The United Nations is to adopt advice on radiation that clarifies what can be said about its health effects on individuals and large populations. A preliminary report has also found no observable health effects from last year's nuclear accident in Fukushima.
The studies come from the UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation(UNSCEAR)after five years of work. An independent body of international experts, UNSCEAR has met regularly since 1955 and helped establish radiation as the best understood carcinogen in the world through its studies of atomic bomb survivors and the effects of the Chernobyl accident. Having been officially approved by the UN General Assembly, the reports - as well as a resolution welcoming them - will then serve to inform all countries of the world when setting their own national radiation safety policies.