An American hibakusha in Fukushima.

Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Fukushima.

In this issue of The Lancet, three Series papers and a Viewpoint commemorate 70 years of caring for survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as the more recent extension of that care to those aff ected by the Fukushima nuclear accident. As a result of this unwelcome triple legacy, Japan has become a uniquely important site for understanding radiation-related health ef...

An Overview of Hydrogen Sulfide Suicides Based on Police Data in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan

Rediscovery of an old article reporting that the area around the epicenter in Hiroshima was heavily contaminated with residual radiation, indicating that exposure doses of A-bomb survivors were largely underestimated

The A-bomb blast released a huge amount of energy: thermal radiation (35%), blast energy (50%), and nuclear radiation (15%). Of the 15%, 5% was initial radiation released within 30 s and 10% was residual radiation, the majority of which was fallout. Exposure doses of hibakusha (A-bomb survivors) were estimated solely on the basis of the initial radiation. The effects of the residual radiation o...

An Outbreak of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning in Yamagata Prefecture Following the Great East Japan Earthquake

Background: In the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake, most of the areas in Yamagata prefecture experienced a serious power failure lasting for approximately 24 hours. A number of households were subsequently poisoned with carbon monoxide (CO) due to various causes. In this study, we conducted a survey of CO poisoning during the disaster. Methods: A questionnaire regarding CO poisonin...

The Suicide Pandemic of Hydrogen Sulfide Poisoning in Japan

Background: Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) suicides have been frequent in Japan in recent years. This study was performed to describe the epidemiologic profile of an outbreak of H2S suicides in Japan. Methods: In September 2008, questionnaires about patients involved in H2S suicides were sent to 250 hospitals in Japan. Data collected from each patient included gender, age, clinical manifestations, date...