Radiation Linked to Just 1 Percent of Deaths Among Hiroshima and Nagasaki Survivors, Study Finds

High doses of radiation after atomic bombs posed lower risk than previously thought.

The aftermath of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945. AFP via Getty Images

A study has found that, 80 years after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima, Japan, and Nagasaki, Japan, radiation-related deaths among survivors accounted for only 1 percent of total deaths.

Philip Thomas, professor of risk management at the University of Bristol, said that despite the slightly elevated risk the survivors faced as a result of their exposure to radiation in 1945, their lives will, on average, have been “decades longer than those of their forebears.”