in the world. The earthquake may have caused surface damage however the true tragedy is the threat of a nuclear crisis. Because of this earthquake, several nuclear reactors were damaged and their stabilizing mechanisms have not been able to be fixed. An evacuation was ordered for all individuals residing in a 20 km radius of the damaged reactors and the individuals within a 30 km were told to stay indoors. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has kept tabs on the radiation levels that are a result of the damage and although it is higher than normal, the radiation levels have yet to reach a deadly level. Because it is known that the most detrimental effects of radiation can be the long-term development of thyroid can cancer, the IAEA and the World Health Organization (WHO) have taken measures to decrease this long-term risk. It was determined that stable iodine can help prevent against the development of thyroid cancer in relation to radiation exposure. The U.N. has provided hundreds of thousands of doses for the Japanese public that may be affected by the radiation. The specifics include one or more tablets for adults and similar syrup that is meant for children. Ideally, this ingestion of this stable iodine will be able to decrease the long-term detrimental effects of this nuclear crisis.
See: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/19/us-japan-nuclear-iodine-iaea-idUSTRE72I11S20110319
Posted by Emily Edwards
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