Radioactivity is one of the most frightening things on the Earth. People are dead scared of radiation because it might not result in a person suffering right away, but people develop illnesses later on in life. A lot of hue and cry has been sounded about the calamity facing Japan and many have felt that leaked radiation will result in further damage.

However, one needs to take a break and ask whether all this worry is really worth the whole situation. Well, the answer is yes; there are a lot of dangers posed by the crisis-stricken nuclear power plants in Japan.

There are four types of isotopes that will be emitted during leaked radiation: iodine-131, cesium-137, strontium-90 and plutonium-239. The most fatal of the four substances is Iodine-131 as it is known to result in people developing cancer -- thyroid cancer is the most common for iodine radiation.

According to officials, the 1986 Chernobyl explosion in Russia had led to an estimated 6,000 to 7,000 people developing thyroid cancer. A majority of the people who developed cancer were children at the time of the explosion and had developed the condition later on in life.

So, the conclusion one can reach is that radiation has long-term effects and they might not surface today; but, ten years down the line, radiation will show its ugly head in the form of people suffering from cancer.