europe after chernobyl. ten months after the earthquake and tsunami and the subsequent nuclear accident, perinatal mortality in 6 severely contaminated prefectures jumped up from january 2012 onward: jump odds ratio 1.156; 95% confidence interval (1.061, 1.259), p-value 0.0009. there were slight increases in areas with moderate levels of contamination and no increases in the rest of japan. in severely contaminated areas, the increases of perinatal mortality 10 months after fukushima were essentially independent of the numbers of dead and missing due to the earthquake and the tsunami.