Radiation exposure concerns in Japan
Japan's people are facing enormous challenges in the wake of Friday's earthquake and tsunami. One of those is health. In the hardest-hit areas, there's little food or medicine, and the fear of radiation poisoning looms as news of nuclear reactor problems continues to make headlines.
What can people do now, as the situation seems to deteriorate?
On "The Early Show" Monday, CBS News Medical Correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton said people need to limit their exposure near the nuclear reactors.
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She said, "First of all, right now, it seems there are more questions than answers. But in general, the principles that govern radiation safety, if you will, really are three-fold."
Ashton said the first factor is the time in which you're exposed to the source of the radiation.
She said less exposure is much better than longer-term, or prolonged exposure.
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The second factor is the distance you are from the source of radiation.
"Obviously, you want to get as far away as possible," she said.
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Ashton explained that, after the 1986 Chernobyl accident in Ukraine, there were radiation health effects for people as far as 50 miles away.
She said shielding - any kind possible - is also important.
Ashton said, "Shielding could be being indoors. Shielding could be protective clothing, or shielding, in the case of what we do in a hospital, could be a lead apron. All of those things, very, very important when you're talking about radiation exposure."
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"In terms of medical effects, (we think in) short-term effects and long-term effects, she said. "And short-term effects, we worry about cells in the body that are actively dividing. Very, very active cells. That's bone marrow cells. Cells that line our GI tract. You can see nausea, vomiting, diarrhea. Then we worry about the thyroid. Very, very susceptible to I-131 or the radioactive iodine that can be liberated in this kind of accident. So potassium iodide tablets can be protective. You watch for thyroid cancer showing up anywhere from two to four years after this event, to things like leukemia, some health effects might not be seen for 10 or 20 years."
Co-anchor Chris Wragge asked Ashton when it's going to be safe to go back to the area near the nuclear reactors.
"I don't think anyone knows the answer to that," Ashton said. "Obviously, for the cleanup workers or the rescue workers, people who need to be in close proximity, they want to minimize that time. When you talk about long-term, you want to minimize the exposure to eating things or ingesting things that could contain radioactive material. So, milk. You want to avoid in long-term."
As for other medical concerns, Ashton recalled her experience in Haiti.
She said, "We've learned from our experience with other natural disasters, other big earthquakes. Haiti we saw this very, very clearly, there are always miracles. There are always outliers. People can be pulled alive from rubble days, sometimes weeks, after. But in general, the top medical concerns are things like crush injuries both from the earthquake, as well as the tsunami. And you can see big organ damage, limb damage from that, kidney failure - just as a result of crush injuries. Dehydration is a big factor. A lot of these people have no access to food and water. Hypothermia is a factor there. It's very, very cold at night. Below freezing. People are cold, they're wet, they don't have adequate shelter, and hypothermia is a factor. And then, of course, radiation."
Wragge noted, "There's such a shortage of food, water, electricity out there right now. How much longer do the people have before this becomes a really life-threatening issue for the survivors there?"
Ashton said people can live without food longer than they can without water.
"Really, water, you're talking about a couple of days only," she said. "And it's important to remember, when we hear statistics like 1.4 million households without water, that could be four times as many individuals without water. When you hear almost two million households without electricity, again that could be three, four or five times as many people without adequate warmth. So again, shelter there is a big problem."
The medical infrastructure, Ashton said, is extremely stressed right now.
She explained, "We have to remember the day-to-day medical emergencies are still going on. People are still having heart attacks. They're still having babies. And the resources there are compromised. This is a big catastrophe."
