Babies born in Hawaii in the wake of the Fukushima meltdown were more likely to suffer from a developmental disorder than babies born the previous year, according to a recent study. Nuclear isotopes wafting over the Pacific Ocean from the crippled reactors appear to have caused far-reaching health risks that we are only beginning to understand. 

According to Grist:

Children born in Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington between one week and 16 weeks after the meltdowns began in March 2011 were 28 percent more likely to suffer from congenital hypothyroidism than were kids born in those states during the same period one year earlier, a new study shows. In the rest of the U.S. during that period in 2011, where radioactive fallout was less severe, the risks actually decreased slightly compared with the year before.

Substantial quantities of the radioisotope iodine-131 were produced by the meltdowns, then wafted over the Pacific Ocean and fell over Hawaii, the American West Coast, and other Pacific countries in rain and snow, reaching levels hundreds of times greater than those considered safe.

After entering our bodies, radioactive iodine gathers in our thyroids. Thyroids are glands that release hormones that control how we grow. In babies, including those not yet born, such radiation can stunt the development of body and brain. The condition is known as congenital hypothyroidism. It is treatable when detected early.

The original study was published in the Open Journal of Pediatrics, though scientists first discovered the link between nuclear fallout and congenital hypothyroidism after the 1986 meltdown in Chernobyl.

Photo credit: Joe Rubin, Civil Beat

—Alice Terry