Many anxious Fukushima residents undergo radiation screening tests (JAPAN)

One-year-old Himari, center, held by her mother Tomomi Sato, left, undergoes a radiation screening test at the welfare office in Oyama, Fukushima Prefecture, on May 24, 2011. (Mainichi)

OYAMA, Fukushima -- An increasing number of residents here, feeling insecure about their health and discrimination against them, have taken screening tests for radiation, with a few of them found to have been exposed to levels of radiation higher than the legal limit.

As of May 24, a total of 192,500 people, or one in 10 people in Fukushima Prefecture, had taken screening tests since March 13 when the Fukushima Prefectural Government started the program in the wake of the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, which has been crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

There have been no cases of people found to have been exposed to levels of radiation higher than the legal limit since March 29. Many of the Fukushima residents decided to take the tests to receive "official endorsement" because some lodging and medical facilities asked them to prove that they are not contaminated with radiation.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110525p2a00m0na015000c.html