On Friday (6/8) local time in Hiroshima, Japan, it commemorated 76 years since the US dropped the world's first atomic bomb. The atomic bomb killed about 140,000 people. Then, is there still radiation in Nagasaki and Hiroshima?
Launching the official website of The City of Hiroshima, radiation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki is currently equivalent to very low levels of natural radioactivity. Radiation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki claims to have no effect on the human body.
"Atomic bombs differ from conventional bombs in that they emit explosive energy, their magnitude and radiation are completely different. Of the energy emitted, 5% is initial radiation and 10% is residual radiation," the website explains.
The initial radiation emitted at the time of the explosion causes great damage to the human body. A large number of victims exposed to direct radiation within a one -kilometer radius are likely to die.
Residual radiation is radiation that is emitted later after the bomb is dropped. About 80% of all residual radiation is emitted within 24 hours. Studies show that 24 hours after the bombing, the amount of radiation residue that a person will receive at the center (bombing center) is 1 in 1000 of the amount received after the explosion. A week later, it will be 1 per 1,000,000.
"As a result, residual radiation decreases rapidly," the website wrote.
Meanwhile, citing the official website of Columbia University, in the first few months after the bombing the Radiation Effects Research Foundation (a Japan-US cooperation organization) estimated between 90,000 and 166,000 people died in Hiroshima, while another 60,000 to 80,000 died in Nagasaki. These deaths include those who died as a result of the extraordinary strength and heat of the explosion as well as deaths caused by acute radiation exposure.
Radiation can also have long -term effects, such as cancer, by causing mutations in the DNA of living cells. Theoretically, radiation can damage DNA and alter genes. However, years after exposure before there was an increase in the incidence of cancer due to radiation.
Among the long -term effects experienced by victims of the atomic bomb, the most deadly is leukemia. An increase in leukemia appears about two years after the attack and peaks about four to six years later. Children are the worst. The Radiation Effects Research Foundation estimates that the risk of leukemia is 46% of bomb victims.
For all other types of cancer, an increase in incidence did not appear until about ten years after onset. This increase was first recorded in 1956. Nearly seventy years after the bombings took place, most of the generation that survived the attack had died.
Today, many scientists and health professionals pay more attention to children born to victims of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
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