Japan: 77 Fukushima evacuees died within 3 months

CrofsBlogs:  Nearly 80 elderly people who were evacuated from nursing homes near the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant died within three months of the accidents at the plant that forced them to move, according to a Yomiuri Shimbun survey.

The 77 deaths are more than triple the 25 recorded at the nursing homes during the corresponding period last year.

Officials at the homes believe many of this year's deaths resulted from a decline in physical strength caused by moving far from the nursing homes and living in an unfamiliar environment. Many of the people who died had struggled to adapt to their new living conditions, the officials said.

The Yomiuri Shimbun surveyed 15 nursing homes--13 for elderly people requiring special care, and two for elderly people who cannot live alone or with their family due to financial and other reasons--within 30 kilometers of the Fukushima nuclear plant.

One nursing home just outside the 30-kilometer evacuation zone, run by a corporation that operates a home within the zone, also responded to the survey.

According to the survey, 826 elderly people were evacuated from 12 nursing homes near the nuclear plant in Fukushima Prefecture. Based on the Law on Special Measures Concerning Nuclear Emergency Preparedness, the government instructed residents living within three kilometers of the nuclear plant to evacuate on March 11, the day after a massive earthquake and tsunami knocked out the plant's cooling functions.

The next day, residents within 20 kilometers of the plant were told to evacuate. On March 18, the government asked elderly people at nursing homes 20 to 30 kilometers from the plant to leave the area.

The 77 elderly people who died after evacuating were aged 68 to 104--46 were in their 90s, 19 in their 80s, seven in their 100s, four in their 70s and one was 68.

At least 20 died within a month after the nuclear accident, and 42 the following month, according to the nursing homes. The major causes of death were pneumonia and brain infarction, the survey found. Some died of old age, the nursing homes said.