Six more young people from Fukushima prefecture in Japan have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer since Japan’s worst nuclear accident in 2011, news reports said on Wednesday.
There are now a total of 18 cancer cases among people who were 18 or younger at the time of the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, the Kyodo News Agency reported, citing local Government officials.
Twenty-five others were also suspected of suffering from some form of cancer, up from 15 in a June report, Kyodo said.
However, Shinichi Suzuki, Professor at Fukushima Medical University, said that it is too early to link the cancer cases to the nuclear disaster.
The plant suffered meltdowns at three of its six reactors after it was swept through by a tsunami in March 2011. More than 150,000 residents have been forced to leave their homes around the complex due to radioactive contamination.