Former Fukushima Worker Who Got Cancer Is Suing TEPCO

In a first, a former worker at the Fukushima Daiichi No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant has filed a lawsuit against the majority-Japanese-government-owned Tokyo Electric Power Company for cancer he says he developed after exposure to radiation from the March 2011 disaster.

Via The Japan Times:

According to his complaint, cancer was detected in his bladder in June 2012, in his stomach in March 2013 and in his sigmoid colon in May 2013 after he worked as a heavy equipment operator at Fukushima No. 1 between July and October 2011.

It would be the first time someone has officially, directly linked the Fukushima incident to cancer, so authorities are probably going to want to discredit him and make this one go away as fast as possible.

In fact, the man tried to file for workers compensation, but he was denied.

Records show that the man absorbed a total of 56.41 millisieverts of radiation during his work at the power plant, but he claims to have been subjected to more than 100 millisieverts and says he sometimes worked without a dosimeter.

The government uses the 100-millisievert threshold to consider whether cancer has a causal link with radioactive exposure.

How the people running things can act like there are records detailing every moment of every amount of radiation this man was exposed to seems ridiculous. Stories have come out from Fukushima whistleblowers about how cobbled together some of the “containment measures” have been (duct tape to stop leaking radioactive water, anyone?).

It also seems ridiculous to declare a specific radiation threshold definitely has the potential to cause cancer, but less than that amount cannot. So 100 millisieverts definitely causes cancer but, say 98.5 millisieverts doesn’t?

Okay Japanese government, that sounds logical. Because one’s susceptibility to cancer isn’t subjective based on the individual or anything… it has nothing to do with epigenetics, the person’s health, etc…

The man is seeking ¥65 million ($10 million USD) in damages. He is only 57-years-old, by the way.

TEPCO has not officially responded yet.