Despair in Japan
Uncertainty about the long-term effects of low-level radiation and despair over the bleak employment picture in Japan are contributing to alarming rates of suicide among those affected by the cascading disasters of the March 11 earthquake, tsunami, and meltdown of a nuclear reactor, Harvard experts found on recent visits. Yusuke Tsugawa, a researcher in general medicine at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and co-director of the Boston-Japan Medical Relief Initiative, said that the raging debate in Japan over health risks of exposure to low-level radiation over time makes it difficult for residents to move on. “Honestly, there is a huge debate in Japan about the radiation” emitted from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor, said Tsugawa. “One group of specialists says there is no effect and another group proposes a different opinion. We have to be clear that nobody knows that influence.” Without ample evidence or an unequivocal research technique to gather it,...