Assessments of DNA Damage and Radiation Exposure Dose in Cattle Living in the Contaminated Area Caused by the Fukushima
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Assessments of DNA Damage and Radiation Exposure Dose in Cattle Living in the Contaminated Area Caused by the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Itaru Sato1 · Jun Sasaki1 · Hiroshi Satoh1 · Masahiro Natsuhori2 · Takahisa Murata3 · Keiji Okada1 Received: 2 April 2020 / Accepted: 13 August 2020 / Published online: 26 August 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Since the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011, various abnormalities have been reported in animals living in the contaminated area. In the present study, we examined DNA damage in cattle living in the "difficult-to-return zone" by 8-hydroxy2′-deoxyguanosine, comet, and micronucleus assays using their peripheral blood. The radiation exposure dose rate at the sampling time was approximately 0.25 or 0.38 mGy/day and the cumulative dose was estimated at approximately 1000 mGy. Significant increase in DNA damage was not detected by any of the three methods. As DNA damage is a stochastic effect of radiation, it might be occurring in animals living in the contaminated area. However, the present results suggest that radiation-induced DNA damage in the cattle did not increase to the level detectable by the assays we used due to the low dose rate in this area. Keywords Cattle · DNA damage · Radioactive contamination · Fukushima nuclear accident The accident of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in March 2011 has caused serious contamination of the environment with various radioactive materials over a wide area of east Japan. Atmospheric releases of 131I and 137Cs, two representative radionuclides of the nuclear accident, were estimated at 120 PBq and 8.8 PBq, respectively (UNSCEAR 2013). This accident was rated 7 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale, the same level as the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. People living within 20 km of the power station and in the area where the annual radiation dose would exceed 20 mSv were evacuated immediately after the accident. After April 2012, the evacuation zone was rearranged into three areas according to the radiation level: “the area in preparation for the lifting of the evacuation order”, “the restricted residence * Itaru Sato satoital@iwate‑u.ac.jp 1
Faculty of Agriculture, Iwate University, Morioka 020‑8550, Japan
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School of Veterinary Medicine, Kitasato University, Towada 034‑8628, Japan
3
Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113‑8657, Japan
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area”, and “the difficult-to-return zone”. In these areas, decontamination measures have been conducted and the evacuation order is gradually being lifted, however, more than 40,000 people remain evacuated as of March 2020. After the Chernobyl accident in 1986, pediatric thyroid cancer cases increased markedly in Belarus and Ukraine (WHO 2006). In Fukushima, more than 100 cases of thyroid cancer have been reported in the Fukushima Health Management Survey, although these cases were unlikely to be attributable to the radiation exposure (Nakaya et
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