日本核電站核泄漏危害大 嬰幼兒首當其衝

Children and women who are pregnant are at most immediate risk from any radiation released by nuclear reactors in Japan, a US radiation expert says。

"All humans exposed to radiation suffer harm," professor Janette at the environmental institute at Western Michigan University in says。

"The fetus, infant and child are much more susceptible than adults for two reasons. First, the immune system in the young is underdeveloped, and less able to repair damage from radiation exposure. Second, young cells are dividing very rapidly, and a cell damaged by radiation in a fetus or infant is much more likely to result in a birth defect or cancer than in an adult."

However, adults should also be monitored because people absorb radiation from reactor emissions via inhalation, food and water, Janette says。

Janette is editor of a 2010 book "Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment" that claims, based on previously records and reports by Eastern European scientists and medical experts, an estimated 985,000 people have died as a result of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear reactor meltdown in Ukraine。

"What harm we can expect to occur from the Japanese nuclear plant emissions has been well-documented in the people, animals, birds, and plants that were exposed to fallout to Chernobyl," Sherman says。日前一位美國輻射專家稱，此次日本核電站核泄漏事故威脅到人們的健康，其中兒童以及孕期婦女首當其衝。

“所有被輻射的人羣健康都會受損，”西密歇根大學環境研究所教授珍妮特說道。

“而胎兒、嬰兒以及幼童更容易受到影響，這裏面有兩個原因。第一，幼童的免疫系統並沒有發育完善，且無法自行修復輻射帶來的創傷。第二，幼童細胞分裂很快，而因輻射受損的細胞可能更容易導致胎兒以及嬰兒的出生缺陷或者癌症。”

即便如此，珍妮特建議，經歷過事故的成年人也需受到監控，因爲放射性物質可通過氣體、食物以及水被帶入成年人體內。

珍妮特此前曾任《切爾諾貝利：環境與人的災難後果》一書編輯，該書稱，以東歐學者和醫學專家的早期記錄和報告爲依據，1986年烏克蘭切爾諾貝利核電站泄漏事故導致985000人喪生。

“我們所能預見到的，就是從此次日本核電站核泄漏事故將會步切爾諾貝利事故後塵，當時受到影響的人類、動物、鳥類以及植物已經爲此做了見證，”珍妮特說道。