After the accident at TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare recognized the causal relationship between cancer and work and recognized it as an industrial accident for two men who developed laryngeal cancer during convergence work.
This is the first time that laryngeal cancer has been recognized in the occupational accident certification for cancer related to the work to resolve the nuclear accident.
Two men who were recognized as industrial accidents were a male employee in his 60s at TEPCO and a man who worked at a partner company and developed the disease in his 40s and then died.
According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident in March 2011, the two men worked on the convergence work on the premises of the nuclear power plant, such as removing debris and measuring radiation dose.
However, in December 2018 and January 2018, I developed laryngeal cancer and applied for an industrial accident.
The exposure doses of the two people in the convergence work were about 85 mSv and about 44 mSv, respectively.
A study group of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, which is made up of experts, acknowledged the causal relationship with cancer because the exposure dose of the two people exceeded 100 millisieverts, which is the standard for certification, including before the accident. On the 6th of this month, the Standards Inspection Office recognized it as an industrial accident.
This is the first time that laryngeal cancer has been recognized in the occupational accident certification for cancer related to the work to resolve the nuclear accident.
Since the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, six workers have developed leukemia, thyroid cancer, and lung cancer, and work-related accidents have been recognized.