Grand
2
e Rounds
a shared dialogue among Occupational and Environmental Medicine Physicians,
the Hennepin Regional Poison Center, the Minnesota Department of Health,
and the University of Minnesota School of Public Health
Special Opportunity:
Environmental Exposure Grand Rounds
Tuesday, October 20 2015
7:00am to 8:00am in the Freeman Building, Rooms B144-B145
Public Health at the Intersection of Danger and Opportunity:
Responding to Japan’s 3.11 Earthquake, Tsunami, and Nuclear Crisis.
Speaker:
Kenneth E. “Ken” Nollet, MD, PhD
Professor and Director of International Cooperation
Fukushima Medical University (FMU) Radiation Medical Science Center
Abstract:
A magnitude 9 earthquake, tsunami, and aftershocks made at least 118 healthcare facilities
unusable on the Tohoku coast of Honshu, Japan. Four coastal nuclear plants went into
automatic shutdown. One, Fukushima Daiichi, lost back-up power, and 3 of 6 cores melted
down.
Eight hospitals in Fukushima Prefecture went into emergency response mode: routine
outpatient visits and elective surgeries were cancelled. Fukushima Medical University (FMU), 57
km northwest of the crippled nuclear plant, was not affected by the tsunami, but Fukushima
City’s municipal water supply was interrupted, so a four-day supply on campus had to last 7-8
days, with the possibility of needing large volumes to decontaminate nuclear plant workers.
Routine monitoring on campus showed a March 16, 2011 gamma radiation spike 9.2 times the
pre-March 11 average. Chronic care patients were evacuated out of this situation as emergency
care patients were brought in.
FMU was commissioned to design and conduct the Fukushima Health Management Survey.
Components of the survey included a Basic Survey, Thyroid Ultrasound Examinations, A
Comprehensive Health Check, a Mental Health and Lifestyle Survey, and a Pregnancy and Birth
Survey. Data from Japan’s >50 years of universal health care makes many pre- and post-3.11
comparisons possible, but providing individualized estimates of external radiation exposure and
performing thyroid ultrasounds on a population-wide scale has no precedent.
Minnesota Department of Health paradigms for public risk communication are outstanding, but
culture and other considerations will influence the message and the medium.
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH DIVISION
Biography
Kenneth E. “Ken” Nollet earned MD and PhD degrees from the Mayo
Clinic, and stayed to specialize in pathology and transfusion medicine.
After Mayo, he joined the American Red Cross, concurrently serving
as the blood bank medical director of Minneapolis Veterans Affairs
Medical Center and as an assistant professor at the University of
Minnesota. Dr. Paul Holland invited Nollet to be his associate medical
director at BloodSource in California, a position held until Dr.
Holland's retirement. Then Nollet was recruited to be the Australian
Red Cross Blood Service’s National Medical Education Program Manager. By invitation of
Professor Hitoshi Ohto, Nollet joined the Department of Blood Transfusion and Transplantation
Immunology at Fukushima Medical University (FMU) in 2008. Contrary to evacuation advice
given to Americans after the Great East Japan Earthquake, Dr. Nollet stayed at FMU. In 2013,
he became Professor and Director of International Cooperation at FMU’s Radiation Medical
Science Center.
Minnesota Department of Health
Site Assessment and Consultation Unit
PO Box 64975, St. Paul, MN 55164-0975
651-201-4903
[email protected]
September 29, 2015
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH DIVISION