Japan evacuees refused treatment amid fear of radiation

03-31-2011 • MSNBC.msn.com

The Daily Telegraph said that officials were demanding that evacuees provide certificates proving they have not been exposed to contamination. The newspaper said a clinic in Fukushima City refused treatment to an 8-year-old girl for a skin rash. Her family was living in a shelter after abandoning their home in Minamisoma, 18 miles from the nuclear plant. The newspaper noted that the prejudice was similar to the ostracism that survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 experienced. "This is a knee-jerk reaction based on the fear that these people are going to harm you," Dr. Robert Gale, a hematologist at Imperial College, London, told the Daily Telegraph. He is advising the Japanese government on health issues. "If someone has been contaminated externally, such as on their shoes or clothes, then precautions can be taken, such as by removing those garments to stop the contamination from getting into a hospital," he added. "That is very easy to do, but unfortunately I'm not surprised this sort of thing is happening."