![]() The Chernobyl accident caused many severe radiation effects almost immediately. Those exposures are reviewed in great detail in the UNSCEAR assessments. The exposures were much higher for those involved in mitigating the effects of the accident and those who resided nearby. These doses are comparable to an annual dose from natural background radiation (the global average is 2.4 mSv) and are, therefore, of little radiological significance. The average dose over a lifetime in distant countries of Europe was estimated to be about 1 mSv. Average national doses there were less than 1 mSv in the first year after the accident with progressively decreasing doses in subsequent years. Outside Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine, other European countries were affected by the accident. Maximum individual values of the dose may be an order of magnitude and even more. (For comparison, the typical dose from a single computed tomography scan is 9 mSv). For reasons related to the intake of milk and dairy products by infants and children, as well as the size of their thyroid glands and their metabolism, the radiation doses are usually higher for them than for adults.Īverage effective doses to those persons most affected by the accident were assessed to be about 120 mSv for 530,000 recovery operation workers, 30 mSv for 115,000 evacuated persons and 9 mSv during the first two decades after the accident to those who continued to reside in contaminated areas. Iodine becomes localized in the thyroid gland. Iodine-131 has a short radioactive half-life (eight days), but it can be transferred to humans relatively rapidly from the air and through consumption of contaminated milk and leafy vegetables. The radionuclides released from the reactor that caused exposure of individuals were mainly iodine-131, caesium-134 and caesium-137. Surface ground deposition of caesium-137 in Europe (2.2 MBytes).Surface ground deposition of caesium-137 on the territories of Belarus, Russian and Ukraine (1.1 MBytes).Many other health problems have been noted in the populations that are not related to radiation exposure.ĭownload detailed maps from the UNSCEAR 2000 report Although those most highly exposed individuals are at an increased risk of radiation-associated effects, the great majority of the population is not likely to experience serious health consequences as a result of radiation from the Chernobyl accident. The incidence of leukaemia in the general population, one of the main concerns owing to the shorter time expected between exposure and its occurrence compared with solid cancers, does not appear to be elevated. There is no scientific evidence of increases in overall cancer incidence or mortality rates or in rates of non-malignant disorders that could be related to radiation exposure. ![]() Apart from this increase, there is no evidence of a major public health impact attributable to radiation exposure two decades after the accident. ![]() ![]() Notwithstanding the influence of enhanced screening regimes, many of those cancers were most likely caused by radiation exposures shortly after the accident. Large areas of the three countries were contaminated with radioactive materials, and radionuclides from the Chernobyl release were measurable in all countries of the northern hemisphere.Īmong the residents of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine, there had been up to the year 2005 more than 6,000 cases of thyroid cancer reported in children and adolescents who were exposed at the time of the accident, and more cases can be expected during the next decades. The accident caused serious social and psychological disruption in the lives of those affected and vast economic losses over the entire region. In response, the authorities evacuated, in 1986, about 115,000 people from areas surrounding the reactor and subsequently relocated, after 1986, about 220,000 people from Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine. The accident caused the deaths, within a few weeks, of 30 workers and radiation injuries to over a hundred others. The reactor was destroyed in the accident and considerable amounts of radioactive material were released to the environment. The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor that occurred on 26 April 1986 was the most serious accident ever to occur in the nuclear power industry.
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