Koichi Tanigawa: a passionate voice in radiation disaster medicine

摘要

On March 11, 2011, when a force 9 earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit the Japanese east coast near Fukushima, Koichi Tanigawa was 900 km away in Hiroshima. But not for long. As the then Chairman of Hiroshima University’s Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, and also Deputy Director of its Radiation Medicine Centre, he found himself with a key part to play in subsequent events. His institution had been designated a tertiary centre for dealing with major disasters, and within 2 days Tanigawa had been fl own to Fukushima as leader of the radiation emergency medical team. What he found was a tragedy in which more than 15 000 people died, over 500 km2 of land had been fl ooded, and three nuclear power reactors were damaged and leaking. “The Fukushima accident changed my life”, says Tanigawa