"Earthquake triggers oil refinery fire"
This burned for about a week and a half, in the Chiba prefecture as I recall.
Inhaled petroleum with an aromatic content would be expected to partition in the lung. The aromatic portion of the oil is fat-soluble and would pass through the lung wall to be deposited in the adipose tissue. It also is possible some of the non-aromatic portion of inhaled petroleum would pass through the lung wall and be deposited from the blood in the spleen, lymph nodes, liver and kidneys. The aromatic and other petroleum fractions distributed throughout the body would cause systemic toxicity which expresses through many symptoms. A detailed discussion of petroleum toxicology is beyond the scope of this paper. An extensive literature review by the author has found petroleum exposure associated with the following symptoms:
cancer
fatigue
breathlessness
cough
skin rash
headache
diarrhea
weight loss
memory loss
immune suppression
chemical sensitivity
Skin exposure to petroleum has been known for many years to cause skin cancer, rashes, eczema, acne, and dermatitis. The reaction of the skin to petroleum depends upon the composition, boiling range, viscosity and aromatic content of the oil. Aromatic content is a key toxicity parameter for petroleum; the higher the aromatic content, the greater is the toxicity.
Aromatic compounds boiling between 500 and 1000o F. have been found highly carcinogenic.
Undoubtedly, health effects from the refinery fire will be blamed on the nuclear reactors. It's traditional.