Deformed Vegetables, Fruit
Reportedly Pop Up Around Japan Nuclear Plant
You might not want to eat your
vegetables for an entirely new reason after seeing some strange fruit and
veggies that reportedly have turned up in villages surrounding Japan's stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Images of the bizarrely deformed
flora - which range from tomatoes with tumor-like growths to monstrous cabbage
and conjoined peaches - turned up on the website Imgur this
week, with the title, "Effects from the Fukushima radiation
disaster?"
It was unclear exactly where the
images came from, but the title of the image set suggested that the deformed
fruits and veggies were a result of the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear power
plant meltdown.
Deformed Fruit
The disaster occurred after an 8.9
magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami struck Japan's coast, leading to
more than 15,000 deaths. The incident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant was the
worst nuclear incident since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.
The fruit and vegetable images began
to tear across the Web after they were posted as a slideshow and trending topic by MSN.com on
Tuesday.
Timothy Mousseau, a biology
professor at the University of South Carolina who is currently studying fauna
in Fukushima, told ABCNews.com that there is some evidence for increased
mutations in the area, but that the images that have emerged online would need
follow-up studies to be confirmed as legitimate.
"We have seen some evidence of
increased mutation rates in plants and barn swallows in Fukushima, but we have
not had the funding to do the sort if rigorous science that is necessary to
examine such questions in a convincing manner," he said. "The
vegetable photos are suggestive but, at present, are only anecdotal. Follow-up
studies need to be conducted by qualified researchers to verify the validity of
these observations."
Deformed Fruit
Last year, Japanese scientists said
that "abnormalities" detected in the country's
butterflies may be a result of radioactive fallout from the Fukushima
disaster. Researchers said that "artificial radionuclides" from the
stricken power plant caused "physiological and genetic damage" to
pale grass blue butterflies.
Five months after the disaster,
cesium 137 and 134 were detected in more than a dozen bluefin tuna caught near
San Diego. The levels were 10 times higher than tuna found in previous years.
The
World Health Organization released a report in February saying that "for
the general population inside and outside of Japan, the predicted risks are low
and no observable increases in cancer rates above baseline rates are
anticipated."
ABC News' Akiko Fujita
contributed to this report.
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