Thyroid cancer and Fukushima

Available for over a year

Thyroid cancer has gone up after the Fukushima accident - but it's not what you think. Japanese authorities were worried about the impact of radiation that escaped into the atmosphere after a nuclear plant was damaged during the earthquake of 2011. Around 300,000 under-19s received ultrasound scans to look for abnormalities, and the results appeared alarming. One expert claimed there were 30 times more cases than might have been expected. But a group of epidemiologists have since questioned this - they say if you survey so many people, you will always find more cases. (Image: Official in a full radiation protection suit scans an evacuated girl with a geiger counter to check radiation levels in Koriyama city in Fukushima prefecture Credit: KEN SHIMIZU/AFP/Getty Images)