Radiation that leaked from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant after last year's earthquake and tsunami has caused mutations in some butterflies, according to a group of Japanese researchers. Pale grass blue butterflies, a common species in Japan, collected from several areas near the Fukushima plant showed signs of genetic mutations, such as dented eyes, malformed
Radiation that leaked from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant after last year's earthquake and tsunami has caused mutations in some butterflies, according to a group of Japanese researchers. Pale grass blue butterflies, a common species in Japan, collected from several areas near the Fukushima plant showed signs of genetic mutations, such as dented eyes, malformed legs and antennae, and stunted wings. "Studies of this sort at Fukushima and Chernobyl provide invaluable information concerning just how hazardous radioactive contaminants could be for human populations living in these areas in the future," says Tim Mousseau of the University of South Carolina. "Butterflies as a group are important bio-indicators for the effects of environmental stressors like radioactive contaminants." Jim T. Smith of Britain's University of Portsmouth, however, said he would be "very, very wary of trying to extrapolate those results to humans."
ABC News, 8/16/2012
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