チェルノブイリ：大災害が人々と環境へ与えた影響
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Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment
A Review of book by Alexey Yablokov, Vassily Nesterenko, and Alexey Nesterenko

by Dr. Rosalie Bertell

Global Research, February 12, 2010

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This new publication of the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (Volume 1181), by Alexey Yablokov, Vassily Nesterenko, and Alexey Nesterenko, is the elucidation many of us have been waiting for since the 1986 disaster at the failed nuclear reactor in Ukraine. Until now we have read about the published reports of limited spotty investigations by western scientists who undertook projects in the affected territories. Even the prestigious IAEA, WHO and UNSCEAR reports have been based on about 300 such western research papers, leaving out the findings of some 30,000 scientific papers prepared by scientists working and living in the stricken territories and suffering the everyday problems of residential contamination with nuclear debris and a contaminated food supply.

Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment is wrtitten by Alexey Yablokov, Vassily Nesterenk and Alexey Nesterenko. The senior author, Alexey Yablokov was head of the Russian Academy of Science under Gobachev – since then he receives no support. Vassily Nesterenko, head of the Ukrainian Nuclear establishment at the time of the accident, flew over the burning reactor and took the only measurements. In August 2009, he died as a result of radiation damage, but earlier, with help from Andrei Sakarov, was able to establish BELRAD to help children of the area.

The three scientists who assembled the information in the book from more than 5000 published articles and research findings, mostly available only within the former Soviet Union or Eastern block countries and not accessible in the West, are prestigious scientists who present objective facts clearly nuanced with little or no polemics. They were not encumbered by a desire to promote or excessively blame a failed technology!

The book was expertly translated into readable English by Janette Sherman, Medical Toxicologist and Adjunct Professor in the Environmental Institute at Western Michigan University.

Professor Dr. of Biology, Dimitro Grodzinsky, Chair of the Department of Biology of the Ukraine National Academy of Sciences, and member of the National Commission wrote the Forward to the book. His statement relative to Western reporting of the accident is illuminating:

“For a long time I have thought that the time has come to put an end to the opposition between technocracy advocates and those who support objective scientific efforts to estimate the negative risks for people exposed to the Chernobyl fallout. The basis for believing that these risks are not minor is very convincing.”

The government of the former Soviet Union previously classified many documents now accessible to the authors. For example, we now know that the number of people hospitalized for acute radiation sickness was more than a hundred times larger than the number recently quoted by the IAEA, WHO and UNSCEAR. Unmentioned by the technocrats were the problems of “hot particles” of burning uranium that caused nasopharyngeal problems, and the radioactive fallout that resulted in general deterioration of the health of children, wide spread blood and lymph system diseases, reproductive loss, premature and small infant births, chromosomal mutations, congenital and developmental abnormalities, multiple endocrine diseases, mental disorders and cancer.

The authors systematically explain the secrecy conditions imposed by the government, the failure of technocrats to collect data on the number and distribution of all of the radionuclides of major concern, and the restrictions placed on physicians against calling any medical findings radiation related unless the patient had been a certified “acute radiation sickness” patient during the disaster, thus assuring that only 1% of injuries would be so reported..

This book is a “must read” for all of those bureaucrats currently promoting nuclear power as the only “solution” for climate change. Those who seek information on the disaster only from the official documentation provided by the IAEA, WHO and UNSCEAR need to broaden their reading to include the reality check from those scientists who have access to local findings and are simply telling the truth, with no hidden propaganda agenda.

I was impressed by the simple message of the cover of this volume, which shows a number of felled logs with clearly distinguishable colors of wood: before and after Chernobyl. The reader will find that the environment, living plants and animals all suffered ill effects from this experience, as did the human population. It should be a sobering read for all those who have believed the fiction that “low doses of radiation are harmless”, or that a severe nuclear accident is easily contained within the human environment.

Below is the New York Academy of Sciences site for the book. Unfortunately, its selling price is now about $150, which may limit its distribution.

http://www.nyas.org/Publications/Annals/Detail.aspx?cid=f3f3bd16-51ba-4d7b-a086-753f44b3bfc1

Global Research Articles by Rosalie Bertell

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl:_Consequences_of_the_Catastrophe_for_People_and_the_Environment
Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment
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Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment is a translation of a 2007 Russian publication by Alexey V. Yablokov, Vassily B. Nesterenko, and Alexey V. Nesterenko. It was published by the New York Academy of Sciences in 2009 in their Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences series.[1]

There is significant disagreement on the degree of long-term adverse impacts of the Chernobyl disaster, despite decades of environmental and heath effects research.[2][3] The environmentalist Amory Lovins has written

The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation's 2005 estimate of about 4,000 Chernobyl deaths contrasts with this review of 5,000 mainly Slavic-language scientific papers the UNSCEAR overlooked. It found deaths approaching a million through 2004, nearly 170,000 of them in North America.[4]

The book was not peer reviewed by the New York Academy of Sciences,[5], and two later reviews by the Oxford Journal Radiation Protection Dosimetry[6] in 2010 could not be conclusive on the relevance of its conclusions while questioning parts of the methodology used.
Contents
[hide]

1 Critical reviews
2 See also
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Critical reviews

Two expert reviews of the book were commissioned by the Oxford journal Radiation Protection Dosimetry. The first, by Dr. Ian Fairlie[7] greets the book as a "welcome addition to the literature in English. The New York Academy of Sciences [is] to be congratulated for publishing this volume. [...] In the opinion of the reviewer, this volume makes it clear that international nuclear agencies and some national authorities remain in denial about the scale of the health disasters in their countries due to Chernobyl's fallout. This is shown by their reluctance to acknowledge contamination and health outcomes data, their ascribing observed morbidity/mortality increases to non-radiation causes, and their refusal to devote resources to rehabilitation and disaster management." Fairlie notes two shortcomings of the book: that it does not sufficiently investigate the large decrease in average male life spans throughout Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, in both contaminated and uncontaminated areas; and that it does not make enough effort to reconstruct estimated doses of contamination and discuss their implications for eastern and western Europe (though Fairlie agrees with the authors that studies should not be rejected for failing to contain dose estimates―a criterion commonly applied by western nuclear agencies such as the IAEA). Fairlie specifically concurs with Yablakov et al. on three points:

The IAEA's exclusion of data where estimated dose is below a certain threshold (following ICRP recommendations) is contrary to normal practice, even the ICRP's own practice, and contradicts the linear no-threshold model (LNT). The ICRP's recommendation in this regard is inconsistent with LNT and its own practices.
The IAEA/WHO have often sought to justify their dismissal of eastern European epidemiological studies by citing questionable scientific practices: but epidemiology is not an exact science, and the same shortcomings exist in western studies uncriticised by the IAEA. The IAEA also point to shortcomings with pre-Chernobyl Soviet cancer registries, but cancer registries in western countries had similar issues at that time.
In observational epidemiological studies where certain data is already known and certain effects are expected, statistical tests for significance of the results are not normally required. Yet the IAEA has challenged such papers that do not include statistical tests and confidence intervals, and questioned whether the observed effects are due to chance. Eastern scientists are faced with a catch-22 situation whereby they either (correctly) leave out statistical tests, and are dismissed, or else apply the tests, leading western scientists to (incorrectly) conclude that there is no real effect.

The second review (in the same volume), by Dr. Monty Charles,[8] is largely critical, noting several problems:

The authors expressly discount socioeconomic or screening factors when considering increased occurrence of diseases, but this methodology does not seem to account for variations between territories prior to the accident.
Their discussion of 'hot particle' poisoning is cursory, and is unclear regarding dosage figures.
The chapter on health effects, 60% of the book, contains inadequate explanation or critical evaluation of many cited facts and figures, and in many instances related tables, figures and statements appear to contradict each other.
A section abstract predicted numbers of casualties due to cancer, however the section did not contain any discussion to support these numbers.

While Charles agrees with the importance of making eastern research more available in the west, he states that he cannot tell which of the publications referred to by the book would sustain critical peer-review in western scientific literature, and that verifying these sources would require considerable effort. Charles sees the book as representing one end of a spectrum of views, and believes that works from the entire spectrum must be critically evaluated in order to develop an informed opinion.

In George Monbiot's recent exchanges with anti-nuclear activist Helen Caldicott and John Vidal on the matter of the total death toll of Chernobyl, Caldicott and Vidal made reference to Yablokov's book. Monbiot responded by saying:

A devastating review in the journal Radiation Protection Dosimetry points out that the book achieves this figure by the remarkable method of assuming that all increased deaths from a wide range of diseases – including many which have no known association with radiation – were caused by the Chernobyl accident. There is no basis for this assumption, not least because screening in many countries improved dramatically after the disaster and, since 1986, there have been massive changes in the former eastern bloc. The study makes no attempt to correlate exposure to radiation with the incidence of disease.

The passage Monbiot is referring to comes from Charles' review, and actually relates to the 2006 Greenpeace report on Chernobyl, not the book by Yablokov et al.[8]
[edit] See also

List of books about nuclear issues
List of Chernobyl-related articles
The Truth About Chernobyl
Chernobyl. Vengeance of peaceful atom.

[edit] External links

Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment (PDF; 4,3 MB)

[edit] References

^ "Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment". Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 15 March 2011.
^ Mona Dreicer (2010). "Book Review: Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment". Environ Health Perspect 118:a500-a500.
^ Monty Charles (2010 141(1)). "Chernobyl: consequences of the catastrophe for people and the environment (2010)". Radiat Prot Dosimetry.
^ Amory Lovins (March 18, 2011). "With Nuclear Power, "No Acts of God Can Be Permitted"". Huffington Post.
^ According to a statement made by the NYAS to George Monbiot
^ "Radiation Protection Dosimetry".
^ Fairlie, Ian (2010) "Chernobyl: Consequences of the catastrophe for people and the environment" in Radiation Protection Dosimetry (2010) Vol. 141 No. 1. Oxford Journals. pp. 97–101.
^ a b Charles, Monty (2010) "Chernobyl: Consequences of the catastrophe for people and the environment" in Radiation Protection Dosimetry (2010) Vol. 141 No. 1. Oxford Journals. pp. 101–4.

http://wonkythinking.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Fairlie-review.pdf
Book Reviews
doi:10.1093/rpd/ncq180
CHERNOBYL: CONSEQUENCES OF THE CATASTROPHE
FOR PEOPLE AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Author: Alexey V. Yablokov, Vassily B. Nesterenko, Alexey V. Nesterenko, Janette D. Sherman-Nevinger
Published by: New York Academy of Sciences, Boston, MA, USA
ISBN: 978-1-57331-757-3, £80.00, E92.00 (soft cover)
On 26 April 1986, reactor 4 at the Chernobyl
Nuclear power plant exploded, triggering a graphite
fire that lasted for 10 d. The intense conflagration
ejected large quantities of radionuclides into the
atmosphere that were distributed by prevailing
weather patterns throughout Europe and the rest of
the Northern Hemisphere. The International Atomic
Energy Agency(1) (IAEA) stated that Chernobyl was
‘the foremost nuclear catastrophe in human history’.
The IAEA and World Health Organisation(2)
(WHO) stated that ‘the magnitude and scope of the
disaster, the size of the affected population and the
long-term consequences make it, by far, the worst
industrial disaster on record’. According to the
International Programme on the Health Effects of
the Chernobyl Accident(3) (IPHECA), the radioactivity
released at Chernobyl in becquerel terms was
200 times that from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki
atomic bombs combined.
Alexey Yablokov, founder and president of the
Centre for Russian Environmental Policy, is a correspondent
member of the Russian Academy of
Sciences, and former environmental advisor to
Gorbachev and Yeltsin. Vassily Nesterenko was
director of Ukraine’s nuclear power establishment in
the 1980s and 1990s. In August 2009, he died
mainly as a result of his radiation exposures from
the Chernobyl reactor, but earlier he established the
independent Belarussian Institute of Radiation
Safety (BELRAD). Alexey Nesterenko is the
Institute’s senior scientist. The book under review
here was translated by Janette Sherman-Nevinger,
Adjunct Professor at the Environmental Institute of
Western Michigan University.
The authors summarise studies demonstrating
health effects in humans, animals and plants
exposed to Chernobyl fallout over eastern and
western Europe and the rest of the Northern
Hemisphere. Their main conclusions are that the
health and environmental consequences of the
Chernobyl disaster are much larger than previously
estimated. Exposures to affected people are reported
to be increasing from the ingestion of contaminated
foodstuffs whose 137Cs concentrations are rising due
to soil recirculation. The authors state that, collectively,
the studies suggest that those exposed to low
levels of radioactivity in the environment have
higher risks than those estimated by western dose
models.
Chapter I on the distribution of Chernobyl’s
fallout states that, although Belarus, Ukraine and
Russia were the most highly contaminated countries,
in fact western Europe received more than half of
Chernobyl’s fallout, and accounted for two-thirds of
Chernobyl’s collective dose to the Northern
Hemisphere. The authors remark that IAEA and
Information resulting from studies of the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster is important to
our understanding of radiation effects. A recently-published book entitled “Chernobyl:
Consequences of the catastrophe for people and the environment”, contains translations from
the Russian of a series of papers on the subject written in 2007. Two expert reviewers, Dr. Ian
Fairlie and Dr. Monty Charles, have herein provided their insights regarding this publication.
Joseph C. McDonald
Editor-in-Chief
# The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Radiation Protection Dosimetry (2010), Vol. 141, No. 1, pp. 97–104
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WHO reports have failed to consider Chernobyl’s
health effects in western European countries.
Chernobyl’s fallout was spread over 40 % of the
land area of western Europe and also over parts of
Asia, northern Africa and North America. In
Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, nearly 400 million
people lived in areas contaminated with radioactivity
at levels higher than 4 kBq m22―the lowest level for
official acknowledgement. Nearly 5 million people
still live in areas with very high levels of radioactive
contamination, i.e. .40 kBq m22 in Belarus (18
000 km2), Ukraine (12 000 km2) and European
Russia (16 000 km2).
Chapter II on health consequences states that due
to USSR secrecy, data concerning thousands of
Chernobyl cleanup workers are difficult to reconstruct.
Due to the failure of nuclear ‘technocrats’ (a
term used by the authors) to collect data on the
number and distribution of the main radionuclides
released, and the restrictions placed on physicians
naming any medical findings radiation related, only
1 % of illnesses/injuries were so reported. The
chapter states that reported adverse effects continue
to increase in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia.
Comparisons of morbidity/mortality in areas with
low and high radioactive contamination reveal significant
chromosomal abnormalities, marked
increases in general morbidity, increased numbers of
sick and weak newborns and apparent accelerated
ageing. As regards non-malignant effects, studies
among populations exposed to Chernobyl fallout
have found increased incidences of brain damage;
premature eye cataracts; tooth and mouth abnormalities;
blood, lymphatic, heart, lung, gastrointestinal,
urologic, bone and skin diseases; thyroid disease
(with 1000 cases of thyroid dysfunction for every
thyroid cancer); genetic damage and birth defects in
the children of liquidators and those born in areas
with high levels of radioactive contamination;
immunological abnormalities and increases in viral,
bacterial and parasitic diseases in heavily contaminated
areas. However, information on doses is
limited. Official estimates by international agencies
predict 9000–28 000 fatal cancers between 1986 and
2056. On the basis of predicted 131I and 137Cs doses,
the chapter estimates 212 000–245 000 deaths in
Europe and 19 000 in the rest of the world.
These are much higher than IAEA estimates: the
main reason is that the authors’ estimates include collective
doses from very low exposures. The
International Commission on Radiological Protection
(ICRP) does not recommend including collective
doses from low exposures; however, this practice is
soundly based on the linear no threshold hypothesis
for radiation’s dose–effect relationship. The ICRP
and most radiation protection agencies around the
world continue to support the Linear No Threshold
Theory (LNT) and routinely use it in estimating
radiation effects. Therefore, the ICRP is being inconsistent
when it says collective doses from very low
exposures should not be used to estimate the effects.
Chapter III on the environmental effects states
that Chernobyl radionuclides have concentrated in
sediments, water, plants and animals, at up to 100
000 times higher than background levels. Despite
downward vertical migration of various radionuclides
in floodplains, lowland moors and peat
bogs, plant root systems transport them back to the
surface. This transfer is one cause of the increased
ingestion radiation doses to people in contaminated
territories observed in recent years. Radionuclide
accumulation rates in plants and mushrooms depend
upon soil, climate, particular biosphere, season, the
particular species and subspecies. Radionuclides
have very different plant accumulation rates (e.g.
90Sr137Cs144Ce), making it difficult to predict
plant levels. Genetic disorders, structural anomalies
and tumour-like changes have occurred in many
plant species including unique pathologic complexes
in the Chernobyl zone, such as high percentages of
anomalous pollen grains and spores. Chernobyl
radiation appears to have awakened genes silent over
long evolutionary timeframes. Chernobyl radiation
has resulted in morphologic, physiologic and genetic
disorders in every animal species studied. Reports of
a ‘healthy’ environment near Chernobyl for rare
species of birds/mammals are the result of immigration
and not local sustained populations. In 2009,
contamination levels remain dangerously high for
mammals, birds, amphibians and fish in many areas
of Europe. Mutation rates in animal populations are
significantly higher in contaminated than in noncontaminated
areas: transgenerational genomic
instability is seen in animal populations. Long-term
observations of animal populations in heavily contaminated
areas show significant increases in morbidity
and mortality similar to those seen in
humans―increased incidences of cancer and immunodeficiency,
decreased life expectancy, early ageing
and congenital malformations. Organisms such as
tuberculosis bacilli; hepatitis, herpes and tobacco
mosaic viruses; cytomegalovirus and soil micromycetes
and bacteria underwent rapid changes in
heavily contaminated areas.
Chapter IV on the continuing consequences states
that food contamination from Chernobyl remains a
major problem. As of 2007 in the Gomel, Mogilev
and Brest provinces of Belarus, 8 % of milk and 16
% of other food products from small farms exceeded
the permissible 137Cs levels. As of 2000, up to 90 %
of berries and mushrooms exceeded the permissible
137Cs levels in the Rovno and Zhytomir provinces of
Ukraine. From 1995 to 2007, up to 90 % of children
in heavily contaminated territories of Belarus had
137Cs levels higher than 15–20 Bq kg21―the action
level recommended by BELRAD. Worryingly, the
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average body 137Cs and 90Sr levels in heavily contaminated
territories of Belarus, Ukraine and
European Russia have been increasing since 1991.
The result is that individual radiation doses in the
contaminated territories of Belarus, Ukraine and
Russia have also been increasing steadily since 1994.
In 2008, the average dose in heavily contaminated
territories of Belarus, Ukraine and European Russia
exceeded 1 mSv y21―primarily from eating locally
contaminated food. However, the administration of
apple-pectin food additives is considered helpful for
body decontamination of 137Cs. Between 1996 and
2007, 160 000 Belarussian children received pectin
food additives for 18–25 d: 137Cs levels decreased by
30–40 %. Special protective measures in connection
with agriculture, forestry, hunting and fishing will be
necessary to protect the health of people in radioactively
contaminated territories for many generations.
Ever since the Chernobyl accident occurred, its
effects have been the subject of polarised views
with claims and counterclaims on the scale of
adverse effects especially on the estimated numbers
of resulting deaths. The volume lists many major
reports which have been published (in English) in
western European countries and in eastern
European countries (in Russian or Ukrainian):
about a dozen major reports were published around
the twentieth anniversary of the accident in April
2006. Reports by the IAEA and WHO differ markedly
in their approach, contents and conclusions to
independent and some national Government
reports. For example, IAEA and WHO reports
(especially the Chernobyl Forum reports(2, 4) in
2005) based their findings mainly on research published
in the west and referred to relatively few of
the thousands of research papers published in
eastern Europe.
From this volume, many eastern European scientists
evidently consider that the IAEA and WHO
fail to acknowledge the scale of Chernobyl’s effects
and refuse to accept that radiation exposures from
Chernobyl’s fallout are the prime cause. The IAEA
often seeks to justify their dismissal of eastern
European reports on Chernobyl by disparaging
eastern scientific protocols. This is an important
issue which is repeatedly referred to by the authors
and as these matters are rarely discussed in refereed
journals, this reviewer examines them below.
For example, the IAEA/WHO(2, 4) have cited
questionable scientific practices in eastern epidemiological
studies, such as poor case identification, nonuniform
registration, variable or uncertain diagnostic
criteria and uncertainties in the uniformity of data
collation. But to be fair, epidemiology is not an
exact science and many of these methodological
shortcomings exist, at least to some extent, in
western epidemiological studies uncriticised by the
IAEA. For example, studies(5, 6) by independent
scientists have shown surprising lapses of standards
in officially sponsored epidemiology studies in the
West. As for cancer registries, not many western
European countries had excellent detailed cancer
registries in 1986.
The IAEA/WHO(2, 4) have also stated that excess
mortality or morbidity may be uncertain due to confounding
factors, competing causes and different risk
projection models. This may be correct, but it is
often the case in western studies as well. Of course,
two wrongs do not make a right, but it is unfair to
single out eastern reports in this regard. However,
one major difficulty in interpreting Chernobyl mortality
studies is the large recent decrease in average
male life spans in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine in all
areas not just contaminated ones: this deserves more
attention in eastern studies.
It is a common practice in the West to test the findings
of epidemiological studies of radiation exposures
for statistical significance. This requires some discussion.
Broadly speaking, there are two types of epidemiological
studies―observational studies of (usually)
expected effects where data may be known beforehand
and analytical studies of (usually) unexpected
or unknown effects where the data are unknown
beforehand. The latter usually have defined hypotheses
that can be tested with formal statistical tests,
thus allowing quantitative conclusions unlikely to be
due to chance and offering some proof of effect.
Statistical tests are often used in the latter, but they
may not be necessary in the former.
The eastern studies are mostly the former observational
type. For example, they typically show cancer
increases in areas of high 137Cs concentrations compared
with areas of low 137Cs concentrations. (The
question of doses is discussed below.) From the
knowledge on radiation’s effects, these findings are
not unexpected. Radiation from exposures to 137Cs
can lead to increased incidences of cancers: it is not
necessary to prove it again via statistical tests as if
these were chance or unexpected findings. Therefore,
many eastern scientists consider that there is little
need to apply p-values and/or confidence intervals to
their observed data. Interestingly, some western scientists(
7–11) have in fact criticised the widespread practice
and inappropriate use of significance testing.
The crux of the matter is that the inappropriate
application and incorrect use of statistical tests
allows IAEA scientists to challenge the findings of
eastern European studies and to question whether
the observed effects are due to chance. The problem
with statistical tests is that if eastern scientists do not
perform them, they are criticised on the grounds that
western scientific norms are being ignored. On the
other hand, if they do apply them and the data sets
are too small for statistical significance (which can
often be the case), western scientists often conclude―
incorrectly―that there is no real effect. This
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catch 22 situation makes it easy to see why, as is
apparent in this volume, eastern European scientists
feel perplexed: they are damned if they do test and
damned if they do not.
The third way is by requiring dose estimates in
order to establish a dose response relationship:
studies not containing dose estimates are usually
thereby rejected. However, as the authors point out,
such demands by western nuclear agencies can be
unreasonable. The authors state that because of official
secrecy and obfuscation, radiation exposures to
liquidators are difficult to reconstruct. This is only
partly true, as western and eastern scientists(12) actually
have reconstructed liquidator doses. It is more
probably the case that, as such dose reconstructions
take much time and are costly, resource restrictions
are the real reason. A more valid reason is that estimates
of internal exposures from ingestion/inhalation
often have major uncertainties as shown by the
report of the UK Government’s CERRIE
Committee(13). Of course, it is always preferable to
have dose estimates even if they are qualified by
uncertainties. It may be possible, for instance, to
look at different groups with low, medium and
higher levels of exposure.
In the views of IAEA andWHO, the large observed
increases in morbidity and mortality are explained
possibly by confounding factors, possibly by other
causes of death, possibly by increased medical surveillance,
possibly by social breakdown and possibly by
psychological depression. However, few studies are
carried out to provide evidence of these assertions.
CONCLUSION
Clearly, there is a continuing and profound difference
of views over Chernobyl’s health effects. Some
readers will disagree with the discussion presented in
this volume and will consider its authors to be too
polemical in their views. On the other hand, others
will concur with the book’s findings. The author’s
view is that there is much valuable information here,
notwithstanding western criticisms of eastern
science’s protocols. This does not necessarily mean
every detailed point in these summaries is accepted
without question. For example, as shown above,
more attention needs to be paid to the large recent
decrease in average male life spans in Belarus,
Russia and Ukraine in all areas not just contaminated
ones. Also greater efforts should be made in
reconstructing doses (and resources be made available
for this), and in estimating individual and collective
doses and discussing their implications for
both eastern and western Europe.
Nevertheless, the publication of summaries of
hundreds of research reports on the health and
environmental consequences of Chernobyl originally
published in Russian and Ukrainian is a welcome
addition to the literature in English. The New York
Academy of Sciences, which states that it ‘ . . . has a
responsibility to provide an open forum for discussion
of scientific questions’, is therefore to be congratulated
for publishing this volume. The English
translations will certainly permit more informed dialogue
to take place.
In the opinion of the reviewer, this volume makes
it clear that international nuclear agencies and some
national authorities remain in denial about the scale
of the health disasters in their countries due to
Chernobyl’s fallout. This is shown by their reluctance
to acknowledge contamination and health outcomes
data, their ascribing observed morbidity/
mortality increases to non-radiation causes, and
their refusal to devote resources to rehabilitation and
disaster management.
Ian Fairlie
Independent Consultant
London N5 2SU, UK
ianfairlie@gmail.com
REFERENCES
1. International Atomic Energy Agency. One decade after
Chernobyl: summing up the consequences of the accident
(Vienna: IAEA) (1996).
2. International Atomic Energy Agency/World Health
Organisation. Health effects of the Chernobyl accident
and special health care programmes. Report of the UN
Chernobyl Forum Expert Group “Health” (EGH)
Working draft. (Vienna: IAEA) 26 July 2005.
3. International Programme on the Health Effects of the
Chernobyl Accident. Health consequences of the
Chernobyl accident, results of the International
Programme on the Health Effects of the Chernobyl
Accident (IPHECA). Summary Report (Geneva:
World Health Organisation) (1995).
4. International Atomic Energy Agency/World Health
Organisation. Environmental consequences of the
Chernobyl accident and their remediation. Report of the
UN Chernobyl Forum Expert Group “Environment”
(EGE) Working draft. August 2005.
5. Fairlie, I and Ko¨rblein, A. Review of epidemiology
studies of childhood leukaemia near nuclear facilities:
commentary on Laurier et al. Radiat. Prot. Dosim.
137(3–4) (2009). doi:10.1093/rpd/ncp246.
6. Ko¨ rblein, A. and Fairlie, I. Commentary on
J. F. Bithell, et al. Childhood leukaemia near British
nuclear installations: methodological issues and recent
results. Radiat. Prot. Dosim. 137(3–4), (2009).
doi:10.1093/rpd/ncp206.
7. Altman, D. G. and Bland, J. M. Absence of evidence is
not evidence of absence. BMJ 311, 485 (1995).
8. Axelson, O. Negative and non-positive epidemiological
studies. Int. J. Occup. Med. Environ. Health 17,
115–121 (2004).
9. Whitley, E. and Ball, J. Statistics review 1: presenting
and summarising data. Crit. Care 6, 66–67 (2002).
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10. Sterne, J. A. C. and Smith, G. D. Sifting the evidence―
what’s wrong with significance tests? Phys. Ther. 81(8),
1464–1469 (2001).
11. Everett, D. C., Taylor, S. and Kafadar, K. Fundamental
concepts in statistics: elucidation and illustration.
J. Appl. Physiol. 85(3), 775–786 (1998).
12. Cardis, E., Anspaugh, L., Ivanov, V. K., Likhtarev, K.,
Mabuchi, A. E., Okeanov, A. E. and Prisyazjhniuk, K.
Estimated long term health effects of the Chernobyl
accident. In: Proceedings of an IAEA Conference One
Decade after Chernobyl: Summing up the Consequences
of the Accident, Vienna, 8–12 April 1996, pp. 241–271
(1996). (See table 1. Estimates of Collective Effective
Doses for Population Groups of Interest.)
13. CERRIE. Report of the Committee Examining
Radiation Risks of Internal Emitters London, October
2004 www.cerrie.org (accessed 12 February 2010).
doi:10.1093/rpd/ncq185
CHERNOBYL: CONSEQUENCES OF THE CATASTROPHE FOR
PEOPLE AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Authors: A.V. Yablokov, V. B. Nesterenko, A. V. Nesterenko [Ann. NYAcad. Sci. 181 (2009);
Consultant Editor: J. D. Sherman-Nevinger].
Published by: Wiley-Blackwell, February 2010.
ISSN: 0077-8923; ISBN-10: 1-57331-757-8;
ISBN-13: 978-1-57331-757-3; 327 pp (2010) $150/£80.00/E92.00.
In the few weeks before I was asked to review this
book there was media coverage of two diametrically
opposed views regarding the magnitude of health
effects associated with the Chernobyl reactor accident.
One is expressed in the book under review and
the other came from Zbigniew Jaworowski (former
chair of the United Nations Scientific Committee on
the Effects of Atomic Radiation, UNSCEAR).The
opposing positions are placed either side of the
‘middle ground’ as expressed by organisations such
as International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),
UNSCEAR and WHO.
In the context of the Chernobyl accident
Jaworowski(1) criticises publications, which use a
linear-no threshold (LNT) dose response to evaluate
cancer risks at very low doses and contrasts predictions
of thousands of late cancer deaths with deficits
(compared with Russian national statistics) of solid
cancers in Russian emergency workers and the
populations of most contaminated areas. He claims
that the application of LNT led to the unnecessary
‘sufferings and pauperisation’ of millions of inhabitants
of contaminated areas. In contrast to the views
of Jaworowski the current book under review by
Yablokov et al., considers that the excess cancer
cases related to the Chernobyl accident have been
grossly underestimated.
In the opinion of this reviewer, the wide range of
estimates that can be found in the scientific literature
is mainly due to different estimates of population
dose, the use of different radiation risk figures and
different interpretations of epidemiological data
( particularly the use of different control groups).
Published estimates of excess deaths also frequently
differ in terms of which countries and time periods
they refer to. This often makes meaningful comparisons
difficult or impossible although it often remains
clear that there is a large disparity between different
authors. With such a range of views, an already vast
and increasing literature, and claims that there has
been coercion on an international scale, how can
professional scientists―such as most readers of this
review―arrive at an informed opinion on the
radiation-related adverse health effects from the
Chernobyl accident? The answer is with great difficulty!
I personally find it necessary to critically read
at least selected contributions from the whole spectrum
of views. For that purpose this book covers the
high cancer mortality tail of the distribution of predictions
of health effects from Chernobyl.
This book is a collection of papers translated from
an earlier publication in 2007in Russian. The book
presents data which it claims have been inexplicably
omitted or inadequately considered by various international
bodies such as IAEA and United Nations
Agencies. It concludes that previous assessments of
adverse health effects arising from the Chernobyl
accident have been grossly under-estimated. The
foreword by Prof. Grodzinsky (Chairman of the
Ukrainian National Commission on Radiation
Protection) proposes an explanation for this omission
in terms of the influence of a pro-nuclear lobby,
which has inhibited the funding of medical studies,
diverted human resources away from Chernobyl
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http://wonkythinking.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Charles-review.pdf
CHERNOBYL: CONSEQUENCES OF THE CATASTROPHE FOR
PEOPLE AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Authors: A.V. Yablokov, V. B. Nesterenko, A. V. Nesterenko [Ann. NYAcad. Sci. 181 (2009);
Consultant Editor: J. D. Sherman-Nevinger].
Published by: Wiley-Blackwell, February 2010.
ISSN: 0077-8923; ISBN-10: 1-57331-757-8;
ISBN-13: 978-1-57331-757-3; 327 pp (2010) $150/£80.00/E92.00.
In the few weeks before I was asked to review this
book there was media coverage of two diametrically
opposed views regarding the magnitude of health
effects associated with the Chernobyl reactor accident.
One is expressed in the book under review and
the other came from Zbigniew Jaworowski (former
chair of the United Nations Scientific Committee on
the Effects of Atomic Radiation, UNSCEAR).The
opposing positions are placed either side of the
‘middle ground’ as expressed by organisations such
as International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),
UNSCEAR and WHO.
In the context of the Chernobyl accident
Jaworowski(1) criticises publications, which use a
linear-no threshold (LNT) dose response to evaluate
cancer risks at very low doses and contrasts predictions
of thousands of late cancer deaths with deficits
(compared with Russian national statistics) of solid
cancers in Russian emergency workers and the
populations of most contaminated areas. He claims
that the application of LNT led to the unnecessary
‘sufferings and pauperisation’ of millions of inhabitants
of contaminated areas. In contrast to the views
of Jaworowski the current book under review by
Yablokov et al., considers that the excess cancer
cases related to the Chernobyl accident have been
grossly underestimated.
In the opinion of this reviewer, the wide range of
estimates that can be found in the scientific literature
is mainly due to different estimates of population
dose, the use of different radiation risk figures and
different interpretations of epidemiological data
( particularly the use of different control groups).
Published estimates of excess deaths also frequently
differ in terms of which countries and time periods
they refer to. This often makes meaningful comparisons
difficult or impossible although it often remains
clear that there is a large disparity between different
authors. With such a range of views, an already vast
and increasing literature, and claims that there has
been coercion on an international scale, how can
professional scientists―such as most readers of this
review―arrive at an informed opinion on the
radiation-related adverse health effects from the
Chernobyl accident? The answer is with great difficulty!
I personally find it necessary to critically read
at least selected contributions from the whole spectrum
of views. For that purpose this book covers the
high cancer mortality tail of the distribution of predictions
of health effects from Chernobyl.
This book is a collection of papers translated from
an earlier publication in 2007in Russian. The book
presents data which it claims have been inexplicably
omitted or inadequately considered by various international
bodies such as IAEA and United Nations
Agencies. It concludes that previous assessments of
adverse health effects arising from the Chernobyl
accident have been grossly under-estimated. The
foreword by Prof. Grodzinsky (Chairman of the
Ukrainian National Commission on Radiation
Protection) proposes an explanation for this omission
in terms of the influence of a pro-nuclear lobby,
which has inhibited the funding of medical studies,
diverted human resources away from Chernobyl
BOOK REVIEWS
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studies and has ‘liquidated government bodies that
were in charge of the affairs of Chernobyl’. The
views of the authors are similarly expressed in their
introduction and throughout the text. The introduction
explains that the book has its origins in the two
conflicting evaluations of Chernobyl health effects
published in 2006 around the time of the 20th anniversary
of the Chernobyl accident (26 April 1986).
Some appreciation of this history is useful to understand
the context of this book. One of the conflicting
evaluations was by the Chernobyl Forum, an
expert scientific panel that was created in 2001 by
the Director of the IAEA to conduct an exhaustive
assessment of the health, environmental and social
impacts of the accident. The other evaluation was
by Greenpeace, an international non-governmental
organisation with a strong anti-nuclear stance.
The Chernobyl Forum summary report is available
online at: http://www.iaea.org/Publications/
Booklets/Chernobyl/chernobyl.pdf or http://hps.
org/documents/chernobyl_legacy_booklet.pdf.
Technical background papers of the Chernobyl
Forum were presented at an IAEA conference in
2006 and are available in the conference proceedings
online at: http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/
publications/PDF/Pub1312_web.pdf.
The report by Greenpeace, The Chernobyl
Catastrophe: Consequences on Human Health
(edited by A. Yablokov, I. Labunska and I. Blokov)
is available online at http://hps.org/documents/
greenpeace_chernobyl_health_report.pdf.
In the Chernobyl Forum Cardis(2) gives a figure of
about 4200 for the lifetime excess cancer deaths in a
605 000 population of the highest contaminated
areas in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. With the
inclusion of a further 6.8 million people in other
contaminated areas of Eastern Europe (average
doses 7 mSv) the excess increased to about 9000.
Background cancer deaths for comparison were
given as 109 000 and 936 000, respectively.
Greenpeace give numerous numbers for excess incidence
and mortality of a wide range of diseases but
in many cases it is not stated over what period the
excess cancer risk is integrated. It is therefore not
possible to easily compare on an equal basis the
claims of the Greenpeace report with the predictions
of the Chernobyl Forum but it is clear that
Greenpeace’s predictions are significantly higher―
probably by a factor of 3–10.
Greenpeace describes their report as involving ‘52
respected scientists and includes information never
before published in English. It challenges the UN
International Atomic Energy Agency Chernobyl
Forum report as a gross simplification of the real
breadth of human suffering’. The Greenpeace
approach is primarily to link temporal changes in
health statistics after 1986 in Belarus, the Ukraine
and other countries with the Chernobyl accident.
That is, all increases in disease, regardless of type,
are assumed to be the result of the Chernobyl accident.
The Greenpeace report covers many
non-cancer illnesses that have not been observed as
radiation-induced diseases even in studies of highly
exposed radiation populations but they claim that
the Chernobyl accident is ‘unique’ and, therefore, illnesses
for which there is no known association with
radiation may be the result of the radiation exposure
from Chernobyl. Such an approach is also confounded
by temporal and regional changes in health
statistics that pre-dated the Chernobyl accident.
During the production of the reports from the
Chernobyl Forum and Greenpeace, a vast body of
previously unknown data began to emerge in the
form of publications, reports, theses, etc. from
Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, much of it in Slavic
languages. Little of these data appears to have been
incorporated into the international literature. The
quality of these publications and whether they would
sustain critical peer-review in the western scientific
literature is unknown.
The book by Yablokov et al. is part of an attempt
to summarise these new findings and include them
to extend the findings of the Greenpeace report.
About 1000 of these translated titles are referred to
among the more than 1400 references included in
the volume. The longest section 5 on non-malignant
diseases has over 500 references and about 85% are
in Russian or Ukrainian. It is said that these new
references ‘reflect’ more than 5000 printed and internet
publications. There are claimed to be more than
30,000 of these types of publications, mainly in
Slavic languages, related to the consequences of
Chernobyl―the majority presumably remaining
inaccessible to the western reader. There is clearly a
massive overload of information―which we are all
becoming used to on the internet in everyday life. It
is not at all clear how these many sources have been
used by Yablokov et al. and how they have influenced
the conclusions made. This is not an issue
related to Chernobyl alone. When I first visited
Russia in 1982 as part of a UK-USSR Health
Ministry exchange I was made aware of a very valuable
and extensive literature in the fields of hot particle
and neutron radiobiology research. These were
mainly in Russian and published in obscure journals.
I offered to facilitate publication in the west of the
most important papers but the political situation at
the time prevented this. The literature remains
largely unknown in the west.
The one thing that both the Chernobyl Forum
and the Greenpeace reports agree on is the fact that
trying to estimate the health consequences from
Chernobyl is extremely uncertain and may not, in
fact, be possible. The Chernobyl Forum states, ‘It is
impossible to assess reliably, with any precision,
numbers of fatal cancers caused by radiation
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exposure due to the Chernobyl accident―or indeed
the impact of the stress and anxiety induced by the
accident and the response to it. Small differences in
the assumptions concerning radiation risks can lead
to large differences in the predicted health consequences,
which are therefore highly uncertain’.
Greenpeace notes, ‘It is widely acknowledged that
neither the available data nor current epidemiological
methodology allows holistic and robust estimations
of the death toll caused by the Chernobyl
accident’. This is an important point. During my 40
year carer in radiation protection I have observed
fierce arguments (mainly related to differences of
opinion on the magnitude of radiation risks) which
have turned out in the fullness of time to be merely
reflections of the large uncertainties inherent in the
data. In recent years it has become an integral part
of the deliberations of international organisations
such as the ICRP to consider the impact of uncertainties
in their evaluations.
The book by Yablokov (Volume 1181 of the
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences) is a
327-page volume and is an English translation of a
2007 publication in Russian by the same authors
titled ‘Chernobyl’. This previous publication and
some apparent concerns about possible ensuing controversy
were referred to in an interesting statement
on the New York Academy of Sciences web site.
‘The Annals of the New York Academy of
Sciences issue Chernobyl: Consequences of the
Catastrophe for People and the Environment’,
therefore, does not present new, unpublished
work, nor is it a work commissioned by the
New York Academy of Sciences. The expressed
views of the authors, or by advocacy groups or
individuals with specific opinions about the
Annals Chernobyl volume, are their own.
Although the New York Academy of Sciences
believes it has a responsibility to provide open
forums for discussion of scientific questions, the
Academy has no intent to influence legislation
by providing such forums. The Academy is
committed to publishing content deemed scientifically
valid by the general scientific community,
from whom the Academy carefully
monitors feedback’.
Having described the origins of this book and given
some references to alternative opinions the interested
reader will hopefully be able to draw a balanced
view as far as is possible on this complex subject. So
what information does the book provide?
The book contains 15 sections grouped into four
chapters.
(I) Chernobyl contamination: an overview
(II) Consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe
for public health
(III) Consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe
for the environment
(IV) Radiation protection after the Chernobyl
catastrophe
Alexey Yablokov is sole author of the six sections of
chapters II and three of the four sections of chapter
III. He shares most of the other sections with Alexey
and Vassily Nesterenko. There is unfortunately no
index to the book. An online index is said to be
available but I presume this is limited to members of
the New York Academy of Sciences.
The preface provides a useful summary of the
Chernobyl literature. The introduction addresses the
issue of why assessments of health effects from
Chernobyl are so disparate. The authors disparage the
approach favoured by the majority of the epidemiology
community, which seeks a correlation of health
effects with levels of contamination or dose. They
believe this approach is ‘impossible’ due to lack of
measurements in the first few days, lack of information
on ‘hot spots’ and lack of information on all of the
isotopes involved. They consider that the USSR authorities
distorted links between health effects and radiation
exposure and they prefer therefore to rely on
what they consider are independent investigations of
comparative health measures in various territories that
they consider are identical in terms of ethnic, social
and economic characteristics and differ only in the
exposure to radiation. The authors believe it is unreasonable
to attribute the increased occurrence of
disease in the contaminated territories to screening or
socioeconomic factors (as considered by UNSCEAR)
because they consider the only variable properly significant
for this purpose should be radioactive contamination.
This methodology does not seem to
account for differences between territories that predate
the Chernobyl accident.
Chapter I has only one section, which covers an
assessment of ‘Chernobyl contamination through
space and time’. Concern is expressed regarding lack
of knowledge on doses incurred soon after the accident
from short-lived emitters and the effects of lead
contamination arising from its use in fire-fighting
operations. The problem of ‘hot particles’ is raised―
a topic which I have spent 30 years researching. The
discussion is cursory and does not include a wide
range of peer-reviewed research publications in this
field relating to dosimetry and biological effects of
hot particles―including important contributions
from Eastern Europe and Russia. Population dose is
considered but it is not obvious which value the
authors favour. The authors rely heavily on a review
published in 2006 by Fairlie and Sumner(3) where the
highest collective dose estimates are from the US
Department of Energy and UNSCEAR (930 000 and
600 000 Person-Sv, respectively for the world up to
2056) rather than figures, which have included any
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input from the new Eastern European literature that
is supposedly influential in driving the authors’ views.
Chapter II has six sections and 190 pages―60% of
the whole book. The sections include public health
consequences, general morbidity, accelerated aging,
non-malignant disease, oncological diseases and mortality.
Leukaemia, thyroid and other cancers are considered
separately for Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. I
found this a very difficult read. Numerous facts and
figures are given with a range of references but with
little explanation and little critical evaluation.
Apparently related tables, figures and statements,
which refer to particular publications often disagree
with one another. The section on oncological diseases
(cancer) was of most interest to me. A section abstract
indicated that on the basis of doses from 131I and
137Cs; a comparison of cancer mortality in the
heavily and less contaminated territories; and preand
post-Chernobyl cancer levels, the predicted radiation-
related cancer deaths in Europe would be
212 000–245 000 and 19 000 in the remainder of the
world. I could not however find any specific discussion
within the section to support these numbers. The
section ends with an endorsement of the work of
Malko(4) who has estimated 10 000–40 000 additional
deaths from thyroid cancer, 40 000–120 000 deaths
from the other malignant tumours and 5000–14 000
deaths from leukaemia―a total of 55 000–174 000
deaths from 1986 to 2056 in the whole of Europe,
including Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. These
numbers confusingly, do not agree with a table (6.21)
from the same author. The final section on overall
mortality contains a table (7.11), which includes an
estimate of 212 000 additional deaths in highly contaminated
regions of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.
This figure is for the period of 1990–2004, and is
based on an assumption that 3.8–4.0% of all deaths
in the contaminated territories being due to the
Chernobyl accident. One is left unsure about the
meaning of many of these numbers and which is preferred.
Considerable effort would be required to
consult a large number of the source documents to
check the veracity of the numerical estimates and the
conclusions drawn. I have for example tried to obtain
ref. (4) of Malko without success. It is clear however
that the thrust of the authors’ arguments is that they
believe the Chernobyl Forum numbers for excess
cancer mortality are significantly underestimated.
Chapter III deals with consequences for the
environment and is made up of four sections dealing
with activity levels in water/soil/atmosphere, impact
on flora, impact on fauna and impact on microbial
biota. It is claimed that ‘Chernobyl irradiation’ has
caused structural anomalies and tumour-like
changes in many plant species. Unique pathologic
complexes are also reported such as anomalous
pollen grains and spores. Genetic disorders, sometimes
continuing for many years, and ‘awakened’
genes that have long been silent over evolutionary
time are reported. Long-term observations of both
wild and experimental animal populations in the
heavily contaminated areas show significant
increases in morbidity and mortality that are considered
to resemble the changes in the health of
humans in these areas.
Chapter IV deals with radiation protection after the
accident and is made up of four sections dealing with
contamination of food and people, reduction of levels
of internal emitters (decorporation), protective
measures and consequences for public health and the
environment. The most useful discussions appear to be
those describing decorporation experience such as the
use of meat additives (ferrocyanides, zeolites and
mineral salts) and claimed dramatic reductions of
incorporated 137Cs in children with the use of pectinbased
food and drinks (using apples, currants, grapes,
seaweed, etc.). It is not surprising that this chapter calls
for extensive international help, especially in Belarus,
in view of the evaluations it has made regarding the
increased levels of health effects and environmental
impact from ongoing radioactive contamination.
The subject is not yet closed. Later in 2010
UNSCEAR are due to publish an update of the
health effects of Chernobyl. It will be interesting to
see to what extent it can take on board any of the
recent new data such as that referred to in this book.
Monty Charles
School of Physics andAstronomy, University of
Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK.
M.W.Charles@bham.ac.uk
REFERENCES
1. Jaworowski, Z. Observations on the Chernobyl disaster
and LNT, In: Dose Response. pp. 148–171 (2010).
2. Cardis, E. Cancer effects of the Chernobyl accident in
Chernobyl: looking back to go forward 2005. Conference
Proceedings STI/PUB/312, (Vienna: IAEA) 2008, pp.
77–102.
3. Fairlie, I. and Sumner, D. The other report on Chernobyl
(TORCH). An independent scientific evaluation of
health and environmental effects 20 years after the
nuclear disaster providing critical analysis of a recent
report by the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) and the World Health Organisation (WHO). A
report commissioned by the European Parliament
Greens/EFA Party. Altner Combecher Foundation
(2006). Available on http://www.chernobylreport.org/
torch.pdf.
4. Malko, M. V. Assessment of Chernobyl medical consequences
accident. In: The Health Effects of the Human
Victims of the Chernobyl Catastrophe: Collection of
Scientific Articles. Blokov, I., Sadownichik, T., Labunska,
I. and Volkov, I., Eds. (Amsterdam: Greenpeace
International, Amsterdam) pp. 194–235 (2007).
BOOK REVIEWS
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Chernobyl
Consequences of the Catastrophe for
People and the Environment

ANNALS OF THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Volume 1181
Chernobyl
Consequences of the Catastrophe for
People and the Environment
ALEXEY V. YABLOKOV
VASSILY B. NESTERENKO
ALEXEY V. NESTERENKO
Consulting Editor
JANETTE D. SHERMAN-NEVINGER
Published by Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the New York Academy of Sciences
Boston, Massachusetts
2009
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ISSN: 0077-8923 (print); 1749-6632 (online)
ISBN-10: 1-57331-757-8; ISBN-13: 978-1-57331-757-3
A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ANNALS OF THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Volume 1181
Chernobyl
Consequences of the Catastrophe for People
and the Environment
ALEXEY V. YABLOKOV, VASSILY B. NESTERENKO, AND ALEXEY V. NESTERENKO
Consulting Editor
JANETTE D. SHERMAN-NEVINGER
CONTENTS
Foreword. By Prof. Dr. Biol. DimitroM. Grodzinsky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Preface. By Alexey V. Yablokov and Vassily B. Nesterenko . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv
Introduction: The Difficult Truth about Chernobyl. By Alexey V. Nesterenko,
Vassily B. Nesterenko, and Alexey V. Yablokov . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Chapter I. Chernobyl Contamination: An Overview
1. Chernobyl Contamination through Time and Space. By Alexey V. Yablokov
and Vassily B. Nesterenko . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Chapter II. Consequences of the Chernobyl Catastrophe
for Public Health
2. Chernobyl’s Public Health Consequences: Some Methodological Problems.
By Alexey V. Yablokov . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3. General Morbidity, Impairment, and Disability after the Chernobyl
Catastrophe. By Alexey V. Yablokov . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4. Accelerated Aging as a Consequence of the Chernobyl Catastrophe. By Alexey
V. Yablokov . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
5. Nonmalignant Diseases after the Chernobyl Catastrophe. By Alexey V.
Yablokov . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
6. Oncological Diseases after the Chernobyl Catastrophe. By Alexey V.
Yablokov . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
7. Mortality after the Chernobyl Catastrophe. By Alexey V. Yablokov . . . . . . . . . . 192
Conclusion to Chapter II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
v
vi Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
Chapter III. Consequences of the Chernobyl Catastrophe
for the Environment
8. Atmospheric, Water, and Soil Contamination after Chernobyl. By Alexey V.
Yablokov, Vassily B. Nesterenko, and Alexey V. Nesterenko . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
9. Chernobyl’s Radioactive Impact on Flora. By Alexey V. Yablokov . . . . . . . . . . . 237
10. Chernobyl’s Radioactive Impact on Fauna. By Alexey V. Yablokov . . . . . . . . . . 255
11. Chernobyl’s Radioactive Impact on Microbial Biota. By Alexey V.
Yablokov . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Conclusion to Chapter III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Chapter IV. Radiation Protection after the Chernobyl Catastrophe
12. Chernobyl’s Radioactive Contamination of Food and People. By Alexey V.
Nesterenko, Vassily B. Nesterenko, and Alexey V. Yablokov . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
13. Decorporation of Chernobyl Radionuclides. By Vassily B. Nesterenko and
Alexey V. Nesterenko . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
14. Protective Measures for Activities in Chernobyl’s Radioactively Contaminated
Territories. By Alexey V. Nesterenko and Vassily B. Nesterenko . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
15. Consequences of the Chernobyl Catastrophe for Public Health and the
Environment 23 Years Later. By Alexey V. Yablokov, Vassily B. Nesterenko,
and Alexey V. Nesterenko . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Conclusion to Chapter IV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
The New York Academy of Sciences believes it has a responsibility to provide an open forum for
discussion of scientific questions. The positions taken by the participants in the reported conferences are
their own and not necessarily those of the Academy. The Academy has no intent to influence legislation
by providing such forums.
CHERNOBYL
Foreword
More than 22 years have passed since the Chernobyl catastrophe burst upon and
changed our world. In just a few days, the air, natural waters, flowers, trees, woods,
rivers, and seas turned to potential sources of danger to people, as radioactive substances
emitted by the destroyed reactor fell upon all life. Throughout the Northern Hemisphere
radioactivity covered most living spaces and became a source of potential harm for all
living things.
Naturally, just after the failure, public response was very strong and demonstrated
mistrust of atomic engineering. A number of countries decided to stop the construction
of new nuclear power stations. The enormous expenses required to mitigate the negative
consequences ofChernobyl at once “raised the price” of nuclear-generated electric power.
This response disturbed the governments of many countries, international organizations,
and official bodies in charge of nuclear technology and led to a paradoxical polarization
as to how to address the issues of those injured by the Chernobyl catastrophe and the
effects of chronic irradiation on the health of people living in contaminated areas.
Owing to the polarization of the problem, instead of organizing an objective and
comprehensive study of the radiological and radiobiological phenomena induced by
small doses of radiation, anticipating possible negative consequences, and taking adequate
measures, insofar as possible, to protect the population from possible negative effects,
apologists of nuclear power began a blackout on data concerning the actual amounts of
radioactive emissions, the doses of radiation, and the increasing morbidity among the
people that were affected.
When it became impossible to hide the obvious increase in radiation-related diseases,
attempts were made to explain it away as being a result of nationwide fear. At the
same time some concepts of modern radiobiology were suddenly revised. For example,
contrary to elementary observations about the nature of the primary interactions of
ionizing radiation and the molecular structure of cells, a campaign began to deny nonthreshold
radiation effects. On the basis of the effects of small doses of radiation in some
nonhuman systems where hormesis was noted, some scientists began to insist that such
doses from Chernobyl would actually benefit humans and all other living things.
The apogee of this situation was reached in 2006 on the 20th anniversary of the
Chernobyl meltdown. By that time the health and quality of life had decreased for
millions of people. In April 2006 in Kiev, Ukraine, two international conferences were
held in venues close to one another: one was convened by supporters of atomic energy
and the other by a number of international organizations alarmed by the true state
of health of those affected by the Chernobyl catastrophe. The decision of the first
conference has not been accepted up to now because the Ukrainian party disagrees
with its extremely optimistic positions. The second conference unanimously agreed that
radioactive contamination of large areas is accompanied by distinctly negative health
consequences for the populations and predicted increased risk of radiogenic diseases in
European countries in the coming years.
vii
viii Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
For a long time I have thought that the time has come to put an end to the opposition
between technocracy advocates and those who support objective scientific approaches
to estimate the negative risks for people exposed to the Chernobyl fallout. The basis for
believing that these risks are not minor is very convincing.
Declassified documents of that time issued by Soviet Union/Ukraine governmental
commissions in regard to the first decade after 1986 contain data on a number of
people who were hospitalized with acute radiation sickness. The number is greater by
two orders of magnitude than was recently quoted in official documents. How can we
understand this difference in calculating the numbers of individuals who are ill as a
result of irradiation? It is groundless to think that the doctors’ diagnoses were universally
wrong. Many knew in the first 10-day period after the meltdown that diseases of the
nasopharynx were widespread.We do not know the quantity or dose of hot particles that
settled in the nasopharyngeal epithelium to cause this syndrome. They were probably
higher than the accepted figures.
To estimate doses of the Chernobyl catastrophe over the course of a year, it is critical to
consider the irradiation contributed by ground and foliage fallout, which contaminated
various forms of food with short-half-life radionuclides. Even in 1987 activity of some of
the radionuclides exceeded the contamination by Cs-137 and Sr-90. Thus decisions to
calculate dose only on the scale of Cs-137 radiation led to obvious underestimation of
the actual accumulated effective doses. Internal radiation doses were defined on the basis
of the activity in milk and potatoes for different areas. Thus in the Ukrainian Poles’e
region, where mushrooms and other forest products make up a sizable share of the food
consumed, the radioactivity was not considered.
The biological efficiency of cytogenic effects varies depending onwhether the radiation
is external or internal: internal radiation causes greater damage, a fact also neglected.
Thus, there is reason to believe that doses of irradiation have not been properly estimated,
especially for the first year after the reactor’s failure. Data on the growth of morbidity
over two decades after the catastrophe confirm this conclusion. First of all, there are
very concrete data about malignant thyroid disease in children, so even supporters of
“radiophobia” as the principal cause of disease do not deny it. With the passage of time,
oncological diseases with longer latency periods, in particular, breast and lung cancers’,
became more frequent.
Fromyear to year there has been an increase in nonmalignant diseases,which has raised
the incidence of overall morbidity in children in areas affected by the catastrophe, and
the percent of practically healthy children has continued to decrease. For example, in Kiev,
Ukraine, where before the meltdown, up to 90% of children were considered healthy, the
figure is now 20%. In some Ukrainian Poles’e territories, there are no healthy children,
and morbidity has essentially increased for all age groups. The frequency of disease has
increased several times since the accident at Chernobyl. Increased cardiovascular disease
with increased frequency of heart attacks and ischemic disease are evident. Average
life expectancy is accordingly reduced. Diseases of the central nervous system in both
children and adults are cause for concern. The incidence of eye problems, particularly
cataracts, has increased sharply. Causes for alarmare complications of pregnancy and the
state of health of children born to so-called “liquidators” (Chernobyl’s cleanup workers)
and evacuees from zones of high radionuclide contamination.
Against the background of such persuasive data, some defenders of atomic energy
look specious as they deny the obvious negative effects of radiation upon populations. In
Grodzinsky: Foreword ix
fact, their reactions include almost complete refusal to fund medical and biological studies,
even liquidating government bodies that were in charge of the “affairs of Chernobyl.”
Under pressure from the nuclear lobby, officials have also diverted scientific personnel
away from studying the problems caused by Chernobyl.
Rapid progress in biology and medicine is a source of hope in finding ways to prevent
many diseases caused by exposure to chronic nuclear radiation, and this research will
advance much more quickly if it is carried out against the background of experience that
Ukrainian, Belarussian, and Russian scientists and physicians gained after the Chernobyl
catastrophe. It would be very wrong to neglect the opportunities that are open to us today.
Wemust look toward the day that unbiased objectivity will win out and lead to unqualified
support for efforts to determine the influence of the Chernobyl catastrophe on the health
of people and biodiversity and shape our approach to future technological progress and
general moral attitudes. We must hope and trust that this will happen.
The present volume probably provides the largest and most complete collection of
data concerning the negative consequences of Chernobyl on the health of people and
on the environment. Information in this volume shows that these consequences do not
decrease, but, in fact, are increasing and will continue to do so into the future. The main
conclusion of the book is that it is impossible and wrong “to forget Chernobyl.” Over
the next several future generations the health of people and of nature will continue to be
adversely impacted.
PROF. DR. BIOL. DIMITRO M. GRODZINSKY
Chairman, Department of General Biology, Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences,
Chairman, Ukrainian National Commission on Radiation Protection
CHERNOBYL
Preface
The principal idea behind this volume is to present, in a brief and systematic form,
the results from researchers who observed and documented the consequences of the
Chernobyl catastrophe. In our view, the need for such an analysis became especially
important after September 2005 when the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
and the World Health Organization (WHO) presented and widely advertised “The
Chernobyl Forum” report [IAEA (2006), The Chernobyl Legacy: Health, Environment
and Socio-Economic Impact and Recommendation to the Governments of Belarus,
the Russian Federation and Ukraine 2nd Rev. Ed. (IAEA, Vienna): 50 pp.] because
it lacked sufficiently detailed facts concerning the consequences of the disaster
(http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Booklets/Chernobyl/chernobyl.pdf ).
Stimulated by the IAEA/WHO “Chernobyl Forum” report, and before the 20th
anniversary of the Chernobyl catastrophe, with the initiative of Greenpeace International,
many experts, mostly from Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia (see the list below),
presented their latest data/publications on the consequences of Chernobyl. Greenpeace
International also collected hundreds of Chernobyl publications and doctoral theses.
These materials were added to the Chernobyl literature collected over the years by
Alexey Yablokov [A. V. Yablokov (2001): Myth of the Insignificance of the Consequences of
the Chernobyl Catastrophe (Center for Russian Environmental Policy, Moscow): 112 pp.
(//www.seu.ru/programs/atomsafe/books/mif_3.pdf ) (in Russian)].
Just before the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl catastrophe, on April 18, 2006,
the report “The Chernobyl Catastrophe–Consequences on Human Health” was published
by A. Yablokov, I. Labunska, and I. Blokov (Eds.) (Greenpeace, Amsterdam, 2006,
137 pp.; www.greenpeace.org/international/press/reports/chernobylhealthreport). For
technical reasons, it was not possible to include all of the above-mentioned material
in that book. Thus part of this original material was published as “The Health
Effects of the Human Victims of the Chernobyl Catastrophe: Collection of Scientific
Articles,” I. Blokov, T. Sadownichik, I. Labunska, and I. Volkov (Eds.) (Greenpeace,
Amsterdam, 2007, 235 pp.; http://www.greenpeace.to/publications.asp#2007).
In 2006 multiple conferences were convened in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Germany,
Switzerland, the United States, and other countries devoted to the 20th
anniversary of the Chernobyl catastrophe, and many reports with new materials
concerning the consequences of the meltdown were published. Among
them:
• “The Other Report on Chernobyl (TORCH)” [I. Fairly and D. Sumner (2006),
Berlin, 90 pp.].
• “Chernobyl Accident’s Consequences: An Estimation and the Forecast of Additional
General Mortality and Malignant Diseases” [Center of Independent Ecological
Assessment, Russian Academy of Science, and Russian Greenpeace Council (2006),
Moscow, 24 pp.].
x
Yablokov & Nesterenko: Preface xi
• Chernobyl: 20 Years On. Health Effects of the Chernobyl Accident [C. C. Busby and A.V.
Yablokov (Eds.) (2006), European Committee on Radiation Risk, Green Audit,
Aberystwyth, 250 pp.].
• Chernobyl. 20 Years After. Myth and Truth [A. Yablokov, R. Braun, and U. Watermann
(Eds.) (2006), Agenda Verlag, M¨unster, 217 pp.].
• “Health Effects of Chernobyl: 20 Years after the Reactor Catastrophe” [S. Pflugbeil
et al. (2006), German IPPNW, Berlin, 76 pp.].
• Twenty Years after the Chernobyl Accident: Future Outlook [Contributed Papers
to International Conference. April 24–26, 2006. Kiev, Ukraine, vol. 1–3, HOLTEH
Kiev, www.tesec-int.org/T1.pdf].
• TwentyYears ofChernobyl Catastrophe: Ecological and Sociological Lessons.Materials
of the International Scientific and Practical Conference. June 5, 2006, Moscow,
305 pp., www.ecopolicy.ru/upload/File/conferencebook_2006.pdf, (in Russian).
• National Belarussian Report (2006). Twenty Years after the Chernobyl Catastrophe:
Consequences in Belarus and Overcoming the Obstacles. Shevchyuk, V. E, &
Gurachevsky, V. L. (Eds.), Belarus Publishers, Minsk, 112 pp. (in Russian).
• National Ukrainian Report (2006). Twenty Years of Chernobyl Catastrophe: Future
Outlook. Kiev, http://www.mns.gov.ua/news show.php?news id=614&p=1.
• National Russian Report (2006). Twenty Years of Chernobyl Catastrophe: Results
and Perspective on Efforts to Overcome Its Consequences in Russia, 1986–2006.
Shoigu, S. K. & Bol’shov, L. A. (Eds.), Ministry of Emergencies, Moscow, 92 pp. (in
Russian).
The scientific literature on the consequences of the catastrophe now includes more
than 30,000 publications, mainly in Slavic languages. Millions of documents/materials
exist in various Internet information systems―descriptions, memoirs, maps, photos, etc.
For example in GOOGLE there are 14.5 million; in YANDEX, 1.87 million; and in
RAMBLER, 1.25 million citations. There are many special Chernobyl Internet portals,
especially numerous for “Children of Chernobyl” and for the Chernobyl Cleanup
Workers (“Liquidators so called”) organizations. The Chernobyl Digest―scientific abstract
collections―was published in Minsk with the participation of many Byelorussian and
Russian scientific institutes and includes several thousand annotated publications dating
to 1990. At the same time the IAEA/WHO “Chernobyl Forum” Report (2005), advertised
by WHO and IAEA as “the fullest and objective review” of the consequences of
the Chernobyl accident, mentions only 350 mainly English publications.
The list of the literature incorporated into the present volume includes about 1,000
titles and reflects more than 5,000 printed and Internet publications, primarily in Slavic
languages. However, the authors apologize in advance to those colleagues whose papers
addressing the consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe are not mentioned in this
review―to list all papers is physically impossible.
The authors of the separate parts of this volume are:
• Chapter I: Cherbobyl Contamination: An Overview―A. V. Yablokov and V. B.
Nesterenko;
• Chapter II: Consequences of the Chernobyl Catastrophe for Public Health―A. V.
Yablokov;
• Chapter III: Consequences of the Chernobyl Catastrophe for the Environment―
A. V. Yablokov, V. B. Nesterenko, and A. V. Nesterenko;
xii Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
• Chapter IV: Radiation Protection after the Chernobyl Catastrophe―A. V.
Nesterenko, V. B. Nesterenko, and A. V. Yablokov.
The final text was coordinated by all authors and expresses their common viewpoint.
Some important editorial remarks:
1. Specific facts are presented in the form that has long been accepted by the United
Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR)―
itemized by numbered paragraphs.
2. The words “Chernobyl contamination,” “contamination,” “contaminated territories,”
and “Chernobyl territories” mean the radioactive contamination caused by
radionuclide fallout as a result of the Chernobyl catastrophe. Such expressions as
“distribution of diseases in territory. . .” mean occurrence of diseases in the population
of the specified territory.
3. The word “catastrophe” means the release of numerous radionuclides into the
atmosphere and underground water as a result of the explosion of the fourth reactor
at the Chernobyl nuclear power station (Ukraine), which started on April 26, 1986
and continued thereafter.
4. The expressions “weak,” “low,” and “high” (“heavy”) radioactive contamination
usually indicate a comparison among officially designated different levels of radioactive
contamination in the territories: less than 1 Ci/km2 (4.6 4.5 5.67
Te-132 (3.26 d/32.6 d) ∼37.1 31 A lot of 27.0
Xe-133 (5.3 d/53 d) 175.7 180 170 175.5
I-131 (8.04 d/2.7 mo) ∼47.6 48 >85b 32.4–45.9
Ba-140 (12.8 d/4.3 mo) 6.5 6.4 4.59
Cs-136 (12.98 d/4.3 mo) 0.644a
Ce-141 (32.5 d/10.8 mo) 5.3 5.3 5.40
Ru-103 (39.4 d/1 y 1 mo) >4.6 4.5 4.59
Sr-89 (50.6 d/1.39 y) ∼3.1 3.1 2.19
Zr-95 (64.0 d/1.75 y) 5.3 5.3 4.59
Cm-242 (162.8 d/4.6 y) ∼0.024 0.024 0.025
Ce-144 (284 d/7.8 y) ∼3.1 3.1 3.78
Ru-106 (367 d/10 y) >1.97 2.0 0.81
Cs-134 (2.06 y/20.6 y) ∼1.5 1.5 ― 1.19–1.30
Kr-85 (10.7 y/107 y) 0.89 ― ― 0.89
Pu-241 (14.7 y/147 y) ∼0.16 0.16 0.078
Sr-90 (28.5 y/285 y) ∼0.27 0.27 0.22
Cs-137 (30.1 y/301 y) ∼2.3 l2.3 c 1.89–2.30
Pu-238 (86.4 y/864 y) 0.001 0.001 ― 0.0001
Pu-240 (6,553 y/65,530 y) 0.001 0.001 0.001
Pu-239 (24,100 y/241,000 y) 0.023 0.001 0.0001
aCort and Tsaturov (1998).
bNesterenko (1996)―more than 100.
cNesterenko (1996)―total emission of Cs-136 and Cs-137 is up to 420 ×1015 Bq (1.14 × 106 Ci).
1.4. Ecological Features
of Contamination
The three most important factors in connection
with the Chernobyl contamination for
nature and public health are: spotty/uneven
deposits of contamination, the impact of “hot
particles,” and bioaccumulation of radionuclides
(also see Chapter III).
1.4.1. Uneven/Spotty Contamination
Until now the uneven/spotty distribution of
the Chernobyl radioactive fallout has attracted
too little attention. Aerogamma studies, upon
which most maps of contamination are based,
give only average values of radioactivity for
200–400 m of a route, so small, local, highly
radioactive “hot spots” can exist without being
marked. The character of actual contamination
of an area is shown on Figure 1.15. As can
be seen, a distance of 10 m can make a sharp
difference in radionuclide concentrations.
“Public health services of the French department
Vosges found out that a hog hit by one of local
hunters ‘was glowing.’ Experts, armed with supermodern
equipment, conveyed a message even
more disturbing: practically the entire mountain
where the dead animal had just run is radioactive at
a level from 12,000 to 24,000 Bq/m2. For comparison,
the European norm is 600 Bq/m2. It was remembered
that radioactivemushroomswere found
20 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
Figure 1.15. Spotty concentration (Ci/km2) of Cs-137 (above) and Ce-144 (below) in
the forest bedding in the 30-km Chernobyl zone. Scale 1:600 (Tscheglov, 1999).
in these forests last autumn. The level of Cs-137
in chanterelles, boleros and stalks of mushrooms
exceeded the norm by approximately forty times
. . .” (Chykin, 1997)
There is still uncertainty in regard to contamination
not only by Cs-137 and Sr-90, but
also by other radionuclides, including beta and
alpha emitters. Detailed mapping of territories
for the varying spectra of radioactive contamination
could not be done owing to the impossibility
of fast remote detection of beta and alpha
radionuclides.
Typical Chernobyl hot spots measure tens
to hundreds of meters across and have levels
Yablokov & Nesterenko: Contamination through Time and Space 21
of radioactivity ten times higher than the surrounding
areas. The concentration density of
Cs-137 can have several different values even
within the limits of the nutrient area of a single
tree (Krasnov et al., 1997). In Poland, Ru-106
was the predominant hot spot nuclide in 1986,
although a few hot spots were due to Ba-140 or
La-140 (Rich, 1986).
Figure 1.16. shows distinct large-scale spotty
radioactive distribution of Sb, Cs, and Ag in
areas of continental Greece.
1.4.2. Problem of “Hot Particles”
A fundamental complexity in estimating the
levels of Chernobyl radioactive contamination
is the problem of so-called “hot particles” or
“Chernobyl dust.”When the reactor exploded,
it expelled not only gases and aerosols (the products
of splitting of U (Cs-137, Sr-90, Pu, etc.),
but also particles of U fuel melted together
with other radionuclides―firm hot particles.
Near the Chernobyl NPP, heavy large particles
of U and Pu dropped out. Areas of Hungary,
Germany, Finland, Poland, Bulgaria, and
otherEuropean countries sawhot particles with
an average size of about 15 μm. Their activity
mostly was determined to be (UNSCEAR,
2000) Zr-95 (half-life 35.1 days), La-140 (1.68
days), and Ce-144 (284 days). Some hot particles
included beta-emitting radionuclides such
as Ru-103 and Ru-106 (39.3 and 368 days,
respectively) and Ba-140 (12.7 days). Particles
with volatile elements that included I-131, Te-
132, Cs-137, and Sb-126 (12.4 days) spread
over thousands of kilometers. “Liquid hot particles”
were formed when radionuclides became
concentrated in raindrops:
“Hot particles” were found in new apartment
houses in Kiev that were to be populated in the
autumn of 1986. In April andMay they stood without
roofs or windows, so they absorbed a lot of a
radioactive dust, which we found in concrete plates
of walls and ceilings, in the carpenter’s room, under
plastic covers on a floor, etc. For the most part
these houses are occupied by staff of the Chernobyl
atomic power station. While planning occupancy
the special dosimeter commands I developed (I
then was the deputy chief engineer of Chernobyl
NPP on radiation safety and was responsible for
the personnel in areas found to be contaminated)
carried out a radiation check on the apartments. As
a result of thesemeasurements I sent a report to the
Governmental Commission advising of the inadmissibility
of inhabiting these “dirty” apartments.
The sanitation service of the Kiev municipality . . .
answered with a dishonest letter in which it agreed
that there was radioactivity in these apartments,
but explained it away as dirt that was brought in
by tenants.” (Karpan, 2007 by permission)
Radioactivity of individual hot particles
reached 10 kBq.When absorbed into the body
(with water, food, or inhaled air), such particles
generate high doses of radiation even if
an individual is in areas of low contamination.
Fine particles (smaller than 1 μm) easily
penetrate the lungs, whereas larger ones
(20–40 μm) are concentrated primarily in the
upper respiratory system (Khruch et al., 1988;
Ivanov et al., 1990; IAEA, 1994). Studies concerning
the peculiarities of the formation and
disintegration of hot particles, their properties,
and their impact on the health of humans and
other living organisms are meager and totally
inadequate.
1.5. Changes in the Radionuclide
Dose Spectrum
To understand the impact of Chernobyl contamination
on public health and the environment
it is necessary to consider the essential
changes in the radionuclide spectrum during
of the first days, weeks, months, and decades
after the Chernobyl catastrophe. The maximum
level of activity from Chernobyl’s fallout
in the first days and weeks, which was due
mostly to short-lived radionuclides, exceeded
background levels by more than 10,000-fold
(Krishev and Ryazantsev, 2000; and many others).
Today radioactive contamination is only a
22 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
Figure 1.16. Maps of the Chernobyl fallout: (A) Sb-124, 125; (B) Cs-137; and (C) Ag-
125m in areas of continental Greece (by permission of S. E. Simopoulos, National Technical
University of Athens; arcas.nuclear.ntua.gr/apache2-default/radmaps/page1.htm).
Yablokov & Nesterenko: Contamination through Time and Space 23
Figure 1.16. Continued.
small part of all the radiation emitted during
the catastrophe. Based on data from Sweden
and Finland, ratios of Cs-137 and other radionuclide
fallout in the first days and weeks
allows for reconstruction of the relative value
of the various nuclides that make up the total
external dose (Figure 1.17).
During the first days after the explosion the
share of total external radiation due to Cs-137
did not exceed 4%, but the level of radiation
from I-131, I-133, Te-129, Te-132, and several
other radionuclides was hundreds of times
higher. Within the succeeding months and the
first year after the explosion the major external
radiation was due to isotopes of Ce-141, Ce-
144, Ru-103, Ru-106, Zr-95, Ni-95, Cs-136,
and Np-239. Since 1987, most external radiation
levels have been defined by Cs-137, Sr-90,
and Pu. Today these radionuclides, which are
found mostly in soil, seriously impact agricultural
production (for details see Chapters III.9
and IV.13).
Timescales of radiation contamination can
be determined by an analysis of tooth enamel.
Such analyses were conducted by experts with
theGerman group “Physicians of theWorld for
the Prevention of Nuclear War.” They tested
Figure 1.17. Dynamics of radioisotope structure
of Chernobyl’s contamination, percentage of total activity
(Yablokov, 2002, from Sokolov and Krivolutsky,
1998).
24 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
the teeth of 6,000 children and found that children
born soon after the Chernobyl catastrophe
had 10 times more Sr-90 in their teeth
compared with children born in 1983 (Ecologist,
2000).
Problem of Americium-241. The powerful alpha
radiation emitter Am-241, formed as a result
of the natural disintegration of Pu-241, is
a very important factor in the increasing levels
of contamination in many areas located
up to 1,000 km from the Chernobyl NPP.
The territory contaminated by Pu today, where
the level of alpha radiation is usually low, will
again become dangerous as a result of the future
disintegration of Pu-241 to Am-241 in
the ensuing tens and even hundreds of years
(see also Chapter III.9). An additional danger
of Am-241 is its higher solubility and consequent
mobility into ecosystems compared with
Pu.
1.6. Lead Contamination
During operations to quench the fires in
the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl NPP, helicopters
dumped 2,400 tons of Pb into the reactor
(Samushia et al., 2007; UNSCEAR, 2000);
according to other data, the figure was 6,720
tons (Nesterenko, 1997). During several subsequent
days, a significant part of the Pb was
spewed out into the atmosphere as a result of its
fusion, boiling, and sublimation in the burning
reactor. Moreover, Pb poisoning is dangerous
in itself, causing, for example, retardation in
children (Ziegel and Ziegel, 1993; and many
others).
1. Blood Pb levels in both children and adults
in Belarus have noticeably increased over
the last years (Rolevich et al., 1996). In the
Brest Province of Belarus, for example, of
213 children studied, the level of Pb was
0.109 ± 0.007 mg/liter, and about half
of these children had levels of 0.188 ±
0.003 mg/liter (Petrova et al., 1996),
whereas the World Health Organization
(WHO) normfor children is no more than
0.001 mg/liter.
2. In Ukraine in the Poles’e District of Kiev
Province, levels of Pb in the air breathed
by operators of agricultural machinery
was up to 10 times or more, exceeding
maximumpermissible concentrations. Increased
levels of Pb were apparent in the
soil and atmosphere and in the urine and
the hair of adults and children in Kiev
soon after the explosion (Bar’yakhtar,
1995).
3. Pb contamination added to radiation
causes harm to living organisms (Petin
and Synsynys, 1998). Ionizing radiation
causes biochemical oxidation of free radicals
in cells. Under the influence of
heavy metals (such as Pb) these reactions
proceed especially intensively. Belarussian
children contaminated with both Cs-137
and Pb have an increased frequency of
atrophic gastritis (Gres and Polyakova,
1997).
1.7. Evaluation of Chernobyl’s
Population Doses
The International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) and WHO (Chernobyl Forum, 2005)
estimated a collective dose for Belarus, Ukraine,
and European Russia as 55,000 persons/Sv. By
other more grounded estimates (see Fairlie and
Sumner, 2006) this collective dose is 216,000–
326,000 persons/Sv (or even 514,000 persons/
Sv only for Belarus; National Belarussian
Report, 2006). The worldwide collective dose
from the Chernobyl catastrophe is estimated
at 600,000–930,000 persons/Sv (Table 1.6).
However, it is now clear that these figures
for collective doses are considerably underestimated.
1.8. How Many People Were and
Will Be Exposed to Chernobyl’s
Contamination?
The first official forecasts regarding the
health impact of the Chernobyl catastrophe
Yablokov & Nesterenko: Contamination through Time and Space 25
TABLE 1.6. Total Collective Effective Dose (persons/
Sv) of Additional Irradiation from the Chernobyl
Catastrophe (Fairlie and Sumner, 2006)
U.S.
Department
of Energya UNSCEARb
Belarus, Ukraine, 326,000 216,000
European Russia
Other European countries 580,000 318,000
Rest of the world 28,000 66,000
Total 930,000 600,000
aAnspaugh et al. (1988).
bBennett (1995, 1996).
included only several additional cases of cancer
over a period of some 10 years. In 20 years it has
become clear that no fewer than 8 million inhabitants
of Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia have
been adversely affected (Table 1.7).
One must understand that in areas contaminated
above 1Ci/km2 (a level that undoubtedly
has statistical impact on public health) there are
no fewer than 1 million children, and evacuees
and liquidators have had no fewer than 450,000
children. It is possible to estimate the number
of people living in areas subject to Chernobyl
fallout all over the world. Some 40% of Europe
has been exposed to Chernobyl’s Cs-137
at a level 4–40 kBq/m2 (0.11–1.08 Ci/km2;
see Table 1.2). Assuming that about 35% of
the European population lives in this territory
(where radionuclides fell on sparsely populated
mountain areas) and counting the total European
population at the end of the 1980s, we
can calculate that nearly 550 million people
are contaminated. It is possible to consider that
about 190 million Europeans live in noticeably
contaminated areas, and nearly 15 million in
the areas where the Cs-137 contamination is
higher than 40 kBq/m2 (1.08 Ci/km2).
Chernobyl fallout contaminated about 8%
of Asia, 6% of Africa, and 0.6% of North
TABLE 1.7. Population Suffering from the Chernobyl Catastrophe in Belarus, Ukraine, and European
Russia
Individuals, 103
Group Country Different sources Cardis et al., 1996
Evacuated and movedb Belarus 135,000a 135,000
Ukraine 162,000a ―
Russia 52,400a ―
Lived in territory contaminated by 270,000
Cs-137 > 555 kBq|m2 (>15 Ci/km2)
Lived in territory contaminated by Belarus 2,000,000a 6,800,000
7Cs-137 > 37 kBq/m2 (>1 Ci/km2) Ukraine 3,500,000a ―
Russia 2,700,000a ―
Liquidators Belarus 130,000 200,000 (1986–1987)
Ukraine 360,000 ―
Russia 250,000 ―
Other countries Not less than 90,000c ―
Total 9,379,400 7,405,000
aReport of the UN Secretary General (2001). Optimization of international efforts in study, mitigation,
and minimization of consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe (http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/
N01/568/11/PDF/N0156811.pdf>).
bEvacuated from city of Pripyat and the railway station at Janov: 49,614; evacuated from 6 to 11 days from 30-km
zone in Ukraine: 41,792, in Belarus: 24,725 (Total 116, 231); evacuated 1986–1987 from territories with density of
irradiation above 15 Ci/km2―Ukraine: 70,483, Russia: 78,600, Belarus: 110,275. The total number of people forced
to leave their homes because of Chernobyl contamination was nearly 350,400.
cKazakhstan: 31,720 (Kaminsky, 2006), Armenia: >3,000 (Oganesyan et al., 2006), Latvia: >6,500, Lithuania:>>7,000 (Oldinger, 1993). Also in Moldova, Georgia, Israel, Germany, the United States, Great Britain, and other
countries.
26 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
TABLE 1.8. Estimation of the Population (103) outside of Europe Exposed to Chernobyl Radioactive
Contamination in 1986
Share of the Population
total Chernobyl Total population, under fallout of
Continent Cs-137 fallout,% end of 1980s 1–40 kBq/m2
Asia 8 2,500,000,000 Nearly 150,000,000
Africa 6 600,000,000 Nearly 36,000,000
America 0.6 170,000,000 Nearly 10,000,000
Total 14.6% 3,270,000,000 Nearly 196,000,000
America, so by similar reasoning it appears that
outside of Europe the total number of individuals
living in areas contaminated by Chernobyl
Cs-137 at a level up to 40 kBq/m2 could reach
nearly 200 million (Table 1.8).
Certainly, the calculated figures in Table 1.8
are of limited accuracy. The true number of
people living in 1986 in areas outside of Europe
with noticeable Chernobyl contamination can
be no fewer than 150 million and nomore than
230 million. This uncertainty is caused, on the
one hand, by calculations that do not include
several short-lived radionuclides, such as I-131,
I-133, Te-132, and some others, which result in
much higher levels of radiation than that due
to Cs-137. These include Cl-36 and Te-99 with
half-lives of nearly 30,000 years and more than
21,000 years, respectively (Fairlie and Sumner,
2006). The latter isotopes cause very low levels
of radiation, but it will persist for many millennia.
On the other hand, these calculations
are based on a uniform distribution of population,
which is not a legitimate assumption.
In total, in 1986 nearly 400 million individuals
(nearly 205 million in Europe and 200
million outside Europe) were exposed to radioactive
contamination at a level of 4 kBq/m2
(0.1 Ci/km2).
Other calculations of populations exposed
to Chernobyl radiation have been based on the
total collective dose. According to one such calculation
(Table 1.9) the number of people who
were exposed to additional radiation at a level
higher than 2.5 × 10−2 mSv might be more
than 4.7 billion and at a level of higher than
0.4 mSv more than 605 million.
1.9. Conclusion
Most of the Chernobyl radionuclides (up to
57%) fell outside of the former USSR and
caused noticeable radioactive contamination
over a large area of the world―practically the
entire Northern Hemisphere.
TABLE 1.9. Population Suffering from Chernobyl Radioactive Contamination at Different Levels of
Radiation Based on Collective Doses (Fairlie, 2007)
Number of Average individual
Group individuals dose, mSv
USSR liquidatorsa 240,000 100
Evacuees 116,000 33
USSR heavily contaminated areas 270,000 50
USSR less contaminated areas 5,000,000 10
Other areas in Europe 600,000,000 ≥0.4
Outside Europe 4,000,000,000 ≥2.5 × 10−2
aPresumably 1986–1987 (A.Y.).
Yablokov & Nesterenko: Contamination through Time and Space 27
Declarations that Chernobyl radioactivity
adds only 2% to the natural radioactive background
on the surface of the globe obscures the
facts because this contamination exceeded the
natural background in vast areas, and in 1986
up to 600 million men, women, and children
lived in territories contaminated by Chernobyl
radionuclides at dangerous levels of more than
0.1 Ci/km2.
Chernobyl radioactive contamination is
both dynamic and long term. The dynamic
is delineated as follows: First is the natural
disintegration of radionuclides so that levels
of radioactive contamination in the first days
and weeks after the catastrophe were thousands
of times higher than those recorded 2
to 3 years later. Second is the active redistribution
of radionuclides in ecosystems (for details
see Chapter III). Third is the contamination
that will exist beyond the foreseeable future―
not less than 300 years for Cs-137 and Sr-90,
more than 200,000 years for Pu, and several
thousands of years for Am-241.
From the perspective of the 23 years that
have passed since the Chernobyl catastrophe,
it is clear that tens ofmillions of people, not only
in Belarus, Ukraine, andRussia, butworldwide,
will live under measurable chronic radioactive
contamination for many decades. Even if the
level of external irradiation decreases in some
areas, very serious contamination in the first
days and weeks after the explosion together
with decades of additional and changing conditions
of radioactivity will have an inevitable
negative impact on public health and nature.
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of Atomic Radiation. Report to the General Assembly.
Annex: Sources, Effects and Risks of Ionizing
Radiation (UN, New York): 126 pp.
UNSCEAR (2000). UN Scientific Committee on the Effect
of Atomic Radiation. Report to the General Assembly.
Annex J. Exposures and Effects of the Chernobyl
Accident (UN, New York): 130 pp.
Vukovic, Z. (1996). Estimate of the radio-silver release
from Chernobyl. J. Env. Radioact. 34(2): 207–209.
Xiang, L. (1998). Dating sediments on several lakes inferred
from radionuclide profiles. J. Env. Sci. 10: 56–
63.
Yablokov, A. V. (2002). Myth on Safety of Low Doses of
Radiation (Center for Russian Environmental Policy,
Moscow): 180 pp. (in Russian).
Yablokov, A., Labunska, I. & Blokov, I. (Eds.) (2006).
The Chernobyl Catastrophe: Consequences forHuman Health
(Greenpeace International, Amsterdam): 138 pp.
Zhuravkov, V. V. & Myronov, V. P. (2005). Using GIStechnology
for estimation of Republic Belarus contamination
by iodine radionuclide during active period
of the accident. Trans. Belarus Acad. Eng. 2(20):
187–189 (in Russian).
Ziegel,H. & Ziegel, A. (Eds.) (1993). Some Problems in Heavy
Metals Toxicology (Mir,Moscow, Transl. fromEnglish):
367 pp. (in Russian).
CHERNOBYL
Chapter II. Consequences of the Chernobyl
Catastrophe for Public Health
Alexey B. Nesterenko,a Vassily B. Nesterenko,a,†
and Alexey V. Yablokovb
aInstitute of Radiation Safety (BELRAD), Minsk, Belarus
bRussian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
†Deceased
Key words: Chernobyl; secrecy; irradiation; health statistics
Chernobyl: Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 1181: 31–220 (2009).
doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04822.x C  2009 New York Academy of Sciences.
31
CHERNOBYL
2. Chernobyl’s Public Health Consequences
Some Methodological Problems
Alexey V. Yablokov
Problems complicating a full assessment of the effects from Chernobyl included official
secrecy and falsification of medical records by the USSR for the first 3.5 years
after the catastrophe and the lack of reliable medical statistics in Ukraine, Belarus,
and Russia. Official data concerning the thousands of cleanup workers (Chernobyl liquidators)
who worked to control the emissions are especially difficult to reconstruct.
Using criteria demanded by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the World
Health Organization (WHO), and theUnited Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects
of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) resulted in marked underestimates of the number of
fatalities and the extent and degree of sickness among those exposed to radioactive
fallout from Chernobyl. Data on exposures were absent or grossly inadequate, while
mounting indications of adverse effects became more andmore apparent. Using objective
information collected by scientists in the affected areas―comparisons ofmorbidity
and mortality in territories characterized by identical physiography, demography, and
economy, which differed only in the levels and spectra of radioactive contamination―
revealed significant abnormalities associated with irradiation, unrelated to age or
sex (e.g., stable chromosomal aberrations), as well as other genetic and nongenetic
pathologies.
The first official forecasts of the catastrophic
health consequences of the Chernobyl meltdown
noted only a limited number of additional
cases of cancer over the first decades.
Four years later, the same officials increased
the number of foreseeable cancer cases to several
hundred (Il’in et al., 1990), at a time when
there were already 1,000 people suffering from
Chernobyl-engendered thyroid cancer. Twenty
years after the catastrophe, the official position
of the Chernobyl Forum (2006) is that about
9,000 related deaths have occurred and some
200,000 people have illnesses caused by the
catastrophe.
A more accurate number estimates nearly
400 million human beings have been exposed
Address for correspondence: Alexey V. Yablokov, Russian Academy of
Sciences, Leninsky Prospect 33, Office 319, 119071 Moscow,Russia.Voice:
+7-495-952-80-19; fax: +7-495-952-80-19. Yablokov@ecopolicy.ru
to Chernobyl’s radioactive fallout and, for
many generations, they and their descendants
will suffer the devastating consequences. Globally,
adverse effects on public health will require
special studies continuing far into the
future. This review concerns the health of
the populations in the European part of the
former USSR (primarily, Ukraine, Belarus,
and European Russia), for which a very large
body of scientific literature has been published
of which but little is known in the Western
world.
The aim of the present volume is not to
present an exhaustive analysis of all available
facts concerning Chernobyl’s disastrous
effects―analyzing all of the known effects of
the Chernobyl catastrophe would fill many
full-size monographs―but rather to elucidate
the known scale and spectrum of its
consequences.
32
Yablokov: Public Health Consequences of Chernobyl 33
2.1. Difficulties in Obtaining
Objective Data on the
Catastrophe’s Impact
For both subjective and objective reasons,
it is very difficult to draw a complete
picture of Chernobyl’s influence on public
health.
The subjective reasons include:
1. The official secrecy that the USSR imposed
on Chernobyl’s public health data
in the first days after themeltdown, which
continued for more than 3 years―until
May 23, 1989, when the ban was lifted.
During those 3 years an unknown number
of people died from early leukosis.
Secrecy was the norm not only in the
USSR, but in other countries as well, including
France, Great Britain, and even
the United States. After the explosion,
France’s official Service Central de Protection
Contre les Radiations Ionisantes
(SCPRI) denied that the radioactive cloud
had passed over France (CRIIRAD, 2002)
and the U.S. Department of Agriculture
failed to disclose that dangerous levels of
Chernobyl radionuclides had been found
in imported foods in 1987 and 1988. The
first public announcement of these contaminations
was not made until 8 years
later (RADNET, 2008, Sect. 6 and Sect.
9, part 4).
2. The USSR’s official irreversible and intentional
falsification of medical statistics
for the first 3.5 years after the catastrophe.
3. The lack of authentic medical statistics in
the USSR and after its disintegration in
1991, as well as in Ukraine, Belarus, and
Russia, including health data for hundreds
of thousands of people who left the contaminated
territories.
4. The expressed desire of national and international
official organizations and the
nuclear industry to minimize the consequences
of the catastrophe.
The number of persons added to the Chernobyl
state registers continues to grow, even during the
most recent years, which casts doubt on the completeness
and accuracy of documentation. Data
about cancer mortality and morbidity are gathered
from many and various sources and are coded
without taking into account standard international
principles . . . public health data connected to the
Chernobyl accident are difficult to compare to official
state of health statistics . . . (UNSCEAR, 2000,
Item 242, p. 49).
The situation of the liquidators is indicative.
Their total number exceeds 800,000 (see Chapter
I).Within the first years after the catastrophe
it was officially forbidden to associate the diseases
they were suffering from with radiation,
and, accordingly, their morbidity data were irreversibly
forged until 1989.
EXAMPLES OF OFFICIAL REQUIREMENTS THAT
FALSIFIED LIQUIDATORS’ MORBIDITY DATA:
1. “. . . For specified persons hospitalized after exposure
to ionizing radiation and having no signs
or symptoms of acute radiation sickness at the
time of release, the diagnosis shall be ‘vegetovascular
dystonia.’” [From a letter from the
USSR’s First DeputyMinister of Public Health
O. Shchepin, May 21, 1986, # 02–6/83–6 to
Ukrainian Ministry of Public Health (cit. by V.
Boreiko, 1996, pp. 123–124).]
2. “. . . For workers involved in emergency activities
who do not have signs or symptoms of
acute radiation sickness, the diagnosis of vegetovascular
dystonia is identical to no change
in their state of health in connection with radiation
(i.e., for all intents and purposes healthy
vis-`a-vis radiation sickness). Thus the diagnosis
does not exclude somatoneurological symptoms,
including situational neurosis . . ..” [From
a telegram of the Chief of the Third Main Administration
of the USSR’s Ministry of Health,
E. Shulzhenko, # “02 DSP”-1, dated January
4, 1987 (cit. by L. Kovalevskaya, 1995, p. 189).]
3. “(1) For remote consequences caused by ionizing
radiation and a cause-and-effect relationship,
it is necessary to consider: leukemia or
leukosis 5–10 years after radiation in doses exceeding
50 rad. (2) The presence of acute somatic
illness and activation of chronic disease in
34 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
persons who were involved in liquidation and
who do not have ARS (acute radiation sickness
–Ed.), the effect of ionizing radiation should not
be included as a causal relationship. (3) When
issuing certificates of illness for persons involved
in work on ChNPP who did not suffer ARS in
point “10” do not mention participation in liquidation
activities or the total dose of radiation
that did not reach a degree of radiation sickness.”
[From an explanatory note of the Central
Military-Medical Commission of theUSSR
Ministry of Defense, # 205 dated July 8, 1987,
directed by the Chief of 10thMMC Colonel V.
Bakshutov to the military registration and enlistment
offices (cit. by L. Kovalevskaya, 1995,
p. 12).]
Data from the official Liquidators Registers
in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus cannot be considered
reliable because the status of “liquidator”
conveyed numerous privileges. We do not
know if an individual described as a “liquidator”
was really directly exposed to radiation,
and we do not know the number of individuals
who were in the contaminated zone for
only a brief time. At the same time, liquidators
who served at the site and were not included
in official registers are just now coming forward.
Among them are the military men who
participated in the Chernobyl operations but
lack documentation concerning their participation
(Mityunin, 2005). For example, among
nearly 60,000 investigated military servicemen
who participated in the clean-up operations in
the Chernobyl zone, not one (!) had notice of
an excess of the then-existing “normal” reading
of 25 R on his military identity card. At the
same time a survey of 1,100 male Ukrainian
military clean-up workers revealed that 37% of
them have clinical and hematological characteristics
of radiation sickness, which means that
these men received more than 25 R exposure
(Kharchenko et al., 2001). It is not by chance
that 15 years after the catastrophe up to 30% of
Russian liquidators did not have radiation dose
data on their official certificates (Zubovsky and
Smirnova, 2000).
Officially it is admitted that “the full-size personal
dosimeter control of liquidators in the
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (ChNPP) zone
managed to be adjusted only for some months”
(National Russian Report, 2001, p. 11). It was
typical to use so-called “group dosimetry” and
“group assessment.” Even official medical representatives
recognize that a number of Russian
liquidators could have received doses seven
times (!) higher than 25 cGy, the level specified
in the Russian state register (Il’in et al., 1995).
Based on official data, this evidence makes the
liquidators’ “official” dose/sickness correlation
obsolete and unreliable.
TWO EXAMPLES OF CONCEALMENT OF TRUE
DATA
ON THE CATASTROPHE’S CONSEQUENCES
1. “(4) To classify information on the accident. . .
(8) To classify information on results of medical
treatment. (9) To classify information on the degree
of radioactive effects on the personnel who
participated in the liquidation of the ChNPP
accident consequences.” [From the order by
the Chief of Third Main Administration of the
USSR’s Ministry of Health E. Shulzhenko concerning
reinforcing the secrecy surrounding the
activities on liquidation of the consequences of
the nuclear accident in ChNPP, #U-2617-S,
June 27, 1986 (cit. by L. Kovalevskaya, 1995, p.
188).]
2. “(2) The data on patients’ records related to the
accident and accumulated inmedical establishments
should have a ‘limited access’ status. And
data generalized in regional andmunicipal sanitary
control establishments, . . . on radioactive
contamination of objects, environment (including
food) that exceeds maximum permissible
concentration is ‘classified’.” [From Order #
30-S by Minister of Health of Ukraine A. Romanenko
on May 18, 1986, about reinforcing
secrecy (cit. by N. Baranov’ska, 1996, p. 139).]
Comparison of the data received via individual
biodosimetry methods (by the number
of chromosomal aberrations and by electron
paramagnetic resonance (EPR) dosimetry) has
shown that officially documented doses of radiation
can be both over- and underestimated
Yablokov: Public Health Consequences of Chernobyl 35
(Elyseeva, 1991; Vinnykov et al., 2002; Maznik
et al., 2003; Chumak, 2006; and others). The
Chernobyl literature widely admits that tens
of thousands of the Chernobyl liquidators who
worked in 1986–1987, were irradiated at levels
of 110–130 mSv. Some individuals (and,
accordingly, some groups) could have received
doses considerably different than the average.
All of the above indicates that from a strictly
methodological point of view, it is impossible to
correlate sickness among liquidators with the
formally documented levels of radiation. Official
data of thyroid-dosimetric and dosimetric
certification in Ukraine were revised several
times (Burlak et al., 2006).
In addition to the subjective reasons noted
above, there are at least two major objective
reasons for the difficulty in establishing the
true scale of the catastrophe’s impact on public
health. The first impediment is determining
the true radioactive impact on individuals
and population groups, owing to the following
factors:
• Difficulty in reconstructing doses from the
radionuclides released in the first days,
weeks, and months after the catastrophe.
Levels of radioisotopes such as I-133, I-
135, Te-132, and a number of other radionuclides
having short half-lives were
initially hundreds and thousand of times
higher than when Cs-137 levels were subsequently
measured (see Chapter I for details).
Many studies revealed that the rate
of unstable and stable chromosome aberrations
is much higher―by up to one to
two orders of magnitude―than would be
expected if the derived exposures were
correct (Pflugbeil and Schmitz-Feuerhake,
2006).
• Difficulty in calculating the influence of
“hot particles” for different radionuclides
owing to their physical and chemical properties.
• Difficulty determining levels of external
and internal radiation for the average
person and/or group because “doses”
were not directly measured and calculations
were based on dubious assumptions.
These assumptions included an average
consumption of a set of foodstuffs by the
“average” person, and an average level of
external irradiation owing to each of the
radionuclides. As an example, all official
calculations of thyroid irradiation in Belarus
were based on about 200,000 measurements
done in May–June 1986 on
fewer than 130,000 persons, or only about
1.3% of the total population. All calculations
for internal irradiation of millions
of Belarussians were made on the basis
of a straw poll of several thousand people
concerning their consumption of milk and
vegetables (Borysevich and Poplyko, 2002).
Objective reconstruction of received doses
cannot be done on the basis of such data.
• Difficulty determining the influence of the
spotty distribution of radionuclides (specific
for each one; see Chapter I for details)
and, as a result, the high probability that
the individual doses of personal radiation
are both higher and lower than “average”
doses for the territory.
• Difficulty accounting for all of themultiple
radionuclides in a territory. Sr-90, Pu, and
Am can also contaminate an area counted
as contaminated solely by Cs-137. For instance,
in 206 samples of breast milk, from
six districts of the Gomel, Mogilev, and
Brest provinces (Belarus), where the official
level of radiation was defined only by
Sr-90 contamination, high levels of Cs-137
were also found (Zubovich et al., 1998).
• Difficulty accounting for the movement of
radionuclides from the soil to food chains,
levels of contamination for each animal
species and plant cultivar. The same difficulties
exist for different soil types, seasons,
and climatic conditions, as well as for different
years (see Chapter III of this volume
for details).
• Difficulty determining the health of individuals
who have moved away from
contaminated areas. Even considering
36 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
the incomplete official data for the period
1986–2000 for only Belarus, nearly
1.5 million citizens (15% of the population)
changed their place of residence. For
the period 1990–2000 more than 675,000
people, or about 7% of the population
left Belarus (National Belarussian Report,
2006).
The second objective barrier to determining
the true radioactive impact on individuals
and/or population groups is the inadequacy
of information and, in particular, incomplete
studies of the following:
• Specificity of the influence of each radionuclide
on an organism, and their effect
in combination with other factors in
the environment.
• Variability of populations and individuals
in regard to radiosensitivity (Yablokov,
1998; and others).
• The impact of the ultralow doses (Petkau,
1980; Graeub, 1992; Burlakova, 1995;
ECRR, 2003).
• The influences of internally absorbed
radiation (Bandazhevsky et al., 1995;
Bandazhevsky, 2000).
The above are the factors that expose
the scientific fallacy in the requirements outlined
by the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA), the World Health Organization
(WHO), and the United Nations Scientific
Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation
(UNSCEAR) and similar official national
bodies that are associated with the nuclear industry.
They demand a simple correlation―“a
level of radiation and effect”―to recognize a
link to adverse health effects as a consequence
of Chernobyl’s radioactive contamination.
It is methodologically incorrect to combine
imprecisely defined ionizing radiation exposure
levels for individuals or groups with the
much more accurately determined impacts on
health (increases in morbidity and mortality)
and to demand a “statistically significant correlation”
as conclusive evidence of the deleterious
effects from Chernobyl. More and more
cases are coming to light in which the calculated
radiation dose does not correlate with observable
impacts on health that are obviously
due to radiation (IFECA, 1995; Vorob’iev and
Shklovsky-Kodry, 1996; Adamovich et al., 1998;
Drozd, 2002; Lyubchenko, 2001; Kornev et al.,
2004; Igumnov et al., 2004; and others). All of
these factors do not prove the absence of radiation
effects but do demonstrate the inaccurate
methodology of the official IAEA, WHO, and
UNSCEAR approach.
2.2. “Scientific Protocols”
According to the Chernobyl Forum (2006),
a common objection to taking into account the
enormous body of data on the public health
consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe in
Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus is that they were
collected without observing the “scientific protocols”
that are the norms forWestern science.
Usually this means that there was no statistical
processing of the received data. Thus, valid
distinctions among compared parameters, as
for groups from heavily contaminated versus
those from less contaminated territories or for
groups from areas with different levels of radiation,
have not demonstrated statistical significance.
In the last decade―a sufficient time
span for effects to become manifest―as information
has accumulated, a range of values has
been found to be within the limits of true “statistical
significance.”
One of the authors has considerable experience
in statistical processing of biological
material―the review Variability of Mammals
(Yablokov, 1976) contains thousands of data calculations
of various biological parameters and
comparisons. In other reviews as Introduction into
Population Phenetics (Yablokov and Larina, 1985)
and Population Biology (Yablokov, 1987) methodical
approaches were analyzed to obtain reliable
statistically significant conclusions for various
types of biological characteristics. Generalizing
these and other factors concerning statistical
Yablokov: Public Health Consequences of Chernobyl 37
processing of biological and epidemiological
data, it is possible to formulate four positions:
1. The calculation “reliability of distinctions
by Student,” devised about a century ago
for comparison of very small samples, is
not relevant for large-size samples. When
the size of the sample is comparable to
the entire assembly, average value is an
exact enough parameter. Many epidemiological
studies of Chernobyl contain data
on thousands of patients. In such cases the
averages show real distinctions among the
compared samples with high reliability.
2. To determine the reliability of distinctions
among many-fold divergent averages, it is
not necessary to calculate “standard errors.”
For example, why calculate formal
“significance of difference” among liquidators’s
morbidities for 1987 and 1997
if the averages differ tenfold?
3. The full spectrum of the factors influencing
one parameter or another is never
known, so it does not have a great impact
on the accuracy of the distinct factors
known to the researcher. Colleagues
from the nuclear establishment have ostracized
one of the authors (A.Y.) for citing
in a scientific paper the story from the famous
novel Chernobyl Prayer (English translation
Voices from Chernobyl, 2006) by Svetlana
Aleksievich. Ms. Aleksievich writes
of a doctor seeing a lactating 70-year-old
woman in one Chernobyl village. Subsequently
well-founded scientific papers
reported the connection between radiation
and abnormal production of prolactin
hormone, a cause of lactation in
elderly women.
4. When the case analysis of individual
unique characteristics in a big data set
does not fit the calculation of average values,
it is necessary to use a probability approach.
In some modern epidemiological
literature the “case-control” approach is
popular, but it is also possible to calculate
the probability of the constellations of very
rare cases on the basis of previously published
data. Scientific research methodology
will be always improved upon, and
today’s “scientific protocols” with, for example,
“confidence intervals” and “case
control,” are not perfect.
It is correct and justified for the whole of
society to analyze the consequences of the
largest-scale catastrophe in history and to use
the enormous database collected by thousands
of experts in the radioactively contaminated
territories, despite some data not being in
the form of Western scientific protocols. This
database must be used because it is impossible
to collect other data after the fact. The
doctors and scientists who collected such data
were, first of all, trying to help the victims,
and, second, owing to the lack of time and
resources, not always able to offer their findings
for publication. It is indicative that many
of the medical/epidemiological conferences in
Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia on Chernobyl
problems officially were termed “scientific and
practical” conferences. Academic theses and
abstracts from these conferences were sometimes
unique sources of information resulting
from the examination of hundreds of thousands
of afflicted individuals. Although the catastrophe
is quickly and widely being ignored, this informationmust
bemade available to the world.
Some very important data that were released
during press conferences and never presented
in any scientific paper are cited in this volume.
Mortality and morbidity are unquestionably
higher among the medical experts who worked
selflessly in the contaminated territories and
were subject to additional radiation, including
exposure to radioactive isotopes from contaminated
patients. Many of these doctors and scientists
died prematurely, which is one more reason
that the medical results from Chernobyl
were never published.
The data presented at the numerous scientifically
practical Chernobyl conferences in
Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia from 1986 to
1999 were briefly reported in departmental
38 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
periodic journals andmagazines and in various
collections of papers (“sborniks”), but it is impossible
to collect them again. We must reject the
criticism of “mismatching scientific protocols,”
and search for ways to extract the valuable objective
information from these data.
In November 2006 the German Federal
Committee on Ionizing Radiation organized
the BfS-Workshop on Chernobyl Health Consequences
in Nuremberg. It was a rare opportunity
for experts with differing approaches to
have open and in-depth discussions and analyze
the public health consequences of the catastrophe.
One conclusion reached during this meeting
is especially important for the past Chernobyl
material: it is reasonable to doubt data
lacking Western scientific protocols only when
studies using the same or similar material diverge.
From both scientific and social-ethical
points of view, we cannot refuse to discuss data
that were acquired in the absence of strict scientific
protocols.
2.3. Dismissing the Impact
of Chernobyl Radionuclides
Is a Fallacy
Natural ionizing radiation has always been
an element of life on Earth. Indeed, it is
one of the main sources of on-going genetic
mutations―the basis for natural selection and
all evolutionary processes. All life on Earth―
humans included―evolved and adapted in the
presence of this natural background radiation.
Some have estimated that “the fallout from
Chernobyl adds only about 2% to the global
radioactive background.” This “only” 2% mistakenly
looks trivial: for many populations in
theNorthernHemisphere the Chernobyl doses
could bemany times higher compared with the
natural background, whereas for others (mostly
in the Southern Hemisphere) it can be close to
zero. Averaging Chernobyl doses globally is like
averaging the temperature of hospital patients.
Another argument is that there are many
places around of the world where the natural
radioactive background is many times greater
than the average Chernobyl fallouts and as humans
successfully inhabit such areas, the Chernobyl
radioactive fallout is not so significant.
Let us discuss this argument in detail. Humans
have a similar level of individual variation of radiosensitivity
as do voles and dogs: 10–12% of
humans have lower (and about 10–14% have
a higher one) individual radiosensitivity than
everyone else (Yablokov, 1998, 2002). Experiments
on mammalian radiosensitivity carried
out on voles showed that it requires strong selection
for about 20 generations to establish
a less radiosensitive population (Il’enko and
Krapivko, 1988). If what is true for the experimental
vole populations is also true for
humans in Chernobyl contaminated areas, it
means that in 400 years (20 human generations)
the local populations in the Chernobylcontaminated
areas can be less radiosensitive
than they are today. Will individuals with reduced
radioresistance agree that their progeny
will be the first to be eliminated from populations?
One physical analogy can illustrate the importance
of even the smallest additional load of
radioactivity: only a few drops of water added
to a glass filled to the brim are needed to initiate
a flow. The same few drops can initiate the
same overflow when it is a barrel that is filled to
the brim rather than a glass. Natural radioactive
background may be as small as a glass or
as big as a barrel. Irrespective of its volume, we
simply do not know when only a small amount
of additional Chernobyl radiation will cause an
overflow of damage and irreversible change in
the health of humans and in nature.
All of the above reasoning makes it clear that
we cannot ignore the Chernobyl irradiation,
even if it is “only” 2% of the world’s average
background radiation.
2.4. Determining the Impact of the
Chernobyl Catastrophe on Public
Health
It is clear that various radionuclides caused
radiogenic diseases owing to both internal and
Yablokov: Public Health Consequences of Chernobyl 39
external radiation. There are several ways to
determine the influence of such radiation:
• Compare morbidity and mortality and
such issues as students’ performance in
different territories identical in environmental,
social, and economic features, but
differing in the level of radioactive contamination
(Almond et al., 2007). This is
the most usual approach in the Chernobyl
studies.
• Compare the health of the same individuals
(or genetically close relatives―parents,
children, brothers, and sisters) before and
after irradiation using health indices that
do not reflect age and sex differences, for
example, stable chromosomal aberrations.
• Compare the characteristics, mostly morbidity,
for groups with different levels of incorporated
radionuclides. In the first few
years after the catastrophe, for 80–90% of
the population, the dose of internal radiation
was mostly due to Cs-137; thus
for those not contaminated with other radionuclides,
comparison of diseases in people
with different levels of absorbed Cs-137
will give objective results of its influence.As
demonstrated by thework of the BELRAD
Institute (Minsk), this method is especially
effective for children born after the catastrophe
(see Chapter IV for details).
• Document the aggregation of clusters of
rare diseases in space and time and compare
them with those in contaminated territories
(e.g., study on the specific leukoses
in the Russian Bryansk Province; Osechinsky
et al., 1998).
• Document the pathological changes in
particular organs and subsequent diseases
and mortality with the levels of incorporated
radionuclides, for instance, in heart
tissue in Belarus’ Gomel Province (Bandazhevski,
2000).
It is methodologically flawed for some specialists
to emphasize “absence of proof” and
insist on “statistically significant” correlation
between population doses and adverse health
effects. Exact calculations of population dose
and dose rate are practically impossible because
data were not accurately collected at the time.
If we truly want to understand and estimate the
health impact of the Chernobyl catastrophe in
a methodologically correct manner, it will be
demonstrated in populations or intrapopulation
group differences varying by radioactive
levels in the contaminated territories where the
territories or subgroups are uniform in other
respects.
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(1998). Leucocytic and lymphocytic reactions as factors
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43(2): 36–42 (in Russian).
Aleksievich, Sv. (2006). Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History
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CHERNOBYL
3. General Morbidity, Impairment, and
Disability after the Chernobyl Catastrophe
Alexey V. Yablokov
In all cases when comparing the territories heavily contaminated by Chernobyl’s radionuclides
with less contaminated areas that are characterized by a similar economy,
demography, and environment, there is a marked increase in general morbidity in the
former. Increased numbers of sick and weak newborns were found in the heavily contaminated
territories in Belarus, Ukraine, and European Russia.
There is no threshold for ionizing radiation’s
impact on health. The explosion of the fourth
reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
(NPP) dispersed an enormous amount of radionuclides
(see Chapter I for details). Even the
smallest excess of radiation over that of natural
background will statistically (stochastically) affect
the health of exposed individuals or their
descendants, sooner or later. Changes in general
morbidity were among the first stochastic
effects of the Chernobyl irradiation.
In all cases when territories heavily contaminated
by Chernobyl radionuclides are
compared with less contaminated areas that
are similar in ethnography, economy, demography,
and environment, there is increased
morbidity in the more contaminated territories,
increased numbers of weak newborns,
and increased impairment and disability. The
data on morbidity included in this chapter
are only a few examples from many similar
studies.
3.1. Belarus
1. The general morbidity of children noticeably
increased in the heavily contaminated territories.
This includes deaths from common
Address for correspondence: Alexey V. Yablokov, Russian
Academy of Sciences, Leninsky Prospect 33, Office 319, 119071
Moscow, Russia. Voice: +7-495-952-80-19; fax: +7-495-952-80-19.
Yablokov@ecopolicy.ru
as well as rare illnesses (Nesterenko et al.,
1993).
2. According to data from the Belarussian
Ministry of Public Health, just before
the catastrophe (in 1985), 90% of children
were considered “practically healthy.” By 2000
fewer than 20% were considered so, and in
the most contaminated Gomel Province, fewer
than 10% of children were well (Nesterenko,
2004).
3. From 1986 to 1994 the overall death rate
for newborns was 9.5%. The largest increase
(up to 205%), found in the most contaminated
Gomel Province (Dzykovich et al., 1996), was
due primarily to disease among the growing
number of premature infants.
4. The number of children with impaired
physical development increased in the heavily
contaminated territories (Sharapov, 2001).
5. Children from areas with contamination
levels of 15–40 Ci/km2 who were newborn
to 4 years old at the time of the catastrophe
have significantly more illnesses than those
from places with contamination levels of 5–
15 Ci/km2 (Kul’kova et al., 1996).
6. In 1993, only 9.5% of children (0 to 4
years old at the time of the catastrophe) were
healthy in areas within the Kormyansk and
Chechersk districts of Gomel Province, where
soil Cs-137 levels were higher than 5 Ci/km2.
Some 37% of the children there suffer from
chronic diseases. The annual increase in disease
(per 1,000, for 16 classes of illnesses) in the
42
Yablokov: Morbidity, Impairment, and Disability after Chernobyl 43
TABLE 3.1. Radioactive and Heavy Metal Contamination in Children from the Heavily and Less Contaminated
Areas (Arinchin et al., 2002)
Heavily contaminated: 73 boys, Less contaminated: 101 boys,
60 girls, avg. age 10.6 years 85 girls, avg. age 9.5 years
First survey (a) Three years later (b) First survey (c) Three years later (d)
mSv 0.77 0.81 0.02∗∗ 0.03∗∗∗
Pb, urine, mg/liter 0.040 0.020∗ 0.017∗∗ 0.03∗
Cd, urine, mg/liter 0.035 0.025 0.02∗∗ 0.015
Hg, urine, mg/liter 0.031 0.021∗ 0.022∗∗ 0.019
∗b-a, d-c (P 5
Ci/km2), was 1.5–3.3 times the provincial level
as well as the level across Russia (Fetysov, 1999;
Kuiyshev et al., 2001). In 2004 childhood morbidity
in these districts was double the average
for the province (Sergeeva et al., 2005).
4. Childhood morbidity in the contaminated
districts of Kaluga Province 15 years after
the catastrophe was noticeably higher (Ignatov
et al., 2001).
Figure 3.5. Invalidism as a result of nonmalignant
diseases in Ukrainian liquidators (1986―1987)
from 1988 to 2003 (National Ukrainian Report,
2006).
Yablokov: Morbidity, Impairment, and Disability after Chernobyl 49
TABLE 3.10. Initially Diagnosed Children’s Morbidity (M ± m per 1,000) in the Contaminated Districts
of Kaluga Province, 1981–2000 (Tsyb et al., 2006)
Districts 1981–1985 1986–1990 1991–1995 1996–2000
Three heavily contaminated 128.2 ± 3.3 198.6 ± 10.8∗∗ 253.1 ± 64.4∗∗ 130.1 ± 8.5
Three less contaminated 130.0 ± 6.4∗ 171.6 ± 9.0∗ 176.3 ± 6.5∗ 108.9 ± 16.8
Province, total 81.5 ± 6.3 100.4 ± 5.6 121.7 ± 3.2 177.1 ± 10.0
∗Significantly different from province’s average; ∗∗significantly different from province’s average and from the period
before the catastrophe.
5. Initially diagnosed childhood illnesses
measured in 5-year periods for the years from
1981 to 2000 show an increase in the first two
decades after the catastrophe (Table 3.10).
6. The frequency of spontaneous abortions
and miscarriages and the number of newborns
with low birth weight were higher in the more
contaminated Klintsy andNovozybkov districts
of Bryansk Province (Izhevsky and Meshkov,
1998).
7. The number of low-birth-weight children
in the contaminated territories was more than
43%; and the risk of birth of a sick child in this
area was more than twofold compared with a
control group: 66.4 ± 4.3% vs. 31.8 ± 2.8%
(Lyaginskaya et al., 2002).
8. Children’s disability in all of Bryansk
Province in 1998–1999 was twice that of three
of the most contaminated districts: 352 vs. 174
per 1,000 (average for Russia, 161; Komogortseva,
2006).
9. The general morbidity of adults in 1995–
1998 in the districts with Cs-137 contamination
of more than 5 Ci/km2 was noticeably higher
than in Bryansk Province as a whole (Fetysov,
1999; Kukishev et al., 2001).
10. The general morbidity of theRussian liquidators
(3,882 surveyed) who were “under the
age of 30” at the time of the catastrophe increased
threefold over the next 15 years; in the
group “31–40 years of age” the highestmorbidity
occurred 8 to 9 years after the catastrophe
(Karamullin et al., 2004).
11.Themorbidity of liquidators exceeds that
of the rest of the Russian population (Byryukov
et al., 2001).
12. In Bryansk Province there was a tendency
toward increased general morbidity in liquidators
from 1995 to 1998 (from 1,506 to 2,140
per 1,000; Fetysov, 1999).
13. All the Russian liquidators, mostly young
men, were initially healthy.Within 5 years after
the catastrophe 30% of them were officially
recognized as “sick”; 10 years after fewer than
9% of them were considered “healthy,” and
after 16 years, only up to 2% were “healthy”
(Table 3.11).
14. The total morbidity owing to all classes
of illnesses for the Russian liquidators in
1993–1996 was about 1.5 times above that
for corresponding groups in the population
(Kudryashov, 2001; Ivanov et al., 2004).
15. The number of diseases diagnosed in
each liquidator has increased: up until 1991
each liquidator had an average of 2.8 diseases;
in 1995, 3.5 diseases; and in 1999,
5.0 diseases (Lyubchenko and Agal’tsov, 2001;
Lyubchenko, 2001).
16. Invalidism among liquidators was apparent
2 years after the catastrophe and increased
torrentially (Table 3.12).
TABLE 3.11. State of Health of Russian Liquidators:
Percent Officially Recognized as “Sick ”
(Ivanov et al., 2004; Prybylova et al., 2004)
Years after the catastrophe Percent “sick”
0 0
5 30
10 90–92
16 98–99
50 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
TABLE 3.12. Disability in Liquidators (%) Compared
to Calculated Radiation Doses, 1990–1993
(Ryabzev, 2008)
Disabled (%)
Year 0–5 cGy 5–20 cGy >20 cGy
1990 6.0 10.3 17.3
1991 12.5 21.4 31.1
1992 28.6 50.1 57.6
1993 43.5 74.0 84.7
17. In 1995 the level of disability among liquidators
was triple that of corresponding groups
(Russian Security Council, 2002), and in 1998
was four times higher (Romamenkova, 1998).
Some 15 years after the catastrophe, 27% of
the Russian liquidators became invalids at an
average age of 48 to 49 (National Russian Report,
2001). By the year 2004 up to 64.7% of
all the liquidators of working age were disabled
(Zubovsky and Tararukhina, 2007).
3.4. Other Countries
1. FINLAND. There was an increase in the
number of premature births just after the catastrophe
(Harjulehto et al., 1989).
2. GREAT BRITAIN. In Wales, one of the regionsmost
heavily contaminated by Chernobyl
fallout, abnormally low birth weights (less than
1,500 g) were noted in 1986–1987 (Figure 3.6).
Figure 3.6. Percent of newborns with birth
weight less than 1,500 g from 1983 to 1992 (top
curve) and a level of Sr-90 in soil (bottom curve) in
Wales (Busby, 1995).
3. HUNGARY. Among infants born in May–
June 1986 there was a significantly higher number
of low-birth-weight newborns (Wals and
Dolk, 1990).
4. LITHUANIA. Among liquidators (of whom
1,808 survived) morbidity was noticeably
higher among thosewho were 45 to 54 years of
age during their time in Chernobyl (Burokaite,
2002).
5. SWEDEN. The number of newborns with
low birth weight was significantly higher in July
1986 (Ericson and Kallen, 1994).
∗∗∗∗∗∗
It is clear that there is significantly increased
general morbidity in territories heavily contaminated
by the Chernobyl fallout and higher
rates of disability among liquidators and others
who were exposed to higher doses of radiation
than the general population or corresponding
nonradiated groups. Certainly, there is no direct
proof of the influence of the Chernobyl
catastrophe on these figures, but the question
is: What else can account for the increased illness
and disability that coincide precisely in
time and with increased levels of radioactive
contamination, if not Chernobyl?
The IAEA and WHO suggested (Chernobyl
Forum, 2006) that the increased morbidity is
partly due to social, economic, and psychological
factors. Socioeconomic factors cannot be
the reason because the compared groups are
identical in social and economic position, natural
surroundings, age composition, etc. and
differ only in their exposure to Chernobyl contamination.
Following scientific canons such
as Occam’s Razor, Mills’s canons, and Bradford
Hill criteria, we cannot discern any reason
for this level of illness other than the radioactive
contamination due to the Chernobyl
catastrophe.
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CHERNOBYL
4. Accelerated Aging as a Consequence of the
Chernobyl Catastrophe
Alexey V. Yablokov
Accelerated aging is one of the well-known consequences of exposure to ionizing radiation.
This phenomenon is apparent to a greater or lesser degree in all of the populations
contaminated by the Chernobyl radionuclides.
1. Children living in all the Belarussian territories
heavily contaminated byChernobyl
fallout evidence a characteristic constellation
of senile illnesses (Nesterenko, 1996;
and many others).
2. Children from the contaminated areas
of Belarus have digestive tract epithelium
characteristic of senile changes
(Nesterenko, 1996; Bebeshko et al., 2006).
3. Of 69 children and teenagers hospitalized
in Belarus from 1991 to 1996 diagnosed
with premature baldness (alopecia), 70%
came from the heavily contaminated territories
(Morozevich et al., 1997).
4. The biological ages of inhabitants from
the radioactive contaminated territories
of Ukraine exceed their calendar ages by 7
to 9 years (Mezhzherin, 1996). The same
phenomenon is observed in Russia (Malygin
et al., 1998).
5. Men and women categorized as middle
aged living in territories with Cs-137 contamination
above 555 kBq/m2 died from
heart attacks 8 years younger than the average
person in Belarus (Antypova and
Babichevskaya, 2001).
6. Inhabitants of Ukrainian territories heavily
contaminated with radiation developed
abnormalities of accommodation
Address for correspondence: Alexey V. Yablokov, Russian Academy
of Sciences, Leninsky Prospect 33, Office 319, 119071 Moscow,
Russia. Voice: +7-495-952-80-19; fax: +7-495-952-80-19. Yablokov@
ecopolicy.ru
and other senile eye changes (Fedirko,
1999; Fedirko and Kadochnykova, 2007).
7. Early aging is a typical characteristic seen
in liquidators, and many of them develop
diseases 10 to 15 years earlier than the average
population. The biological ages of
liquidators calculated by characteristics of
aging are 5 to 15 years older than their calendar
ages (Gadasyna, 1994; Romanenko
et al., 1995; Tron’ko et al., 1995; Ushakov
et al., 1997).
8. Chernobyl radiation induced premature
aging of the eyes (Fedirko and
Kadochnykova, 2007).
9. Presenile characteristics of liquidators
include (Antypova et al., 1997a,b;
Zhavoronkova et al., 2003; Kholodova and
Zubovsky, 2002; Zubovsky and Malova,
2002; Vartanyan et al., 2002; Krasylenko
and Eler Ayad, 2002; Kirke, 2002;
Stepanenko, 2003; Kharchenko et al.,
1998, 2004; Druzhynyna, 2004; Fedirko
et al., 2004; Oradovskaya et al., 2006):
• Multiple illnesses characteristic of senility
in individuals at early ages (10.6 diseases
diagnosed in one liquidator is 2.4 times
higher that the age norm).
• Degenerate and dystrophic changes in various
organs and tissues (e.g., osteoporosis,
chronic cholecystitis, pancreatitis, fatty
liver, and renal dystrophy).
• Accelerated aging of blood vessels, including
those in the brain, leading to senile
55
56 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
encephalopathy in those 40 years of age,
and generalized arteriosclerosis.
• Ocular changes, including early senile
cataracts and premature presbyopia.
• Decline in higher mental function characteristic
of senility.
• Development of Type II diabetes in liquidators
younger than 30 years of age.
• Loss of stability in the antioxidant system.
• Retina vessel arteriosclerosis.
• Hearing and vestibular disorders at
younger ages.
10. Evidence of accelerated biological time in
liquidators is the shortened rhythm of intracircadian
arterial pressure (Talalaeva,
2002).
11. Findings indicating accelerated aging in
practically all liquidators are changes in
blood vessel walls leading to the development
of atherosclerosis. Changes are also
found in epithelial tissue, including that of
the intestines (Tlepshukov et al., 1998).
12. An accelerated rate of aging, measured
in 5-year intervals, marked by biological
and cardiopulmonary changes (and
for 11 years by physiological changes)
was found in 81% of men and 77% of
women liquidators (306 surveyed). Liquidators
younger than 45 years of age
were more vulnerable. The biological age
of liquidators who worked at the Chernobyl
catastrophe site in the first 4 months
after the meltdown exceeds the biological
age of those who labored there subsequently
(Polyukhov et al., 2000).
13. It is proposed that the accelerated occurrence
of age-related changes in organs of
liquidators is a radiation-induced progeroid
syndrome (Polyukhov et al., 2000; Bebeshko
et al., 2006).
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in liquidators. Clinic. Gerontol. 8(8): 82–83 (in
Russian).
CHERNOBYL
5. Nonmalignant Diseases after the
Chernobyl Catastrophe
Alexey V. Yablokov
This section describes the spectrum and the scale of the nonmalignant diseases that
have been found among exposed populations. Adverse effects as a result of Chernobyl
irradiation have been found in every group that has been studied. Brain damage has
been found in individuals directly exposed―liquidators and those living in the contaminated
territories, as well as in their offspring. Premature cataracts; tooth and mouth
abnormalities; and blood, lymphatic, heart, lung, gastrointestinal, urologic, bone, and
skin diseases afflict and impair people, young and old alike. Endocrine dysfunction,
particularly thyroid disease, is far more common than might be expected, with some
1,000 cases of thyroid dysfunction for every case of thyroid cancer, a marked increase
after the catastrophe. There are genetic damage and birth defects especially in children
of liquidators and in children born in areas with high levels of radioisotope contamination.
Immunological abnormalities and increases in viral, bacterial, and parasitic
diseases are rife among individuals in the heavily contaminated areas. For more
than 20 years, overall morbidity has remained high in those exposed to the irradiation
released by Chernobyl. One cannot give credence to the explanation that these
numbers are due solely to socioeconomic factors. The negative health consequences
of the catastrophe are amply documented in this chapter and concern millions of
people.
5.1. Blood and Lymphatic System
Diseases
For both children and adults, diseases of
the blood and the circulatory and lymphatic
systems are among the most widespread consequences
of the Chernobyl radioactive contamination
and are a leading cause of morbidity
and death for individuals who worked as
liquidators.
5.1.1. Diseases of the Blood and
Blood-Forming Organs
5.1.1.1. Belarus
1. The incidence of diseases of the blood
and blood-forming organs was 3.8-fold higher
Address for correspondence: Alexey V. Yablokov, Russian
Academy of Sciences, Leninsky Prospect 33, Office 319, 119071
Moscow, Russia. Voice: +7-495-952-80-19; fax: +7-495-952-80-19.
Yablokov@ecopolicy.ru
among evacuees 9 years after the catastrophe.
It was 2.4-fold higher for inhabitants of the contaminated
territories than for all of the population
of Belarus; these rates were, respectively,
279, 175, and 74 per 10,000 (Matsko, 1999).
2. In 1995, for the Belarus liquidators, incidence
of diseases of the blood and bloodforming
organs was 4.4-fold higher than for
corresponding groups in the general population
(304 and 69 per 10,000; Matsko, 1999;
Kudryashov, 2001).
3. The incidence of hematological abnormalities
was significantly higher among
1,220,424 newborns in the territories contaminated
by Cs-137 at levels above 1 Ci/km2
(Busuet et al., 2002).
4. Incidence of diseases of the blood and
the lymphatic system was three- to five-fold
higher in the most contaminated Stolinsk and
Luninetsk districts in Brest Province in 1996
than in less contaminated districts (Gordeiko,
1998).
58
Yablokov: Nonmalignant Diseases after Chernobyl 59
TABLE 5.1. Statistics of the Annual Cases of
Belarussian Children with Depression of the
Blood-Forming Organs after the Catastrophe
(Gapanovich et al., 2001)
1979–1985 1986–1992 1993–1997
Number of cases 9.3 14.0 15.6
Cases per 10,000 0.60 ± 0.09 0.71 ± 0.1∗
1.00 1.46∗ 1.73∗
∗p 15 Ci/km2) there
was a significantly lower level of C3 component
cells (Zafranskaya et al., 1995).
6. Myelotoxic activity of the blood (MTA)
and the number of T lymphocytes were significantly
lower in multiple sclerosis patients from
areas with Cs-137 contamination from 5–15
Ci/km2 (Fyllypovich, 2002).
7. Absolute and relative numbers of lymphocytes,
as a percent of basophilic cells were significantly
higher among adults and teenagers
living in Gomel Province territories with a level
of Cs-137 contamination from 15–40 Ci/km2
(Miksha and Danylov, 1997).
8. Evacuees and those still living in heavily
contaminated territories have a significantly
lower percent of leukocytes, which have expressed
pan-D cellularmarker CD3 (Baeva and
Sokolenko, 1998).
9. The leukocyte count was significantly
higher among inhabitants of Vitebsk and
Gomel provinces who developed infectious diseases
in the first 3 years after the catastrophe
compared with those who already were suffering
fromthese diseases (Matveenko et al., 1995).
10. The number of cases of preleukemic conditions
(myelodysplastic syndrome and aplastic
anemia) increased significantly during the first
11 years after the catastrophe (Table 5.1).
11. Significant changes in the structure of
the albumin layer of erythrocyte membranes
(increased cell fragility) occurred in liquidators’
children born in 1987 (Arynchin et al.,
1999).
12. There is a correlation between increased
Fe-deficient anemia in Belarus and the level
of radioactive contamination in the territory
(Dzykovich et al., 1994; Nesterenko, 1996). In
the contaminated areas of Mogilev Province the
number of people with leukopenia and anemia
increased sevenfold from 1986 to 1988 compared
to 1985 (Gofman, 1994).
13. Primary products of lipid oxidation in
the plasma of children’s blood (0 to 12 months)
from Mogilev (Krasnopolsk District), Gomel
(Kormyansk District), and Vitebsk (Ushachy
District) provinces contaminated with Cs-137
statistically significantly declined from 1991 to
1994. The amount of vitamins A and E in babies’
blood from the more contaminated territories
(up to 40 Ci/km2) decreased 2.0- to
2.7-fold (Voznenko et al., 1996).
14. Children from Chechersk District
(Gomel Province) with levels of 15–40 Ci/km2
of Cs-137 and from Mtzensk and Bolkhovsk
districts (Oryol Province, Russia) with levels
of 1–15 Ci/km2 have lipid oxidation products
that are two- to sixfold higher. The levels of
irreplaceable bioantioxidants (BAO) were twoto
threefold lower than norms for the corresponding
age ranges. Contaminated children
have rates of metabolism of BAO two- to tenfold
higher than the age norms (Baleva et al.,
2001a).
15. For boys irradiated in utero there was a reduction
in direct and an increase in free bilirubin
in blood serum over 10 years. For girls there
was a reduced concentration of both direct
and indirect bilirubin (Sychik and Stozharov,
1999a,b).
5.1.1.2. Ukraine
1. Children in the heavily contaminated territories
have a level of free oxidizing radicals
in their blood that is significantly higher than
in those in the less contaminated territories:
1,278 ± 80 compared with 445 ± 36 measured
as impulses per minute (Horishna, 2005).
60 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
2. Children of liquidators living in the contaminated
territories had two- to threefold
higher blood and blood-forming-organ morbidity
compared to children from noncontaminated
territories (Horishna, 2005).
3. Diseases of the blood and circulatory system
for people living in the contaminated territories
increased 11- to 15-fold for the first
12 years after the catastrophe (1988–1999;
Prysyazhnyuk et al., 2002).
4. In 1996, morbidity of the blood-forming
organs in the contaminated territories was 2.4-
fold higher than for the rest of Ukraine (12.6
and 3.2 per 10,000; Grodzinsky, 1999).
5. For the first 10 years after the catastrophe
the number of cases of diseases of blood
and blood-forming organs among adults in the
contaminated territories of Zhytomir Province
increased more than 50-fold: from 0.2 up to
11.5% (Nagornaya, 1995).
6. For a decade after the catastrophe, morbidity
of the blood and blood-forming organs
in adults and teenagers living in contaminated
territories increased 2.4-fold: from 12.7 in 1987
to up to 30.5 per 10,000 in 1996. For the remaining
population of Ukraine this level remained
at the precatastrophe level (Grodzinsky,
1999).
7. During the acute iodic period (the first
months after the catastrophe) abnormal blood
cell morphology was found in more than
92% of 7,200 surveyed children living in
the area, and 32% of them also had abnormal
blood counts. Abnormalities included
mitochondrial swelling and stratification of
nuclear membranes, expansion of the perinuclear
spaces, pathological changes in cell surfaces,
decreased concentration of cellular substances,
and increase in the volume of water.
The last is an indication of damage to the cellular
membranes (Stepanova and Davydenko,
1995).
8. During 1987–1988 qualitative changes
in blood cells were found in 78.3% of children
from zones with radiation levels of
5–15 Ci/km2 (Stepanova and Davydenko,
1995).
9. In the contaminated territories, anemia
was found in 11.5% of 1,926 children examined
in 1986–1998 (Bebeshko et al., 2000).
5.1.1.3. Russia
1. Diseases of the blood and blood-forming
organs caused much greater general morbidity
in children from contaminated areas (Kulakov
et al., 1997).
2. Morbidity owing to abnormalities of the
blood and the circulatory system has more than
doubled in children in the contaminated districts
of Tula Province and has increased in
all the contaminated districts in comparison
with the period before the catastrophe (Sokolov,
2003).
3. In 1998 the annual general morbidity from
blood, blood-forming organs, and the circulatory
system of children in the contaminated
districts of Bryansk Province significantly exceeded
the provincial level (19.6 vs. 13.7 per
1,000; Fetysov, 1999a).
4. For liquidators, the morbidity from blood
and blood-forming organs grew 14.5-fold between
1986 and 1993 (Baleva et al., 2001).
5. Critically low lymphocyte counts were
seen in children in the contaminated districts
of Bryansk Province over a 10-year survey after
the catastrophe (Luk’yanova and Lenskaya,
1996).
6. In almost half of the children, blood
hemoglobin levels exceeded 150 g/liter in the
settlements of Bryansk Province that had high
levels of Cs-137 soil contamination and a level
of contamination from Sr-90 (Lenskaya et al.,
1995).
7. Individuals living in the contaminated
areas have fewer lymphocytes with adaptive
reaction, and the number of people with
higher lymphocytes radiosensitivity increased
(Burlakova et al., 1998).
8. The numbers of leukocytes, erythrocytes,
lymphocytes, and thrombocytes in liquidators’
peripheral blood were markedly different
(Tukov et al., 2000). The number of large granulocytic
lymphocytes decreased by 60–80% 1
month after the liquidators began work and
Yablokov: Nonmalignant Diseases after Chernobyl 61
TABLE 5.2. Dynamics of the Interrelation by Lymphopoietic Type (in %, See Text) in Russian Liquidators
(Karamullin et al., 2004)
Lymphopoietic types
Time after the
catastrophe Quasi-normal Hyperregeneratory Hyporegeneratory
0 to 5 years 32 55 13
5 to 9 years 38 0 62
10 to 15 years 60 17 23
Control group 76 12 12
stayed at a lower level for at least 1 year
(Antushevich and Legeza, 2002).
9. The glutathione level in blood proteins
and cytogenic characteristics of lymphocytes
were markedly different in children born 5 to
7 years after the catastrophe in the contaminated
Mtsensk and Bolkhov districts, Oryol
Province, Russia, and in Chechersk District,
Gomel Province, Belarus (Ivanenko et al.,
2004).
10. In the contaminated territories of Kursk
Province changes in lymphocyte counts and
functional activity and the number of circulating
immune complexes were seen in the blood
of children 10 to 13 years of age and in pregnant
women (Alymov et al., 2004).
11. Significant abnormal lymphocytes and
lymphopenia was seen more often in children in
the contaminated territories (Sharapov, 2001;
Vasyna et al., 2005). Palpable lymph nodes occurred
with greater frequency and were more
enlarged in the heavily contaminated territories.
Chronic tonsillitis and hypertrophy of the
tonsils and adenoids were found in 45.4% of
468 children and teenagers examined (Bozhko,
2004).
12. Among the liquidators, the following parameters
of the blood and lymphatic system
were significantly different from controls:
• Average duration of nuclear magnetic
resonance relaxation (NPMR) of blood
plasma (Popova et al., 2002).
• Receptor–leukotrene reaction of erythrocyte
membranes (Karpova and Koretskaya,
2003).
• Quantity of the POL by-products (by malonic
aldehyde concentration) and by viscosity
of membranes and on a degree of the
lipids nonsaturation (Baleva et al., 2001a).
• Imbalance of the intermediate-size
molecules in thrombocytes, erythrocytes,
and blood serum (Zagradskaya, 2002).
• Decreased scattering of the granular component
of lymphocyte nuclei reduction of
the area and perimeter of the perigranular
zones; and increased toothlike projection
of this zone (Aculich, 2003).
• Increased intravascular thrombocyte aggregation
(Tlepshukov et al., 1998).
• Increased blood fibrinolyic activity and
fibrinogen concentration in blood serum
(Tlepshukov et al., 1998).
13. Liquidators’ lymphopoesis remained
nonfunctional 10 years after the catastrophe
(Table 5.2).
It is known that Japanese juvenile atomic
bomb victims suffer from diseases of the bloodforming
organs 10 times more often than control
groups, even in the second and third generations
(Furitsu et al., 1992). Thus it can
be expected that, following the Chernobyl
catastrophe, several more generations will develop
blood-forming diseases as a result of the
radiation.
5.1.2. Cardiovascular Diseases
Cardiovascular diseases are widespread in
all the territories contaminated by Chernobyl
emissions.
62 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
5.1.2.1. Belarus
1. Cardiovascular disease increased nationwide
three- to fourfold in 10 years compared
to the pre-Chernobyl period and to an even
greater degree in the more heavily contaminated
areas (Manak et al., 1996; Nesterenko,
1996).
2. Impaired cardiovascular homeostasis is
characteristic for more newborns in the first 4
days of life in districts with contamination levels
higher than 15–40 Ci/km2 (Voskresenskaya
et al., 1996).
3. Incidence of hemorrhages in newborns in
the contaminated Chechersky District of the
Gomel Province is more than double than before
the catastrophe (Kulakov et al., 1997).
4. Correlated with levels of radiation,
changes in the cardiovascular system were
found in more than 70% of surveyed children
aged 3 to 7 years from contaminated territories
of Gomel Province (Bandazhevskaya,
1994).
5. In 1995, cardiovascular system morbidity
among the population in the contaminated territories
and evacuees was threefold higher than
for Belarus as a whole (4,860 and 1,630 per
100,000; Matsko, 1999).
6. More than 70% of newborn to 1-yearold
children in territories with Cs-137 soil
contamination of 5–20 Ci/km2 have had cardiac
rhythm abnormalities (Tsybul’skaya et al.,
1992; Bandazhevsky, 1997). Abnormalities of
cardiac rhythm and conductivity correlated
with the quantity of incorporated radionuclides
(Bandazhevsky et al., 1995; Bandazhevsky
1999). There were significantly higher incidence
and persistence of abnormalities of cardiac
rhythm in patients with ischemic heart
disease in contaminated territories (Arynchyna
and Mil’kmanovich, 1992).
7. Both raised and lowered arterial blood
pressure were found in children and adults
in the contaminated areas (Sykorensky and
Bagel, 1992; Goncharik, 1992; Nedvetskaya
and Lyalykov, 1994; Zabolotny et al., 2001;
and others). Increased arterial pressure occurred
significantly more often in adults in the
Mogilev Province, where contamination was
above 30 Ci/km2 (Podpalov, 1994). Higher
arterial pressure in children correlated with
the quantity of the incorporated Cs-137
(Bandazhevskaya, 2003; Kienya and Ermolitsky,
1997).
8. Compared to healthy children, brain arterial
vessels in children 4 to 16 years old were
more brittle among children in contaminated
areas in Gomel (Narovlyansky, Braginsk, El’sk,
andKhoiniky districts), Mogilev (Tchernikovsk,
Krasnopol’sk, and Slavgorodsk districts), and
Brest provinces (Arynchin et al., 1996, 2002;
Arynchin, 1998).
9. Morbidity of the circulatory system among
children born to irradiated parents was significantly
higher from 1993 to 2003 (National Belarussian
Report, 2006).
10. The volume of blood loss during Caesarean
birth was significantly higher for women
from Gomel Province living in the territories
contaminated by Cs-137 at levels of 1–
5 Ci/km2 compared to those from uncontaminated
areas (Savchenko et al., 1996).
11. Blood supply to the legs, as indicated by
vasomotor reactions of the large vessels,was significantly
abnormal for girls age 10 to 15 years
who lived in areas with a level of Cs-137 contamination
higher than 1–5 Ci/km2 compared
with those in the less contaminated territories
(Khomich and Lysenko, 2002; Savanevsky and
Gamshey, 2003).
12. The primary morbidity of both male
and female liquidators was high blood pressure,
acute heart attacks, cerebrovascular diseases,
and atherosclerosis in of the arms and legs,
which increased significantly in 1993–2003, including
in the young working group (National
Belarussian Report, 2006).
13. In the observation period 1992–1997
there was a 22.1% increase in the incidence of
fatal cardiovascular disease among liquidators
compared to 2.5% in the general population
(Pflugbeil et al., 2006).
Yablokov: Nonmalignant Diseases after Chernobyl 63
TABLE 5.3. Cardiovascular Characteristics of Male Liquidators in Voronezh Province (Babkin et al.,
2002)
Inhabitants of
Liquidators contaminated Control
Parameter (n = 56) territory (n = 60) (n = 44)
AP–a systole 151.9 ± 1.8∗ 129.6 ± 2.1 126.3 ± 3.2
AP–diastole 91.5 ± 1.5∗ 83.2 ± 1.8 82.2 ± 2.2
IBH, % 9.1∗ 46.4 33.3
Insult, % 4.5∗ 16.1∗ 0
Thickness of carotid wall, mm∗ 1.71 ± 0.90∗ 0.81 ± 0.20 0.82 ± 0.04
Overburdening heredity, % 25 25 27.3
∗Statistically significant differences from control group.
5.1.2.2. Ukraine
1. Themorbidity fromcirculatory diseases in
1996 in the contaminated territories was 1.5-
fold higher than in the rest of Ukraine (430 vs.
294 per 10,000; Grodzinsky, 1999).
2. Symptoms of early atherosclerosis were
observed in 55.2% of children in territories contaminated
at a level of 5–15 kBq \m2 (Burlak
et al. 2006).
3. Diseases of the cardiovascular system occurred
significantly more often in children irradiated
in utero (57.8 vs. 31.8%, p 5 Ci/km2) Districts
of Bryansk Province, 1995–1998 (Fetysov,
1999b: table 6.2)
Number of cases
District 1995 1996 1997 1998
Klymovo 600.5 295.9 115.1 52.3
Novozybkov 449.0 449.5 385.9 329.4
Klintsy 487.6 493.0 413.0 394.3
Krasnogorsk 162.2 306.8 224.6 140.1
Zlynka 245.1 549.3 348.7 195.0
Southwest∗ 423.4 341.0 298.7 242.7
∗All heavily contaminated districts.
boys who were born in Voronezh Province in
1986 were significantly shorter than boys of
the same age who were born in 1983, most
probably owing to thyroid hormone imbalance
(Ulanova et al., 2002).
7. In 1998 every third child in the city of
Yekaterinburg, located in the heavily industrialized
Ural area that was exposed to Chernobyl
fallout, had abnormal thyroid gland development
(Dobrynina, 1998).
5.3.2.4. Other Countries
POLAND. Of the 21,000 individuals living in
the southeast part of the country contaminated
by Chernobyl fallout who were examined, every
second woman and every tenth child had
an enlarged thyroid. In some settlements, thyroid
gland pathology was found in 70% of the
inhabitants (Associated Press, 2000).
5.3.3. Conclusion
Despite information presented so far, we still
do not have a total global picture of all of the
people whose hormone function was impaired
by radiation from the Chernobyl catastrophe
because medical statistics do not deal with such
illnesses in a uniform way.
At first sight some changes in endocrine function
in those subjected to Chernobyl radiation
were considered controversial. We have
learned, however, that hormone function may
be depressed in a territory with a low level of
radioactive contamination and increased owing
to an increasing dose rate in a neighboring
contaminated area. Diseases of the same organ
may lead to opposing signs and symptoms
depending upon the timing and extent of the
damage. With the collection of new data, we
hope that such contradictions can be resolved.
Careful research may uncover the explanation
as to whether the differences are due to past
influences of different isotopes, combinations
of different radioisotopes, timing of exposures,
adaptation of various organs, or factors still to
be uncovered.
Yablokov: Nonmalignant Diseases after Chernobyl 87
The analysis of remote, decades-old data,
from the southern Ural area contaminated by
radioactive accidents in the 1950s and 1960s
indicates that low-dose irradiation in utero,
which was similar to that from Chernobyl, may
cause impairment of neuroendocrine and neurohumoral
regulation. Using those data, researchers
reported vertebral osteochondrosis,
osteoarthritic deformities of the extremities, atrophic
gastritis, and other problems in the exposed
population (Ostroumova, 2004).
An important finding to date is that for every
case of thyroid cancer there are about 1,000
cases of other kinds of thyroid gland pathology.
In Belarus alone, experts estimate that up to
1.5 million people are at risk of thyroid disease
(Gofman, 1994; Lypyk, 2004).
From the data collected from many different
areas by many independent researchers, the
spectrum and the scale of endocrine pathology
associated with radioactive contamination are
far greater than had been suspected. It is now
clear that multiple endocrine illnesses caused
by Chernobyl have adversely affected millions
of people.
5.4. Immune System Diseases
One result ofmany studies conducted during
the last few years in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia
is the clear finding that Chernobyl radiation
suppresses immunity―a person’s or organism’s
natural protective system against infection and
most diseases.
The lymphatic system―the bone marrow,
thymus, spleen, lymph nodes, and Peyer’s
patches―has been impacted by both large
and small doses of ionizing radiation from the
Chernobyl fallout. As a result, the quantity
and activity of various groups of lymphocytes
and thus the production of antibodies, including
various immunoglobulins, stem cells, and
thrombocytes, are altered. The ultimate consequences
of destruction of the immune system
is immunodeficiency and an increase in
the frequency and seriousness of acute and
chronic diseases and infections, as is widely observed
in the Chernobyl-irradiated territories
(Bortkevich et al., 1996; Lenskaya et al., 1999;
and others). The suppression of immunity as
a result of this radioactive contamination is
known as “Chernobyl AIDS.”
On the basis of review of some 150 scientific
publications the conclusion is that depression
of thymus function plays the leading role
in postradiation pathology of the immune system
(Savyna and Khoptynskaya, 1995). Some
examples of adverse effects of Chernobyl contamination
on the immune system as well as
data showing the scale of damage to the health
of the different populations are described in
what follows.
5.4.1. Belarus
1. Among 3,200 children who were examined
from 1986 to 1999 there was a significant
decrease in B lymphocytes and subsequently
in T lymphocytes, which occurred within the
first 45 days after the catastrophe. In the first
1.5 months, the level of the G-immunoglobulin
(IgG) significantly decreased and the concentration
of IgA and IgM as circulating immune
complexes (CIC) increased. Seven months after
the catastrophe there was a normalization
of most of the immune parameters, except for
the CIC and IgM. From 1987 to 1995 immunosuppression
was unchanged and a decrease
in the number of T cells indicators was
seen. A total of 40.8 ± 2.4% of children from
the contaminated territories had high levels of
IgE, rheumatoid factor, CIC, and antibodies
to thyroglobulin. This was especially prominent
in children from the heavily contaminated
areas. The children also had increased
titers of serum interferon, tumor necrosis factor
(TNF-a), R-proteins, and decreased complement
activity. From 1996 to 1999 T cell
system changes showed increased CD3+ and
CD4+ lymphocytes and significantly decreased
CD22 and HLA-DR lymphocytes. Children
from areas heavily contaminated with Cs-137
had significantly more eosinophils, eosinophilic
88 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
protein X concentration in urine, and
eosinophilic cation protein concentration in
serum (Tytov, 2000).
2. There was a strong correlation between
the level of Cs-137 contamination in the territories
and the quantity of the D25+ lymphocytes,
as well as concentration-specific IgE antibodies
to grass and birch pollen (Tytov, 2002).
3. There was an increasing concentration of
the thyroid autoantibodies in 19.5% of “practically
healthy” children and teenagers living in
Khoiniky District, Gomel Province. The children
and teenagers with thyroid autoimmune
antibodies living in the contaminated territories
have more serious and more persistent changes
in their immune status (Kuchinskaya, 2001).
4. The number of B lymphocytes and the
level of serum IgG began to increase in children
from the contaminated areas of the Mogilev
and Gomel provinces a year after the catastrophe.
The children were 2 to 6 years of age at
the time of the catastrophe (Galitskaya et al.,
1990).
5. In children from the territories of Mogilev
Province contaminated by Cs-137 at levels
higher than 5 Ci/km2 there was a significant
decrease in cellularmembrane stability and impaired
immunity (Voronkin et al., 1995).
6. The level of T lymphocytes in children
who were 7 to 14 years of age at the time of
the catastrophe correlated with radiation levels
(Khmara et al., 1993).
7. Antibody formation and neutrophilic activity
were significantly lower for the first year
of life in newborns in areas with Cs-137 levels
higher than 5 Ci/km2 (Petrova et al., 1993).
8. Antitumor immunity in children and evacuees
was significantly lower in heavily contaminated
territories (Nesterenko et al., 1993).
9. Immune system depression occurred in
healthy children in the Braginsk District near
the 30-km zone immediately after the catastrophe
with normalization of some parameters
not occurring until 1993 (Kharytonik et al.,
1996).
10. Allergy to cow’s milk proteins was found
in more children living in territories more heavily
contaminated by Sr-90 than in children
from less contaminated areas: 36.8 vs. 15.0%
(Bandazhevsky et al., 1995; Bandazhevsky,
1999).
11. Among 1,313 children examined from
an area contaminated by Cs-137 at a level
of 1–5 Ci/km2 some developed immune system
problems, which included lowered neutrophil
phagocytic activity, reduced IgA and
IgM, and increased clumping of erythrocytes
(Bandazhevsky et al., 1995).
12. The immune changes in children of
Gomel Province are dependent upon the spectrum
of radionuclides: identical levels of Sr-
90 and Cs-137 radiation had different consequences
(Evets et al., 1993).
13. There was correlation among children
and adults between the level of radioactive contamination
in an area and the expression of the
antigen APO-1/FAS (Mel’nikov et al., 1998).
14. There are significant competing differences
in the immune status of children from
territories with different Cs-137 contamination
loads (Table 5.30).
15. Levels of immunoglobulins IgA, IgM,
IgG, and A(sA) in mother’s milk were significantly
lower in the contaminated areas. Acute
respiratory virus infections (ARV), acute bronchitis,
acute intestinal infections, and anemia
were manifoldly higher in breast-fed babies
from the contaminated areas (Zubovich et al.,
1998).
16. Significant changes in cellular immunity
were documented in 146 children and
teenagers operated on for thyroid cancer in
Minsk.These changes included: decrease in the
number of T lymphocytes (in 30% of children
and 39% of teens), decreased levels of B lymphocytes
(42 and 68%), decreased T lymphocytes
(58 and 67%), high titers of antibodies to
thyroglobulin (ATG), and neutrophilic leukocytosis
in 60% of the children (Derzhitskaya et al.,
1997).
17. Changes in both cellular and humoral
immunity were found in healthy adults living
in territories with a high level of contamination
(Soloshenko, 2002; Kyril’chik, 2000).
Yablokov: Nonmalignant Diseases after Chernobyl 89
TABLE 5.30. Immune Status of Children with Frequent and Prolonged Illnesses from the Contaminated
Territories of Belarus (Gurmanchuk et al., 1995)
District/radiation level Parameters of immunity
Pinsk, Brest Province,
1–5 Ci/km2 (n = 67)
Number of T lymphocytes, T suppressors (older children), suppression index,
T helpers (all groups) is lowered. The level of the CIC, IgM (all groups), and IgA
(children up to 6 years of age) is raised.
Bragin, Gomel Province,
40–80 Ci/km2 (n = 33)
Number of T lymphocytes is raised (all groups), fewer T-lymphocyte helpers (older
children), increased T suppressors (in oldest children).
Krasnopolsk, Mogilev
Province, up to
120 Ci/km2 (n = 57)
All children have humoral cellular depression, fewer B lymphocytes, CIC levels
raised, complement overactive, and levels of IgG and IgA phagocyte activity
lowered.
18. The levels of IgA, IgG, and IgM immunoglobulins
were increased in the postpartum
period in women from districts in Gomel
and Mogilev provinces contaminated with Cs-
137 at a level higher than 5 Ci/km2 and
the immune quality of their milk was lowered
(Iskrytskyi, 1995). The quantity of IgA, IgG,
and IgM immunoglobulins and secretory immunoglobulin
A(sA) were reduced in women
in the contaminated territories when they began
lactating (Zubovich et al., 1998).
19. The number of T and B lymphocytes
and phagocytic activity of neutrophilic
leukocytes was significantly reduced in adults
from the contaminated areas (Bandazhevsky,
1999).
20. Significant changes in all parameters of
cellular immunity (in the absence of humoral
ones) were found in children born to liquidators
in 1987 (Arynchin et al., 1999).
21. A survey of 150 Belarus liquidators
10 years after the catastrophe showed a significant
decrease in the number of T lymphocyte,
T suppressor, and T helper cells
(Table 5.31).
22. In a group of 72 liquidators from 1986,
serum levels for autoantibodies to thyroid antigens
(thyroglobulin and microsomal fraction of
thyrocytes) were raised 48%. Autoantibodies
to lens antigen were increased 44%; to CIC,
55%; and to thyroglobulin, 60%. These shifts
in immune system function are harbingers of
pathology of the thyroid gland and crystalline
lens of the eye (Kyseleva et al., 2000).
5.4.2. Ukraine
1. Immune deficiency was seen in 43.5% of
children radiated in utero (vs. 28.0% in the control
group; P 15 Evacuees
1993 136 190 226 355
1994 146 196 366 425
1995 147 n/a n/a 443
8. Eye disease significantly increased from
1993 to 2003 among children 10 to 14 years
of age born to irradiated parents (National Belarussian
Report, 2006).
9. The level of absorbed Cs-137 correlates
with the incidence of cataracts in children
from the Vetka District, Gomel Province
(Bandazhevsky, 1999).
10. From 1993 to 1995, cataracts were
markedly more common in the more contaminated
territories and among evacuees than in
the general population (Table 5.51).
11. Eye diseases were more common in the
more contaminated districts of Gomel Province
and included cataracts, vitreous degeneration,
and refraction abnormalities (Bandazhevsky,
1999).
12. Bilateral cataracts occurred more frequently
in the more contaminated territories
(54 vs. 29% in controls; Arynchin and Ospennikova,
1999).
13. Crystalline lens opacities occur more frequently
in the more radioactive contaminated
territories (Table 5.52) and correlate with the
level of incorporated Cs-137 (Figure 5.11).
14. Increased incidence of vascular and
crystalline lens pathology, usually combined
with neurovascular disease, was found in 227
surveyed liquidators and in the population of
contaminated territories (Petrunya et al., 1999).
15. In 1996, incidence of cataracts among
Belarussian evacuees from the 30-km zone was
more than threefold that in the population as
a whole: 44.3 compared to 14.7 per 1,000
(Matsko, 1999).
TABLE 5.52. Incidence (%) of Opacities in Both
Crystalline Lenses among Children Living in Territories
with Various Levels of Contamination, 1992
(Arynchin and Ospennikova, 1999)
Incidence of
opacities, %
1–5 6–10 >10
Brest Province, 57.5 17.9 6.7
137–377 kBq/m2 (n = 77)
Vitebsk Province, 60.9 7.6 1.1
3.7 kBq/m2 (n = 56)
16. From 1993 to 2003 cataract morbidity
increased 6%annually amongmale liquidators
(National Belarussian Report, 2006).
5.8.2.2. Ukraine
1. A survey of pregnant women, maternity
patients, newborns, and children in contaminated
territories in the Polessk District,
Kiev Province (soil Cs-137 contamination 20–
60 Ci/km2) showed an increase in the number
of sensory organ development defects, including
congenital cataracts in neonates (Kulakov
et al., 2001).
2. Hearing disorders are found in more than
54% of inhabitants of the contaminated territories,
a level noticeably higher than that of the
general population (Zabolotny et al., 2001).
Figure 5.11. Number of bilateral lens opacities
and level of incorporated Cs-137 in Belarussian children
(Arynchin and Ospennikova, 1999).
114 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
3. In 1991 a group of 512 children 7 to 16
years of age from four villages in the Ivankiv
District, Kiev Province, was examined. The
villages differed only in the degree of Cs-137
contamination of the soil:
(a) First village: average 12.4 Ci/km2 (maximum
8.0 Ci/km2; 90% of the territory,
5.4 Ci/km2).
(b) Second village: average 3.11 Ci/km2 (maximum
13.8 Ci/km2; 90% of the territory,
4.62 Ci/km2).
(c) Third village: average 1.26 Ci/km2 (maximum
4.7 Ci/km2; 90% of the territory,
2.1 Ci/km2).
(d) Fourth village: average 0.89 Ci/km2 (maximum
2.7 Ci/km2; 90% of the territory,
1.87 Ci/km2).
Typical lens pathologies were detected in
51% of those examined, and the incidence
of lens pathology was higher in villages with
higher levels of soil contamination. Atypical
lens pathologies were observed in 61 children
(density of the posterior subcapsular layers,
dimness in the form of small spots and points
between the posterior capsule and the core, and
vacuoles) and were highly (r = 0.992) correlated
with the average and maximum levels of
soil contamination. In 1995 the incidence of
atypical lens pathologies in the first and second
villages (with average soil contamination over
2 Ci/km2) increased significantly to 34.9%.
Two girls (who had early changes of cortical
layer density in 1991) were diagnosed with dim
vision, suggesting the development of involutional
cataracts (Fedirko and Kadoshnykova,
2007).
4. In 1992–1998 children from Ovruch
City (soil Cs-137 contamination 185–555
kBq/m2) had significantly higher subclinical
lens changes (234 per 1,000, of 461 examined)
than children from Boyarka City (soil Cs-137
contamination 37–184.9 kBq/m2 or 149 per
1,000, of 1,487 examined). In Ovruch the incidence
of myopia and astigmatism was significantly
higher (Fedirko and Kadoshnykova,
2007).
5. Children who were exposed before they
were 5 years of age have more problems with
eye accommodation (Burlak et al., 2006).
6. Individuals from contaminated territories
and liquidators had premature involutional
and dystrophic changes in the eyes, development
of ocular vascular diseases, increasing incidence
of chorioretinal degeneration such as
age-dependent macular degeneration (AMD),
and benign neoplasm of the eyelids. Central
chorioretinal degeneration with clinical symptoms
of AMD was the most frequently occurring
formof delayed retinal pathology: 136.5±
10.7 per 1,000 in 1993 and 585.7 ± 23.8 per
1,000 in 2004. Involutional cataracts increased
from 294.3±32.0 per 1,000 in 1993 to 766.7±
35.9 per 1,000 in 2004 (Fedirko, 2002; Fedirko
and Kadoshnykova, 2007).
7. Individuals from contaminated territories
and liquidators had a marked decrease
in ocular accommodation (Sergienko and
Fedirko, 2002).
8. In the heavily contaminated territories,
among 841 adults examined from 1991
to 1997, retinal pathologies, involutional
cataracts, chronic conjunctivitis, and vitreous
destruction were observed more often than in
the less contaminated areas, and cataracts were
seen in persons younger than 30 years of age,
which has never been observed in less contaminated
areas (Fedirko and Kadochnykova,
2007).
9. The occurrence of involutional cataracts
in the contaminated territories increased 2.6-
fold from 1993 to 2004: from 294.3 ± 32.0 to
766.7 ± 35.9 per 1,000 (Fedirko, 1999).
10. Among 5,301 evacuees examined, eye
pathology was diagnosed in 1,405. One
cataract occurred for every four cases of other
eye pathologies (Buzunov et al., 1999).
11. Two new syndromes have been seen in
liquidators and in those from the contaminated
territories:
• Diffraction grating syndrome, in which
spots of exudate are scattered on the central
part of the retina. This was observed
in liquidators who were within direct sight
Yablokov: Nonmalignant Diseases after Chernobyl 115
of the exposed core of the fourth reactor
(Fedirko, 2002).
• Incipient chestnut syndrome, named for
the shape of a chestnut leaf, expressed
as new chorioretinopathy, changes of retinal
vessels with multiple microaneurisms,
dilations, and sacs in the retinal veins
around the macula (Fedirko, 2000).
12. The frequency of central chorioretinal
degradation increased among the liquidators
4.3-fold from 1993 to 2004: from 136.5 ±
10.7 to 585.7 ± 23.8 per 1,000 (Buzunov and
Fedirko, 1999).
13. The incidence of cataracts was significantly
higher for male liquidators compared
with female liquidators (Ruban, 2001).
14. Retinal pathology was markedly higher
than the norm among 2002 liquidators’ children
who were born after the catastrophe and
examined between 1999 and 2006 (Fedirko and
Kadoshnykova, 2007).
5.8.2.3. Russia
1. A survey of pregnant women, maternity
patients, newborns, and children in the Mtsensk
and Volkhovsk districts, Orel Province,
contaminated with Cs-137 levels of 1–5 and
10–15 Ci/km2 showed an increase in the number
of sensory organ developmental deficiencies,
including congenital cataracts in neonates
(Kulakov et al., 2001).
2. A total of 6.6% of 182 surveyed liquidators
had cataracts (Lyubchenko and Agal’tsev,
2001).
3. More than 52% of 500 surveyed liquidators
had retinal vascular abnormalities
(Nykyforov and Eskin, 1998).
4. Some 3% of liquidators under 40 years
of age had cataracts, an incidence 47-fold that
in a similar age group of the general population;
4.7% had glaucoma (Nykyforov and Eskin,
1998).
5. Between 46 and 69% of surveyed liquidators
had some hearing disorder (Zabolotny et al.,
2001; Klymenko et al., 1996). Liquidators suffer
from defects in different parts of the auditory
system resulting in progressive hearing
loss and a stuffy sensation and noise in the ears
(Zabolotny et al., 2000).
6. High-frequency audiometry revealed that
the most abnormalities occurred in liquidators
with vocal problems (Kureneva and
Shidlovskaya, 2005).
5.8.2.4. Other Countries
1. ISRAEL. A 2-year follow-up study of immigrants
to Israel from the Former Soviet Union
revealed that the proportion of those reporting
chronic visual and hearing problems was statistically
higher for immigrants from contaminated
territories (304 individuals) compared
with immigrants from noncontaminated (217
individuals) and other areas (216 individuals;
Cwikel et al., 1997).
2. NORWAY. Cataracts in newborns occurred
twice as often 1 year after the catastrophe
(Irgens et al., 1991).
5.8.3. Conclusion
There is little doubt that specific organic central
and peripheral nervous system damage affecting
various cognitive endpoints, as observed
in both individuals from the contaminated territories
and liquidators, is directly related to
Chernobyl’s ionizing radiation. In differing degrees,
these conditions affect all liquidators and
practically every person living in the contaminated
territories.
Among the consequences of the damage
to the nervous system caused by the Chernobyl
catastrophe are cognitive, emotional,
and behavioral disorders. Adverse effects
also include neurophysiological abnormalities
in the prenatally exposed and neurophysiological,
neuropsychological, and neuroimaging
abnormalities in liquidators, manifested
as left frontotemporal limbic dysfunction,
schizophreniform syndrome, chronic fatigue
syndrome, and, combined with psychological
stress, indications of schizophrenia and related
disorders.
116 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
Only after 2000 did medical authorities begin
to recognize the radiogenic origin of a universal
increase in cataracts among liquidators
and evacuees from the Chernobyl territories.
Official recognition occurred 10 years (!) after
doctors began to sound the alarm and 13 years
after the problem was first registered.
5.9. Digestive System and Visceral
Organ Diseases
Digestive system diseases are among the
leading causes of illness in the contaminated
territories. Compared to other illnesses, it is
more difficult to classify these with certainty
as being caused by a radiogenic component;
however, the collected data from the contaminated
territories point to a solid basis for such
a conclusion.
5.9.1. Belarus
1. The number of digestive organ malformations
in newborns increased in the contaminated
territories (Kulakov et al., 2001).
2. There was a twofold general increase
in chronic gastritis in Brest Province in 1996
compared to 1991. In 1996 the occurrence of
chronic gastritis in children was up to threefold
higher in the heavily contaminated territories
than in the less contaminated areas. In
the Stolinsk District in 1996 the incidence of
this disease was more than fourfold that seen in
1991 (Gordeiko, 1998).
3. Of 135 surveyed juvenile evacuees from
Bragin City and the highly contaminated territories
of Stolinsk District, Brest Province, 40%
had gastrointestinal tract illnesses (Belyaeva
et al., 1996).
4. Of 2,535 individuals examined in 1996,
digestive system illnesses were the first cause of
general morbidity in teenage evacuees (556 per
1,000; Syvolobova et al., 1997).
5. Digestive systemmorbidity increased from
4.6% in 1986 to 83.5% in 1994 andwas the second
cause of overallmorbidity of children in the
Luninetsk District, Brest Province (Voronetsky
et al., 1995).
6. Of 1,033 children examined in the heavily
contaminated territories from 1991 to 1993
there was a significantly higher incidence of
serious caries and lowered acid resistance of
tooth enamel (Mel’nichenko and Cheshko,
1997).
7. Chronic upper gastrointestinal disease was
common in children of liquidators (Arynchin
et al., 1999).
8. Gastrointestinal tract pathology is connected
to morphologic and functional thyroid
gland changes in children from territories contaminated
by Cs-137 at levels of 1–15 Ci/km2
(Kapytonova et al., 1996).
9. Digestive diseases in adults and liquidators
are more common in the contaminated
territories. From 1991 to 1996 stomach ulcers
among the population increased 9.6%, while
among liquidators the increase was 46.7%
(Kondratenko, 1998).
10. In 1995, the incidence of diseases of
the digestive system among liquidators and
evacuees in the contaminated territories was
4.3- and 1.8-fold higher than in the general
population of the country: respectively,
7,784; 3,298; and 1,817 per 100,000 (Matsko,
1999).
11. Ten years after the catastrophe digestive
illnesses were fourfold more common among
liquidators than in the general adult population
of the country (Antypova et al., 1997a).
12. From 1991 to 2001 digestive system illnesses
among liquidators increased 1.65-fold
(Borisevich and Poplyko, 2002).
13. Of 2,653 adults and teenagers examined,
the incidence of acute hepatitis-B, chronic
hepatitis-C, and hepatic cirrhosis diseases was
significantly higher in the heavily contaminated
territories of Gomel Province than in the less
contaminated Vitebsk Province. By 1996 the
incidence of these diseases had increased significantly,
with chronic hepatitis in liquidators
1.6-fold higher than in 1988–1995 (Transaction,
1996).
Yablokov: Nonmalignant Diseases after Chernobyl 117
5.9.2. Ukraine
1. The number of digestive system diseases
in children rose markedly within the first 2
years after the catastrophe (Stepanova, 1999;
and others).
2. The incidence of digestive diseases in
children correlated with the level of contamination
of the area (Baida and Zhirnosekova,
1998).
3. Premature tooth eruption was observed in
girls born to mothers irradiated during childhood
(Tolkach et al., 2003).
4. Tooth caries in boys and girls as young as
1 year are more common in the contaminated
territories (Tolkach et al., 2003).
5. Digestive system morbidity in children
more than doubled from 1988 to 1999―4,659
compared to 1,122 per 10,000 (Korol et al.,
1999; Romanenko et al., 2001).
6. Children irradiated in utero had significantly
higher incidence of gastrointestinal
tract pathology than controls―18.9 vs. 8.9%
(Stepanova, 1999).
7. Atrophy of the stomach mucosa occurred
five times more often, and intestinal metaplasia
twice as often in children living in areas contaminated
at a level of 5–15 kBq/m2 than in a
control group (Burlak et al., 2006).
8. In 1987 and 1988 functional digestive tract
illnesses were prevalent in evacuees’ children,
and from 1989 to 1990 allergies, dyspeptic syndromes,
and biliary problems were rampant
(Romanenko et al., 1995).
9. Peptic ulcer, chronic cholecystitis, gallstone
disease, and pancreatitis occurred noticeably
more often in inhabitants of territories with
higher levels of contamination (Yakymenko,
1995; Komarenko et al., 1995).
10. From 1993 to 1994 digestive system diseases
were second among overall morbidity
(Antypova et al., 1995).
11. There were significantly increased levels
of hepatic, gallbladder, and pancreatic diseases
in 1993 and 1994 in the heavily contaminated
territories (Antypova et al., 1995).
12. Digestive systemmorbidity in adult evacuees
considerably exceeds that of the general
population of the country (Prysyazhnyuk et al.,
2002).
13. In 1996 digestive system morbidity of
inhabitants in territories with contamination
greater than 15 Ci/km2 was noticeably higher
than for the country as a whole (281 vs. 210
cases per 1,000; Grodzinsky, 1999).
14. Only 9% of the liquidators evaluated
in 1989 and 1990 had normal stomach and
duodenal mucous membranes (Yakymenko,
1995).
15. The incidence of stomach ulcers among
Ukrainian liquidators in 1996 was 3.5-fold
higher than the country average (Serdyuk and
Bobyleva, 1998).
16. In 1990 ulcers and gastric erosion were
found in 60.9% of liquidators (Yakymenko,
1995).
17. After the catastrophe pancreatic abnormalities
in liquidators were diagnosed through
echograms (Table 5.53).
18. In 7 to 8 years after the catastrophe
up to 60% of the liquidators examined had
chronic digestive system pathology, which included
structural, motor, and functional secretory
disorders of the stomach. For the first 2.5
to 3 years inflammation was the most prevalent
symptom, followed by indolent erosive hemorrhagic
ulcers (Romanenko et al., 1995).
TABLE 5.53. Pancreatic Echogram Abnormalities
in Male Ukrainian Liquidators (% of Those Examined)
(Komarenko et al., 2002; Komarenko and
Polyakov, 2003)
1987–1991 1996–2002
Thickening 31 67
Increased echo density 54 81
Structural change 14 32
Contour change 7 26
Capsular change 6 14
Pancreatic duct dilatation 4 10
All echogram abnormalities 37.6 (1987) 87.4 (2002)
118 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
19. In 7 to 8 years after the catastrophe
liquidators had increasing numbers of hepatobiliary
illnesses, including chronic cholecystitis,
fatty liver, persistent active hepatitis,
and chronic hepatitis (Romamenko et al.,
1995).
5.9.3. Russia
1. Children and the teenagers living in the
contaminated territories have a significantly
higher incidence of dental caries (Sevbytov,
2005).
2. In Voronez Province there was an increased
number of odontomas in children who
were born after 1986.Tumorswere foundmore
often in girls and the complex form was most
common (Vorobyovskaya et al., 2006).
3. Periodontal pathology was more common
in children from contaminated territories and
occurredmore often in children born after the
catastrophe (Sevbytov, 2005).
4. Children whowere irradiated in utero in the
contaminated territories are significantly more
likely to develop dental anomalies (Sevbytov,
2005).
5. The frequency of the occurrence of dental
anomalies is markedly higher in children in
the more contaminated territories. Of 236 examined
who were born before the catastrophe
32.6% had normal dentition, whereas of 308
examined who were born in the same territories
after the catastrophe only 9.1% had normal
structure (Table 5.54).
6. The incidence of general and primary digestive
system diseases in children in the heavily
contaminated districts of Bryansk Province
is noticeably higher than the average for the
province and for Russia as a whole (Tables 5.55
and 5.56).
7. In general, digestive system morbidity in
adults increased in the majority of the heavily
contaminated districts of Bryansk Province
(except in the Krasnogorsk District). This increase
occurred against a background of reduced
morbidity in the province and across
Russia (Table 5.57).
TABLE 5.54. Incidence of Dental Anomalies (%)
among Children Born before and after the Catastrophe
Exposed to Different Levels of Contamination
in Tula and Bryansk Provinces∗ (Sevbytov
et al., 1999)
15 Ci/km2 5 Ci/km2) and in 30 less contaminated districts
(15 Ci/km2 3.87 (3.06 – 4.76) 7.09 (4.88 – 8.61)
∗All differences are significant.
128 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
TABLE 5.73. Comparison of the Incidence (per
1, 000) of Strictly Registered Congenital Malformations,
Medical Abortuses, and Fetuses in Minsk
Compared with Gomel and Mogilev Provinces
Contaminated at Levels above 15 Ci/km2 (Lazjuk
et al., 1999)
Territories/period
Minsk Contaminated districts
Congenital 1980–1985, 1986∗–1996, 1986∗–1995,
malformations n = 10,168 n = 20,507 n = 2,701
All CMs 5.60 4.90 7.21∗∗
CNS anomalies 0.32 0.53 0.54
Polydactyly 0.63 0.53 0.79
Multiple limb 0.07 0.10 0.28
defects
∗Second half 1986; ∗∗p 15 194.6 ± 8.6 304.1 ± 16.5∗ 221.0 ± 8.6 303.9 ± 5.1∗
∗P 1.08 Ci/km2) and that themortality risk
is only half that determined in the Chernobyl
region, that is, 17 deaths per 1,000
inhabitants (better food and better medical
and socioeconomic situations), up until
2004, we can expect an additional 170,000
deaths in Europe outside the Former Soviet
Union owing to Chernobyl.
• Let us further assume that for the other
150 million Europeans living in territories
with a Cs-137 ground contamination below
40 kBq/m2 (see Chapter 1 for details)
the additional mortality will be 10-fold
less (i.e., 1.7 deaths per 1,000 in 1990–
2004). Then we can expect 150,000 ×
1.7 or 255,000 more deaths in the rest of
Europe.
• Assuming that 20% of the radionuclides
released from the Chernobyl reactor were
deposited outside Europe (see Chapter
1) and that the exposed population was
190 million, with a risk factor of 1.7 per
1,000 as before, we could have expected
an additional 323,000 cancer deaths outside
Europe until 2004.
Thus the overall mortality for the period
from April 1986 to the end of 2004 from
the Chernobyl catastrophe was estimated at
985,000 additional deaths. This estimate of the
number of additional deaths is similar to those
of Gofman (1994a) and Bertell (2006).Aprojection
for amuch longer period―formany future
generations―is very difficult. Some counterdirected
aspects of such prognoses are as
follows:
• Given the half-life of the two main radionuclides
(Cs-137 and Sr-90) of approximately
30 years each, the radionuclide
load in the contaminated territories will
decrease about 50% for each human generation.
The concentrations of Pu, Cl-36,
and Tc-99 will remain practically the same
virtually forever (half-lives consequently
more than 20,000 and 200,000 years), and
the concentration of Am-241, which is a
decay product of Pu-241, will increase over
several generations.
Yablokov: Mortality after Chernobyl 211
• The genetic damage among descendants
of irradiated parents will propagate in the
population and will carry through many
(at least seven) generations.
• Fertility is known to decrease after exposure
to radiation (Radzikhovsky and Keisevich,
2002).
• A radiation adaptation process may occur
(the effect is known from experiments with
mammals) (Yablokov, 2002).
7.8. Conclusion
There are many findings of increased antenatal,
childhood, and general mortality in the
highly contaminated territories that are most
probably associated with irradiation from the
Chernobyl fallout. Significant increases in cancer
mortality were observed for all irradiated
groups.
A detailed study reveals that some 4% of all
deaths from 1990 to 2004 in the contaminated
territories of Ukraine and Russia were caused
by the Chernobyl catastrophe. The lack of evidence
of increased mortality in other affected
countries is not proof of the absence of adverse
effects of radiation.
The calculations in this chapter suggest that
the Chernobyl catastrophe has already killed
several hundred thousand human beings in
a population of several hundred million that
was unfortunate enough to live in territories affected
by the Chernobyl fallout. The number
of Chernobyl victims will continue to grow in
the next several generations.
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CHERNOBYL
Conclusion to Chapter II
Morbidity and prevalence of the separate specific
illnesses as documented in Chapter II,
parts 4, 5, 6, and 7 still do not give a complete
picture of the state of public health in the territories
affected by Chernobyl. The box below
documents the health of the population in the
small Ukrainian district of Lugini 10 years after
the catastrophe. Lugini is located about 110
km southwest of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power
Plant in Zhytomir Province and has radioactive
contamination at a level above 5 Ci/km2.
There are tens of similarly contaminated territories
in Belarus, Ukraine, European Russia,
Sweden, Norway, Turkey, Austria, South
Germany, Finland, and other European countries.
However, Lugini is unique not only because
the same medical staff used the same
medical equipment and followed the same protocols
that were used before and after the
catastrophe, but also because the doctors collected
and published these facts (Godlevsky and
Nasvit, 1999).
DETERIORATION IN PUBLIC HEALTH IN ONE
UKRAINIAN DISTRICT 10 YEARS AFTER THE
CATASTROPHE
District Lugini (Ukraine). The population in 1986:
29,276 persons, in 1996: 22,552 (including 4,227
children). Out of 50 villages 22 were contaminated
in 1986 at a level 1–5 Ci/km2 and 26 villages at a
level under 1 Ci/km2.
Lifespan from the time of diagnosis of lung or stomach
cancer:
Years 1984–1985: 38–62 months
Years 1995–1996: 2–7.2 months
Initial diagnosis of active tuberculosis (percentage of primary
diagnosed tuberculosis):
Years 1985–1986: 17.2–28.7 per 100,000
Years 1995–1996: 41.7–50.0 per 100,000
Endocrine system diseases in children:
Years 1985–1990: 10 per 1,000
Years 1994–1995: 90–97 per 1,000
Cases of goiter, children:
Up to 1988: not found
Years 1994–1995: 12–13 per 1,000
Neonatal mortality (0–6 days after birth):
Years 1984–1987: 25–75 per 1,000 live births
Years 1995–1996: 330–340 per 1,000 live births
General mortality:
Year 1985: 10.9 per 1,000
Year 1991: 15.5 per 1,000
Life expectancy:
Years 1984–1985: 75 years
Years 1990–1996: 65 years
Figure 1 presents data on the annual number
of newborns with congenital malformations in
Lugini districts. There was an increase in the
number of such cases seen despite a 25% decrease
in the total of Lugini population from
1986 to 1996.
In the radioactive-contaminated territories
there is a noticeable increase in the incidence of
a number of illnesses and in signs and symptoms
that are not in official medical statistics. Among
them there are abnormally poor increase
in children’s weight, delayed recovery after
illnesses, frequent fevers, etc. (see Chapter II.5,
Section 5.2).
The Chernobyl catastrophe has endowed
world medicine with new terms, among them:
• The syndrome known as “vegetovascular
dystonia” (autonomic nervous system
dysfunction): functional disturbance
of nervous regulation of the cardiovascular
system with various clinical findings arising
on a background of stress.
• The syndrome known as “incorporated
long-living radionuclides” (Bandazhevsky,
1999) that includes pathology of the cardiovascular,
nervous, endocrine, reproductive,
and other systems as the result of the
217
218 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
Figure 1. Absolute number of the congenital developmental anomalies in newborns in
Lugini District, Zhytomir Province, Ukraine, from 1983 to 1996 (Godlevsky and Nasvit, 1999).
accumulation of more than 50 Bq/kg of
Cs-137 and Sr-90 in a person.
• The syndrome known as “sharp inhalation
effect of the upper respiratory path”
(Chuchalin, 2002): a combination of a
rhinitis, scratchy throat, dry cough, and
shortness of breath with physical activity
connected to the impact of inhaled radionuclides,
including “hot particles.”
Some of the earlier known syndromes have
an unprecedented wide incidence of occurrence.
Among them is the syndrome known
as “chronic fatigue” (Lloyd et al., 1988), which
manifests as tiredness, disturbed dreams, periodic
depression and dysphoria, fatigue without
cause, impaired memory, diffuse muscular
pains, pains in large joints, shivering, frequent
mood changes, cervical lymph node sensitivity,
and decreased body mass. It is postulated
that these symptoms are a result of impaired
immune system function in combination with
disorders of the temporal–limbic parts of the
central nervous system. These include: (a) the
syndrome called “lingering radiating illness”
(Furitsu et al., 1992; Pshenichnykov, 1996), a
combination of unusual weariness, dizziness,
trembling, pains in the back, and a humeral
belt, originally described in the hibakusha (survivors
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki) and (b)
the syndromes comprising choreoretinopathy,
changes in retinal vessels, called “incipient
chestnut syndrome” and “diffraction grating
syndrome” (Fedirko, 1999, 2002).
Among conditions awaiting full medical description
are other constellations of diseases,
including “irradiation in utero,” “Chernobyl
AIDs,” “Chernobyl heart,” “Chernobyl dementia,”
and “Chernobyl legs.”
Chernobyl’s radioactive contamination at
levels in excess of 1 Ci/km2 (as of 1986–1987)
is responsible for 3.8–4.4% of the overall mortality
in areas of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.
In several other European countries with contamination
levels around 0.5 Ci/km2 (as of
1986–1987), the mortality is about 0.3–0.7%
(see Chapter II.7). Reasonable extrapolation
for additional mortality in the heavily contaminated
territories of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus
brings the estimated death toll to about
900,000, and that is only for the first 15 years
after the Chernobyl catastrophe.
Chernobyl’s contribution to the generalmorbidity
is the determining factor in practically all
territories with a level of contamination higher
than 1 Ci/km2. Chronic diseases of various etiologies
became typical not only for liquidators
but also for the affected populations and appear
to be exacerbated by the radioactive contamination.
Polymorbidity, the presence of multiple
diseases in the same individual, has become a
common feature in the contaminated territories.
It appears that the Chernobyl cancer toll
is one of the soundest reasons for the “cancer
Yablokov et al.: Conclusion to Chapter II 219
epidemic” that has been afflicting humankind
since the end of the 20th century.
Despite the enormous quantity of data concerning
the deterioration of public health in the
affected territories, the full picture of the catastrophe’s
health impact is still far from complete.
To ascertain the total complex picture of the
health consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe
we must, first of all:
• Expand, not reduce, as was recently
done in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus,
medical, biological, and radiological
studies.
• Obtain correct reconstruction of individual
doses, differentiated by the contribution
of various radionuclides from both
internal and external irradiation levels, ascertain
personal behavior and habits, and
have a mandatory requirement to determine
correct doses based on chromosome
and tooth enamel analysis.
• Perform comparative analyses of monthly
medical statistics before and after the
catastrophe (especially for the first years after
the catastrophe) for the administrative
units (local and regional) that were contaminated
with various levels of particular
radionuclides.
The constantly growing volume of objective
scientific data about the negative consequences
of the Chernobyl catastrophe for public
health, not only for the Former Soviet Union
but also in Sweden, Switzerland, France, Germany,
Italy, Turkey, Finland, Moldova, Romania,
The Czech Republic, and other countries
are not a cause for optimism (details in
Chapter II, parts 4–7). Without special largescale
programs of mitigation and prevention
of morbidity and consequent mortality, the
Chernobyl-related diseases linked to contamination
that began some 23 years ago will continue
to increase.
There are several signals to alert public
health personnel in territories that have been
contaminated by the Chernobyl fallout in
Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia:
• An absence of a correlation between current
average annual doses with doses received
in 1986–1987.
• Anoticeable growing contribution to a collective
dose for individuals in zones with a
low level of contamination.
• Increasing (instead of decreasing as was
logically supposed) levels of individual irradiation
for many people in the affected
territories.
• A need to end the demand for a 20-year latency
period for the development of cancer
(skin, breast, lung, etc.). Different cancers
have different latencies following exposure
to various and differing carcinogenic exposures.
Juvenile victims are an obvious
example.
As a result of prolonged immune system suppression
there will be an increase in many
illnesses. As a result of radiation damage to
the central nervous system in general and to
temporal–limbic structures in the brain there
will bemore and more people with problems of
intellectual development that threatens to cause
loss of intellect across the population. As a result
of radio-induced chromosomal mutations
a spectrum of congenital illnesses will become
widespread, not only in the contaminated territories
but also with migration over many areas
and over several generations.
References
Bandazhevsky, Yu. I. (1999). Pathology of incorporated
ionizing radiation (Belarussian Technological University,
Minsk): 136 pp. (in Russian).
Chernobyl Forum (2005). Chernobyl’s Legacy: Health, Environmental
and Socio-economic Impacts. Highlights of the
Chernobyl Forum Studies (IAEA, Vienna): 47 pp.
Chuchalin, A. G. (2002). Functional condition of liquidators’
pulmonary system: 7-years follow up study. Pulmonology
4: 66–71 (in Russian).
Fedirko, P. (1999). Chernobyl accident and the eye: some
results of a prolonged clinical investigation. Ophthalmology
2: 69–73.
Fedirko, P. (2002). Clinical and epidemiological studies
of eye occupational diseases in the Chernobyl
accident victims (peculiarities and risks of eye
220 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
pathology formation, prognosis). M.D. Thesis (Institute
of Occupational Health, Kiev): 42 pp. (in
Ukrainian).
Furitsu, K., Sadamori, K., Inomata, M. & Murata
S. (1992). Underestimated radiation risks and ignored
injuries of atomic bomb survivors in Hiroshima
and Nagasaki. The Investigative Committee
of Hibakusha of Hannan Chuo Hospital:
24 pp.
Godlevsky, I. & Nasvit, O. (1999). Dynamics of Health
Status of Residents in the Lugini District after the
Accident at the ChNPS. In: Imanaka, T. (Ed.). Recent
Research Activities about the Chernobyl NPP Accident in
Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. KURRI-KR-79 (Kyoto
University, Kyoto): pp. 149–157.
Lloyd, A. R., Hales, J. P. & Gandevia S. C. (1988). Muscle
strength, endurance and recovery in the postinfection
fatigue syndrome. J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiat.
51(10): 1316–1322.
Pshenichnykov, B. V. (1996). Low dose radioactive irradiation
and radiation sclerosis (“Soborna Ukraina,”
Kiev): 40 pp. (in Russian).
CHERNOBYL
Chapter III. Consequences of the Chernobyl
Catastrophe for the Environment
Alexey V. Yablokov,a Vassily B. Nesterenko,b
and Alexey V. Nesterenkob
aRussian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
bInstitute of Radiation Safety (BELRAD), Minsk, Belarus
Key words: Chernobyl; radionuclides; radiolysis; soil; water ecosystems; bioaccumulation;
transition ratio; radiomorphosis
The level of radioactivity in the atmosphere,
water, and soil in the contaminated territories
will determine the eventual level of
radiation of all living things, both directly
and via the food chain. Patterns of radioactive
contamination essentially change when
the radionuclides are transferred by water,
wind, and migrating animals. Land and bodies
of water that were exposed to little or
no contamination can become much more
contaminated owing to secondary transfer.
ManyRussian-language publications have documented
such radionuclide transfers, as well
as changes in concentration and bioaccumulation
in soil and water affecting various animals
and plants (see, e.g., the reviews by Konoplya
and Rolevich, 1996; Kutlachmedov and
Polykarpov 1998; Sokolov and Kryvolutsky,
1998; Kozubov and Taskaev, 2002). The influence
of Chernobyl radionuclide fallout on
ecosystems and populations of animals, plants,
and microorganisms is well documented.
In Chapters I and II we repeatedly emphasize
that we do not present all of the available
data on the consequences of Chernobyl, but
only selected parts to reflect the many problems
and to show the enormous scale of the contamination.
In Chapter III as well we have included
only part of thematerial concerning the impact
of the catastrophe on the biosphere―on fauna
and flora, on water, air, and soil.We emphasize
that like the consequences for public health,
which are not declining but rather increasing in
scope and severity, the consequences for nature
are neither fully documented nor completely
understood and may also not decline.
Cs-137 is removed from ecological food
chains a hundred times more slowly than was
predicted right after the catastrophe (Smith
et al., 2000; and others). “Hot” particles
have disintegrated much more rapidly than
expected, leading to unpredictable secondary
emissions from some radionuclides. Sr-90 and
Am-241 are moving through the food chains
much faster than predicted because they are
so water soluble (Konoplya, 2006; Konoplya
et al., 2006; and many others). Chernobyl radioactive
contamination has adversely affected
all biological aswell as nonliving components of
the environment: the atmosphere, surface and
ground waters, and soil.
References
Konoplya, E. F. (2006). Radioecological, medical and biological
consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe.
In: Fifth Congress of Radiation Research on Radiobiology,
Radioecology and Radiation Safety, April
10–14, 2006, Moscow, (Abstracts, Moscow) 2: pp.
101–102 (in Russian).
Konoplya, E. F. & Rolevich, I. V. (Eds.) (1996). Ecological,
Biological,Medical, Sociological and Economic Consequences
of Chernobyl Catastrophe in Belarus (Minsk): 281 pp. (in
Russian).
Konoplya, E. F., Kudryashov, V. P. & Grynevich, S.
V. (2006). Formation of air radioactive contamination
in Belarus after the Chernobyl catastrophe.
International Scientific and Practical Conference.
Chernobyl: Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 1181: 221–286 (2009).
doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04830.x c 2009 New York Academy of Sciences.
221
222 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
Twenty Years of Chernobyl Catastrophe: Ecological and
Sociological Lessons. June 5, 2006, Moscow (Materials,
Moscow): pp. 91–96 (//www. ecopolicy.
ru/upload/File/conferencebook_2006.pdf) (in
Russian).
Kozubov, G. M. & Taskaev, A. I. (2002). Radiobiological
Study of Conifers in a Chernobyl Catastrophic Area (“DIK,”
Moscow): 272 pp. (in Russian).
Kutlachmedov, Yu. A. & Polykarpov, G. G. (1998). Medical
and Biological Consequences of the Chernobyl Accident
(“Medecol,” Kiev): 172 pp. (in Russian).
Smith, J. T., Comans, R. N. J., Beresford, N. A., Wright,
S. M., Howard, B. J. & Camplin,W. C. (2000). Contamination:
Chernobyl’s legacy in food and water.
Nature 405: p. 141.
Sokolov, V. E. & Kryvolutsky, D. A. (1998). Change in Ecology
and Biodiversity after a Nuclear Disaster in the Southern
Urals (“Pentsoft,” Sofia/Moscow): 228 pp.
CHERNOBYL
8. Atmospheric, Water, and Soil
Contamination after Chernobyl
Alexey V. Yablokov, Vassily B. Nesterenko,
and Alexey V. Nesterenko
Air particulate activity over all of the Northern Hemisphere reached its highest levels
since the termination of nuclear weapons testing―sometimes up to 1 million times
higher than before the Chernobyl contamination. There were essential changes in the
ionic, aerosol, and gas structure of the surface air in the heavily contaminated territories,
as measured by electroconductivity and air radiolysis. Many years after the
catastrophe aerosols from forest fires have dispersed hundreds of kilometers away. The
Chernobyl radionuclides concentrate in sediments, water, plants, and animals, sometimes
100,000 times more than the local background level. The consequences of such a
shock on aquatic ecosystems is largely unclear. Secondary contamination of freshwater
ecosystems occurs as a result of Cs-137 and Sr-90 washout by the high waters of
spring. The speed of vertical migration of different radionuclides in floodplains, lowland
moors, peat bogs, etc., is about 2–4 cm/year. As a result of this vertical migration
of radionuclides in soil, plants with deep root systems absorb them and carry the ones
that are buried to the surface again. This transfer is one of the important mechanisms,
observed in recent years, that leads to increased doses of internal irradiation among
people in the contaminated territories.
8.1. Chernobyl’s Contamination
of Surface Air
Data below show the detection of surface
air contamination practically over the entire
Northern Hemisphere (see Chapter I for relevant
maps).
8.1.1. Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia
There are many hundreds of publications
about specific radionuclide levels in the Former
Soviet Union territories―of which the data below
are only examples.
1. Immediately after the first explosion in
the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) on
Address for correspondence: Alexey V. Yablokov, Russian
Academy of Sciences, Leninsky Prospect 33, Office 319, 119071
Moscow, Russia. Voice: +7-495-952-80-19; fax: +7-495-952-80-19.
Yablokov@ecopolicy.ru
April 26, 1986, the concentrations of the primary
radionuclides changed drastically from
place to place and from day to day (Table 8.1).
2. Table 8.2 indicates the dynamics of the
average annual concentration of some radionuclides
in the atmosphere near the Chernobyl
NPP.
3. There were essential changes in the
ionic, aerosol, and gas structure of the surface
air in the catastrophe zone. A year later,
within a 7-km zone of the Chernobyl NPP,
the electroconductivity of the air at ground
level was 240–570 times higher than in the
less contaminated territories several hundred
kilometers away (Smirnov, 1992). Outside of
the 30-km zone air radiolysis depressed the
ecosystems. Concentrations of ionized surface
air in the contaminated territories near
the Chernobyl NPP repeatedly exceeded this
level in Kaluga Province, Russia, and Zhytomir
Province, Ukraine, by 130- to 200-fold
(Kryshev and Ryazantsev, 2000).
223
224 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
TABLE 8.1. Concentration (Bq/m3) of Some Radionuclides
on April 29–May 1, 1986, in Belarus
(Minsk City) and Ukraine, Kiev Province (Kryshev
and Ryazantsev, 2000)
Baryshevka,
Minsk City, Kiev Province,
Radionuclide April 28–29 April 30–May 1
Te-132 74 3,300
I-131 320 300
Ba-140 27 230
Cs-137 93 78
Cs-134 48 52
Se-141 – 26
Se-144 – 26
Zr-95 3 24
Ru-103 16 24
4. From April to May 1986 surface air radioactivity
in Belarus increased up to 1 million
times. There was a subsequent gradual
decrease until the end of 1986 and then
the rate fell sharply. In the Berezinsk Nature
Reserve (400 km from Chernobyl) on
April 27–28, 1986, the concentrations of I-
131 and Cs-137 in the air reached 150–
200 Bq/m3 and 9.9 Bq/m3, respectively. In
1986 in Khoinyki, the midyear concentration
of Cs-137 in the surface air was 3.2 ×
10−2 Bq/m3 and in Minsk it was 3.8 ×
10−3Bq/m3, levels that are 1,000 to 10,000
times higher than precatastrophe concentrations,
which were below 10−6 Bq/m3. Midyear
concentration of Pu-239 and Pu-240 in surface
air in 1986 for Khoinyki was 8.3 × 10−6
Bq/m3 and for Minsk it was 1.1 × 10−6 Bq/
m3, levels that were 1,000 times higher
than the precatastrophe concentrations, which
were measured at less than 10−9 Bq/m3
(Gres’, 1997). The half-life period to cleanse
the surface air of Pu-239 and Pu-240 was
14.2 months, and for Cs-137 it took up to
40 months (Nesterenko, 2005). Noticeably high
levels of radionuclides in surface air were
detected many years after the catastrophe
(Figure 8.1).
5. Surface atmospheric radioactivity rises
markedly after some agricultural work (tilling,
TABLE 8.2. Dynamics of the Concentration of
Some Radionuclides (Bq/m3) in the Chernobyl
City Atmosphere, 1986–1991 (Kryshev et al.,
1994)
Year Sr-90 Ru-106 Cs-137 Se-144
1986, July– n/a 13,000 5,000 34,000
December
1987 n/a 4,000 2,000 12,000
1988 430 400 600 1,400
1989 130 – 90 160
1990 52 – 80 –
1991 52 – 100 –
harrowing, etc.) and other dust-creating activities.
There is a tendency for radionuclide levels
in surface air to increase during the spring and
summermonths, especially during dry weather.
6. Levels of radioactive contamination of
the surface air in Belarus has three dynamic
components: (1) the general radioecological situation;
(2) cyclical, connected with seasonal
changes (e.g., agricultural activities); and (3) incidental,
as a consequence of numerous anthropogenic
and natural factors. The incidental
component was strongly demonstrated in
1992, when there were raging forest fires over
all of Belarus. Their impact on the radioactive
level in the atmosphere was so great that it led
to a significant increase in the midyear concentration
of radionuclides in surface air and
most probably in human contamination via inhalation.
In territories with a high density of
ground-level radioactive contamination (in soil,
water, vegetation) the hot air resulting from the
fires caused radionuclides to be carried up to a
height of 3 km and transported over hundreds
of kilometers (Konoplia et al., 2006).
7. In Russia beta-activity originating from
Chernobyl was detected several days after
April 26, 1986, in Bryansk, Tula, Kaluga,
Oryol, Voronezh, Smolensk, and Nizhni Novgorod
(Gor’ky); also in Rostov, Tambov, and
Penza provinces in the Karelia Republic in
the European part of the county; in Ural
(Sverdlovsk Province); and in the far eastern
sector (Khabarovsk and Vladivostok), and in
Yablokov et al.: Atmospheric, Water, and Soil Contamination 225
Figure 8.1. Dynamics of the radionuclides Pu-239, Pu-240, and Cs-137 in the surface
air in Khoiniky, Belarus, 1990–2004 (Konoplya et al., 2006).
some places wasmore than 10,000 times higher
than the precatastrophe levels (Kryshev and
Ryazantsev, 2000).
8. Several years after the catastrophe, secondary
radioactive contamination from dust
and aerosols became the important factor. On
September 6, 1992, radioactive aerosols lifted
by a strong wind from the 30-km Chernobyl
zone reached the vicinity of Vilnius, Lithuania
(about 300 km away) in 5–7 h, where the Cs-
137 concentration increased 100-fold (Ogorodnykov,
2002). The same scale of radionuclide
dispersion occurs in the wake of forest fires
that at times rage over large areas of the contaminated
territories of Belarus, Russia, and
Ukraine.
8.1.2. Other Countries
Below are some examples of Chernobyl’s radioactive
contamination of the atmosphere in
the Northern Hemisphere.
1. CANADA. Three Chernobyl clouds entered
eastern Canada: the first on May 6,
1986; the second around May 14; the third on
May 25–26. The fallout included: Be-7, Fe-59,
Nb-95, Zr-95, Ru-103, Ru-106, Cs-137, I-131,
La-141, Ce-141, Ce-144, Mn-54, Co-60, Zn-
65, and Ba-140 (Roy et al., 1988).
2. DENMARK. From April 27 to 28 the
mean air concentration of Cs-137 was 0.24
Bq/m3; Sr-90, 5.7mBq/m3; Pu-239+Pu-240,
51 Bq/m3; and Am-241, 5.2 μBq/m3
(Aarkrog, 1988).
3. FINLAND. The most detailed accounting of
the Chernobyl radionuclide fallout during the
first days after the catastrophe was in Sweden
and Finland (Table 8.3).
4. JAPAN. Two Chernobyl radioactive clouds
were detected over Japan: one at a height of
about 1,500 m in the first days of May 1986
and the other at a height of more than 6,000 m
at the end of May (Higuchi et al., 1988). Up
to 20 radionuclides were detected in the surface
air, including Cs-137, I-131, and Ru-103.
TABLE 8.3. Airborne Radioactivity (mBq/m3) of
19 Radionuclides in Finland, Nurmijarvi, April 28,
1986 (Sinkko et al., 1987)
Nuclide Activity Nuclide Activity
I-131 223,000 Te-131m 1,700
I-133 48,000 Sb-127 1,650
Te-132 33,000 Ru-106 630
Cs-137 11,900 Ce-141 570
Cs-134 7,200 Cd-115 400
Ba-140 7,000 Zr-95 380
Te-129m 4,000 Sb-125 253
Ru-103 2,880 Ce-143 240
Mo-99 2,440 Nd-147 150
Cs-136 2,740 Ag-110m 130
Np-239 1,900
226 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
Concentrations of Cs-131/Cs-134/Cs-137 in
the surface air northwest of Japan increased
more than 1,000 times (Aoyama et al., 1986;
Ooe et al., 1988). Noticeable atmospheric Cs-
137 fallout was marked in Japan up through
the end of 1988 (Aoyama et al., 1991).
5. YUGOSLAVIA. The increase in Pu-238/
P239-240 ratios in surface air at the Vinca-
Belgrade site for May 1–15, 1986, confirms
that Chernobyl was the source (Mani-Kudra
et al., 1995).
6. SCOTLAND. The Chernobyl fallout on the
evening of May 3 included Te-132, I-132, I-
131, Ru-103, Cs-137, Cs-134, and Ba-140/La-
140 (Martin et al., 1988).
7. UNITED STATES. Chernobyl’s radioactive
clouds were noted in the Bering Sea area of
the north Pacific (Kusakabe and Ku, 1988),
and reached North America. The pathways
of the Chernobyl plumes crossed the Arctic
within the lower troposphere and the Pacific
Ocean within the mid-troposphere. The first
measured radiation arrived in the United States
on May 10, and there was a second peak on
May 20–23. The second phase yielded much
higher Ru-103 and Ba-140 activity relative to
Cs-137 (Bondietti et al., 1988; Bondietti and
Brantley, 1986). The air particulate activity
in the United States reached its highest level
since the termination of nuclear weapons testing
(US EPA, 1986). Examples of Chernobyl’s
atmospheric contamination are presented in
Table 8.4.
Table 8.5 summarizes some examples of surface
air contamination in several countries resulting
from the Chernobyl catastrophe.
Modern science is far from understanding
or even being able to register all of the specific
radiogenic effects for each of the Chernobyl
radionuclides.However, the effects of the
products of radiolysis from such huge atmospheric
radiation fallout demands close attention.
The term “atmospheric radiotoxins” appeared
after the catastrophe (Gagarinsky et al.,
1994). As noted earlier, radionuclide air dispersion
may occur secondarily as a result of forest
fires.
TABLE 8.4. Examples of Surface Air Concentrations
of I-131, Cs-131, Cs-137, and Cs-134 over
the United States after the Chernobyl Catastrophe,
May 1986 (Larsen and Juzdan, 1986; Larsen et al.,
1986; US EPA, 1986; Toppan, 1986; Feely et al.,
1988; Gebbie and Paris, 1986; Vermont, 1986)
Radionuclide Location Activity
I-131 New York, NY 20,720 μBq/m3
Rexburg, ID 11,390 μBq/m3
Portland, ME 2.9 pCi/m3
Augusta, ME 0.80 pCi/m3
Barrow, AL 218.7 fCi/m3
Mauna Loa, HI 28.5 fCi/m3
Cs-137 New York, NY 9,720 μBq/m3
Barrow, AL 27.6 fCi/m3
Mauna Loa, HI 22.9 fCi/m3
Cs-134 Mauna Loa, HI 11.2 fCi/m3
Barrow, AL 18.6 fCi/m3
Gross beta Portland, ME 1.031 pCi/m3
Lincoln, NE 14.3 pCi/m3
Vermont 0.113 pCi/m3
8.2. Chernobyl’s Contamination
of Aquatic Ecosystems
Chernobyl contamination traveled across
the Northern Hemisphere for hours, days, and
weeks after the catastrophe, was deposited via
rain and snow, and soon ended up in bodies
of water―rivers, lakes, and seas. Many
Belarussian, Ukrainian, Russian, Latvian, and
Lithuanian rivers were shown to be contaminated
after the catastrophe, including the
water basins of the Dnepr, Sozha, Pripyat, Neman,
Volga, Don, and the Zapadnaya/Dvina-
Daugava.
8.2.1. Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia
1. In the first days after the catastrophe
(the period of primary aerosol contamination),
the total activity in Pripyat River water near
the Chernobyl NPP exceeded 3,000 Bq/liter.
Only by the end of May 1986 had it decreased
to 200 Bq/liter. The maximum concentration
of Pu-239 in the Pripyat River was
0.37 Bq/liter.
Yablokov et al.: Atmospheric, Water, and Soil Contamination 227
TABLE 8.5. Examples of Surface Air Concentrations of Some Radionuclides in the Northern Hemisphere
after the Catastrophe, 1986
Radionuclide Concentration Location Date Reference
I-131 223 Bq/m3 Nurmijarvi Apr. 28 RADNET, 2008
251 Bq/m3 Revelstoke, B.C., Canada May 13
176 Bq/m3 Quebec, Canada May 5–6
20.7 Bq/m3 New York, NY May
0.8 Bq/m3 Japan May 5 Imanaka and Koide, 1986
Cs-137 9.7 Bq/m3 Vienna Apr. 30 Irlweck et al., 1993
Ru-103 62.5 Bq/m3
Gross beta 160 Bq/m3 Bulgaria May 1 Pourchet et al., 1997
100 Bq/m3 Munich Apr. 30 Hotzl et al., 1987
Pu-239 + Pu-240 89 μBq/m3 Vienna May Irlweck et al., 1993
0.4 μBq/m3,∗ Paris Apr. 29–30 Thomas and Martin, 1986
∗During 1984, total Pu-239 + Pu-240 activity was 1,000-fold less (10–40 nBq/m3).
2. From May to July 1986 the level of radiation
in the northern part of the Kiev water
reservoir was 100,000 times higher than the
precatastrophe level (Ryabov, 2004).
3. Concentration of I-131 in surface water
in Leningrad Province (Sosnovy Bor
City) on May 2, 1986, was 1,300 Bq/liter
and on May 4, 1986, it was 740 Bq/liter
(Kryshev and Ryazantsev, 2000; Blynova,
1998).
4. During the first period after the catastrophe
the littoral zone was heavily contaminated
with radioactivity. In the years that followed
bodies of water became secondarily contaminated
as a result of the washout of Cs-137 and
Sr-90 by spring highwaters and fromwoodland
fire fallout (Ryabov, 2004).
5. In July 1986, the primary dose-forming
radionuclides in clay in the bodies of water
near the Chernobyl NPP were Ni-98 (27
kBq/kg), Ce-144 (20.1 kBq/kg), and Zr-96
(19.3 kBq/kg). In March–April 1987 the concentration
of Ni-95 in aquatic plants there
reached 29 kBq/kg and Zr-95 levels in fowl
were up to 146 kBq/kg (Kryshev et al.,
1992).
6. The Sr-90 contamination in the Dnepr
River floodplain–lake ecosystem was concentrated
primarily in bivalve mollusks, 10–40%
concentrated in aquatic plants, about 2%
in fish, 1–10% in gastropod mollusks, and
less than 1% in plankton (Gudkov et al.,
2006).
7. The Cs-137 in the Dnepr River
floodplain–lake ecosystem was distributed as
follows: 85–97% in aquatic plants, 1–8% in
zoobenthos, 1–8% in fish, and about 1% in
gastropod mollusks (Gudkov et al., 2006).
8. Owing to bioaccumulation, the amount of
radionuclides can be thousands of times higher
in plants, invertebrate, and fishes compared
with concentrations in water (Table 8.6).
9. In contaminated territories with Cs-137
levels of 0.2 Ci/km2 the rate of transfer from
water into turf plants can vary 15- to 60-fold
from year to year (Borysevich and Poplyko,
2002).
10. More than 90% of the Pu + Am in
aquatic ecosystems is in the sediment (Borysevich
and Poplyko, 2002).
11. The Cs-137 and Sr-90 concentrations increased
in underground water and correlated
with the density of land contamination and
zones of aeration. The highest level of Sr-90
(up to 2.7 Bq/liter) was observed in rivers that
ran through the heavily contaminated territories.
In the Pripyat River floodplains in the
territories with land contamination greater
than 1,480 kBq/km2 ground water activity
reached 3.0 Bq/liter of Cs-137 and
228 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
TABLE 8.6. Coefficients of Accumulation for Some Live Organisms∗ of Chernobyl Radionuclides in the
Dnepr River and the Kiev Reservoir, 1986–1989 (Kryshev and Ryazantsev, 2000: tables 9.12, 9.13,
9.14; Gudkov et al., 2004)
Fishes (bream, sander,
Radionuclide Mollusks Water plants roach, silver bream)
Ce-141, Ce-144 3,000–4,600 20,000–24,000 500–900
Ru-103, Ru-106 750–1,000 11,000–17,000 120–130
Cs-134, Cs-137 178–500 2,700–3,000 100–1,100
Zr-95 2,900 20,000 190
Ni-95 3,700 22,000 220
Sr-90 440–3,000 240 50–3,000
Pu ― 4,175 98
Am ― 7,458 1,667
I-131 120 60 2–40
∗Concentration in aquatic flora and fauna as compared with concentration in water.
0.7 Bq/liter of S-90 (Konoplia and Rolevich,
1996).
12. During spring high waters Cs-137 that
has accumulated in bottom sediments becomes
suspended and leads to noticeably increased
radioactivity in water. Up to 99% of Sr-90 migrates
in a dissolved state (Konoplia and Rolevich,
1996).
13. Owing to its higher solubility, Sr-90
leaves river ecosystems much faster than Cs-
137. At the same time Cs-137 can accumulate
up to 93 × 10−9 Ci/kg in grass and sod on
flooded land (Borysevich and Poplyko, 2002).
14. The amount of Cs-137 and Sr-90 in water
has decreased over time, but it has increased
in aquatic plants and sediments (Konoplia and
Rolevich, 1996).
15. More intensive radionuclide accumulation
occurs in lake sediments owing to annual
die-off of vegetation and the absence of
drainage. In the 5 to 9 years after the catastrophe,
in heavily weeded bodies of water there
was a decrease in Cs-137 and Sr-90 in the water
itself but a simultaneous increase in radioactivity
in the sediment (Konoplia and Rolevich,
1996).
16. In the Svjetsko Lake (Vetka District, Belarus),
total radionuclide concentration inwater
measured 8.7 Bq/liter, in aquatic plants upto
3,700 Bq/kg, and in fish up to 39,000 Bq/kg
(Konoplia and Rolevich, 1996).
8.2.2. Other Countries
1. FINLAND, FRANCE, AND CANADA. Data
on some radionuclide concentrations in rainfall
and surface water in Finland, France, and
Canada are presented in Table 8.7.
2. GREAT BRITAIN (SCOTLAND). On the
evening ofMay 3, one of the Chernobyl clouds
contaminated the sea with Te-132/I-132, I-
131, Ru-103, Cs-137, Cs-134, and Ba-140/La-
140 totaling 7,000 Bq/liter (Martin et al.,
1988).
3. GREECE. Composition of doseforming
radionuclides and their activity
in Greece in May 1986 are presented in
Table 8.8.
4. NORTH SEA. In a North Sea sediment
trap, the highest Chernobyl activity reached
670,000 Bq/kg, with Ru-103 being the most
prevalent isotope (Kempe and Nies, 1987). Radionuclide
levels in sea spume were several
thousand times higher than in seawater in
June of 1986. Cs-137 and Cs-134 quickly migrated
to the sediments, whereas Ru-106 and
Ag-110 lingered in the spume (Martin et al.,
1988).
5. THE NETHERLANDS. I-131, Te-132, I-132,
La-140, Cs-134, Cs-137, and Ru-103 were
measured in rainwater in the Nijmegen area
during May 1–21, 1986. The total activity
on the first rainy day was of 9 kBq/liter
Yablokov et al.: Atmospheric, Water, and Soil Contamination 229
TABLE 8.7. Rainfall and Surface Water Radionuclide Concentrations in Several Countries, 1986–
1987
Maximum
Radionuclide concentration Location Date Reference
Cs-137 5,300 Bq/m3∗ Finland 1986 Saxen and Aaltonen, 1987
325 mBq/liter Canada, Ontario May 1986 Joshi, 1988
700 Bq/liter France, Paris Apr. 29–30, 1986 Thomas and Martin, 1986
Sr-89 11,000 Bq/m3 Finland 1986 Saxen and Aaltonen, 1987
Te-132 7,400 Bq/liter France, Paris Apr. 29–30, 1986 Thomas and Martin, 1986
∗About 1,000 times higher than the precatastrophe concentration, and up to 80 times higher than the highest values
after the nuclear weapons test period in the 1960s.
(2.7 kBq/liter for I-131 and 2.3 kBq/liter each
for Te-132 and I-132). The total activity precipitated
per square kilometer in this period
was about 55 GBq (Beentjes and Duijsings,
1987).
6. POLAND. Average values of Pu-239 + Pu-
240 in the Polish economic zone of the Baltic
Sea ranged from 30 to 98 Bq/m2 in three sampling
locations. The highest concentration of
Pu in sediment probably came from the Vistula
River, which delivered 192 MBq of Chernobyl’s
Pu-239 + Pu-240 to the Baltic Sea in
1989 (Skwarzec and Bojanowski, 1992). The
total Cs-137 loading of Lake Sniardwy was estimated
to average 6,100 Bq/m2 (Robbins and
Jasinski, 1995).
7. SWEDEN. The annual mean concentration
of Cs-137 (in Bq/kg) in surface water near
Gotland Island from 1984 to 2004 is shown in
Figure 8.2.
TABLE 8.8. Composition and Activity of the Chernobyl
Radioactive Fallout in Thessaloniki, Greece,
(Total Wet Deposition, Bq/m2), May 5–6, 1986 (Papastefanou
et al., 1988)
Radionuclide Maximum concentration
I-131 117,278
Te-132 70,700
I-132 64,686
Ru-103 48,256
Ba-140 35,580
Cs-137 23,900
La-140 15,470
Cs-134 12,276
8. TYRRHENIAN SEA. Concentration of Cs-
137 in surface water of the Tyrrhenian Sea rose
significantly immediately after the catastrophe
(Figure 8.3).
8.3. Chernobyl’s Contamination
of the Soil Mantle
The soilmantle will accumulate Chernobyl’s
radionuclides with long half-lives for centuries.
As in the previous review, this material is only
a representative selection from the very large
body of existing data.
8.3.1. Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia
1. Radionuclides on sod-podzol and heavily
podzolized sandy clay soils move from the
surface to the bottom soil layer during the
course of time, resulting in the concentration of
radionuclides in the root zone. It is in this
way that soils with low surface contamination
transfer radioactivity to the vegetative (and edible)
parts of plants (Borysevich and Poplyko,
2002).
2. Plowed and natural pastures located 50
to 650 km from the Chernobyl site have levels
of Cs-137 activity in the 1,000 to 25 kBq/m2
range in the upper soil layers (0–5 cm). Levels of
contamination are higher in natural pastures as
compared with plowed pastures, with the Sr-90
activity ranging from 1.4 to 40 kBq/m2 (Salbu
et al., 1994).
230 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
Figure 8.2. The annual mean Cs-137 concentrations (in Bq/liter) in surface waters of
East and West Gotland (sampling depth ≤10 m) from 1984 to 2004. Straight line―average
pre-Chernobyl (1984–1985) level (HELCOM, 2006).
3. The soils most highly contaminated by
I-131 are in northern Ukraine, eastern Belarus,
and nearby provinces of Russia, but
some “spots” of radioiodine soil contamination
have been detected in many areas, including
Kaliningrad Province on the Baltic shore
(Makhon’ko, 1992).
4. In many areas up to hundreds of kilometers
to the west, northwest, and northeast of
the Chernobyl NPP the levels of Cs-137 soil
contamination exceed 1,489 kBq/m2 (Kryshev
and Ryazantsev, 2000).
5. In humid environments such as flood
planes, lowland moors, and peat bogs vertical
Figure 8.3. Concentration of Cs-137 (mBq/liter) in surface waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea,
1960–1995 (Europe Environmental Agency, 1999).
migration is activated at different speeds for
different radionuclides (Table 8.9).
6. Self-cleansing of soils by vertical migration
of radionuclides can reach 2 to 4 cm/year
(Bakhur et al., 2005).
7. The granular composition of soil and
agrichemical soil characteristics modifies the
transfer coefficient for Cs-137 (see Chapter
9). There is roughly a 10-fold variation (from
0.01 to 0.11 Bq/kg) in the degree of Cs-
137 transition from soil to beetroots depending
on whether the soil is sod-podzol, loamy,
sandy-clay, or sandy (Borysevich and Poplyko,
2002).
Yablokov et al.: Atmospheric, Water, and Soil Contamination 231
TABLE 8.9. The Years Needed to Achieve a 50%
Reduction in the Amount of Each Radionuclide in
the Top (0–5 cm) Soil Layer in Areas 50 and 200
km from the Chernobyl NPP (National Belarussian
Report, 2006)
Years
Radionuclide Up to 50 km Up to 200 km
Pu-239, Pu-240 6–7 >50
Am-241 6–7 >50
Sr-90 7–12 7–12
Cs-137 10–17 24–27
8.3.2. Other Countries
1. AUSTRIA. The alpine regions were among
the most heavily contaminated territories outside
of the Former Soviet Union. In May 1986
in Salzburg Province the median Cs-137 surface
deposition was about 31 kBq/m2 with
maximum values exceeding 90 kBq/m2 (Lettner
et al., 2007) or even 200 kBq/m2 (Energy,
2008). Ten years after the catastrophe 54% of
Chernobyl-derived Cs-137 was 2 cm deeper
into the soil layer in a spruce forest stand, with
less than 3% having reached layers deeper than
20 cm. The average retention half-life of Cs-
137 was 5.3 years in the 0–5 cm layer, 9.9 years
in the 5–10 cm layer, and 1.78 years in layers
deeper than 10 cm (Strebl et al., 1996).
2. BULGARIA. Surface soil Cs-137 activity was
up to 81.8 kBq/m2 in the most contaminated
territories, which is eight times higher than the
cumulative amount deposited during the peak
period ofweapons testing (Pourchet et al., 1997).
3. CROATIA. In 1986 Cs-137 fallout deposit
reached 6.3 kBq/m2 (Frani´c et al., 2006).
4.DENMARK.The totalmean Cs-137 and Sr-
90 deposits over Denmark reached 1.3 and 38
Bq/m2, respectively, as a result of Chernobyl.
Most of the debris was deposited in the first half
of May. In the Faeroe Islands the mean deposition
of Cs-137 was 2 kBq/m2 and inGreenland
it was up to 188 Bq/m2 (Aarkrog, 1988).
5. ESTONIA. The ground deposition from
Chernobyl for Cs-137 was 40 kBq/m2 (Realo
et al., 1995).
6. FRANCE. The maximal Cs-137 Chernobyl
soil contamination reached up to 545
kBq/kg (CRII-RAD, 1988) and radioactivity
from Chernobyl fallout in the French Alps
reached 400 Bq/m2 (Pinglot et al., 1994).
7. GERMANY. Average ground deposition for
total Cs was 6 kBq/m2 (Energy, 2008), and
concentration of radionuclides in the southern
part of the country was much higher
(Table 8.10).
8. IRELAND. The initial Chernobyl fallout
owing to Cs-137/Cs-134 reached a concentration
of 14,200 Bq/m2, some 20-fold higher
than the pre-catastrophe level (McAuley and
Moran,1989).
9. ITALY. In the mountain area of Friuli-
Venezia Giulia deposition of Cs-137 from
Chernobyl ranged from 20 to 40 kBq/m−2.
Concentration of Cs-137 in soil 0–5 cm deep
declined only 20% in the first 5 years after the
catastrophe (Velasko et al., 1997).
10. JAPAN. Up to 20 radionuclides were
detected on the ground, including Cs-137,
I-131, and Ru-103, with resulting levels of 414,
19, and 1 Bq/m2, respectively (Aoyama et al.,
1987).
11. NORWAY. Many places in Norway were
heavy contaminated after the catastrophe
(Table 8.11).
12. POLAND. Soil in central Poland was contaminated
by a wide spectrum of theChernobyl
radionuclides (Table 8.12). In the northeastern
part of the country Cs-134 + Cs-137 ground
deposition levels were up to 30 kBq/m2 and I-
131 and I-132 deposition was up to 1MBq/m2
(Energy, 2008).
13. SWEDEN. The mean deposition of Chernobyl
Cs-137 in the forest soils was above
50 kBq/m2 (McGee et al., 2000), and maximum
Cs-134 + Cs-137 ground deposition was
up to 200 kBq/m2 (Energy, 2008).
14.UNITEDKINGDOM. Examples of radioactive
contamination in soil are presented in
Table 8.13. Floodplain loading of Cs-137 in
soil was up to 100 times greater than in soils
above the floodplain (Walling and Bradley,
1988). OnMay 3, one of the Chernobyl clouds
232 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
TABLE 8.10. Ground Deposition (kBq/m2) of Some Chernobyl Radionuclides in Germany, 1986
Radionuclide Location Concentration, max Reference
Cs-137 Upper Swabia 43 Bilo et al., 1993
Bonn 1.38 Clooth and Aumann, 1990
Cs-134 + Cs-137 South Germany 60 Energy, 2008
Te-132 Munich∗ 120 Gogolak et al., 1986
∗June 3, 1986; cumulative dry and wet deposition.
TABLE 8.11. Examples of Cs-137 Ground Contamination after the Chernobyl Catastrophe in Norway,
1986
Maximum radioactivity Location Reference
22 kBq/kg∗ Stream gravel Hongve et al., 1995
500 kBq/m2∗ Average in sediment Hongve et al., 1995
22 Bq/kg Svalbard glaciers Pinglot et al., 1994
80 kBq/m2 Dovrefjell Solem and Gaare, 1992
54 kBq/m2 (mean) Southern Norway, grazing areas Staaland et al., 1995
200 kBq/m2∗ Soils in affected areas Blakar et al., 1992
∗Cs-134 + Cs-137
contaminated the Scottish landscape with Te-
132/I-132, I-131, Ru-103, Cs-137, Cs-134,
and Ba-140/La-140 totaling 41 kBq/m2 (Martin
et al., 1988).
15. UNITED STATES. Observations of radionuclide
contamination of U.S. soils from
Chernobyl are listed in Table 8.14. Ground deposition
for Cs-137 comes close to or exceeds
the total weapons’ testing fallout (Dibb and
Rice, 1988). The spectrum of Chernobyl’s soil
contamination in the United States included
TABLE 8.12. Spectrum and Activity of Chernobyl
Radionuclides in Soil Samples (kBq/m2 in 0–5 cm
Layer) in the Krakov Area, May 1, 1986 (Broda,
1987)
Radionuclide Activity Radionuclide Activity
Te-132 29.3 Ba-140 2.5
I-132 25.7 La-140 2.4
I-131 23.6 Mo-99 1.7
Te-129m 8.0 Ru-106 1.3
Ru-103 6.1 Sb-127 0.8
Cs-137 5.2 Cs-136 0.7
Cs-134 2.7 Total Up to 360
Ru-103, Ru-106, Cs-134, Cs-136, Cs-137, Ba-
140, La-140, I-132, Zr-95, Mo-95, Ce-141, and
Ce-144 (Larsen et al., 1986).
16. Table 8.15 presents data on Cs-137 +
Cs-134 contamination in several European
countries.
8.4. Conclusion
Chernobyl’s radioactive contamination has
adversely affected all biological as well as
nonliving components of the environment:
the atmosphere, surface and ground waters,
the surface and the bottom soil layers, especially
in the heavily contaminated areas of Belarus,
Ukraine, and European Russia. Levels of
Chernobyl’s radioactive contamination even in
North America and eastern Asia are above the
maximum levels that were found in the wake of
weapons testing in the 1960s.
Modern science is far fromunderstanding or
even being able to register all of the radiological
effects on the air, water, and soil ecosystems due
to anthropogenic radioactive contamination.
Yablokov et al.: Atmospheric, Water, and Soil Contamination 233
TABLE 8.13. I-131 and Cs-134/Cs-137 Soil Contamination (kBq/m2) from Chernobyl Radionuclides
in Some Parts of the United Kingdom, 1986
Radionuclide Activity Location Date Reference
I-131 26 Lerwick, Shetland May 1–6 Cambray et al., 1987
41 Holmrook, Cumbria
Cs-137 7.4 Sellafield, Cumbria May Fulker, 1987
15 Ireland 1986 Rafferty et al., 1993
0.6 Berkeley, Gloucestershire May Nair and Darley, 1986
Cs-134/Cs-137 100 Scotland May Wynne, 1989
Gross beta 88.4 Strathclyde, Scotland May 6 RADNET, 2008
TABLE 8.14. Examples of Ground Deposition of Chernobyl Radionuclides (Dibb and Rice, 1988; Dreicer
et al., 1986; Miller and Gedulig, 1986; Gebbie and Paris, 1986)
Radionuclide Location Date, 1986 Activity
Cs-137 Solomons Island, MD May 8–June 20 4,250 Bq/m2
Chester, NJ May 17 9.40 Bq/m2∗
Cs-134 Solomons Island, MD May 8–June 20 2,000 Bq/m2
Ru-103 Solomons Island, MD May 8–June 20 22,000 Bq/m2
Chester, NJ June 3 18.46 Bq/m2
Chester, NJ May 23 15 Bq/m2
I-131 Chester, NJ May 23 47.2 Bq/m2
Portland, OR May 11 9,157 pCi/m2
∗Deposition on grass.
Undoubtedly there are such changes and, owing
to the amount of Chernobyl radionuclides
that were added to the biosphere, the changes
will continue for many decades.
Contrary to the common view that the
Chernobyl plumes contained mostly light and
gaseous radionuclides, which would disappear
without a trace into the Earth’s atmosphere,
the available facts indicate that even Pu
TABLE 8.15. Level of Ground Radioactive Contamination
after the Chernobyl Catastrophe on
British Embassy Territory in Some European
Countries (http://members.tripod.com/∼BRuslan/
win/energe1.htm)
Cs-134, Cs-137,
Location kBq/m2 kBq/m2
Czech (Prague) 4.9 2.9
Hungary (Budapest) 8.8 5.3
Yugoslavia (Belgrade) 7.3 4.4
Romania (Bucharest) 4.3 2.6
Poland (Warsaw) 2.8 1.7
concentrations increased thousands of times at
distances as far asmany thousands of kilometers
away from Chernobyl.
Common estimates of the level of radioactivity
per liter or cubic or square meter mask
the phenomenon of radionuclides concentrating
(sometimes many thousands of times) in
sediments, in sea spume, in soil microfilms, etc.,
through bioconcentration (for details seeChapters
9 and 10). This means that harmless looking
“average” levels of radionuclides inevitably
have a powerful impact on living organisms in
the contaminated ecosystems.
As a result of vertical migration of radionuclides
through soil, they accumulate in plants
with deep root systems. Absorbed by the roots,
the buried radionuclides again rise to the surface
and will be incorporated in the food chain.
This transfer is one of the more important
mechanisms observed in recent years that leads
to increased internal irradiation for people in
the all of the territories contaminated by nuclear
fallout.
234 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
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CHERNOBYL
9. Chernobyl’s Radioactive Impact on Flora
Alexey V. Yablokov
Plants andmushrooms accumulate the Chernobyl radionuclides at a level that depends
upon the soil, the climate, the particular biosphere, the season, spotty radioactive contamination,
and the particular species and populations (subspecies, cultivars), etc. Each
radionuclide has its own accumulation characteristics (e. g., levels of accumulation for
Sr-90 are much higher than for Cs-137, and a thousand times less than that for Ce-144).
Coefficients of accumulation and transition ratios vary so much in time and space that
it is difficult, if not impossible, to predict the actual levels of Cs-137, Sr-90, Pu-238, Pu-
239, Pu-240, and Am-241 at each place and time and for each individual plant or fungus.
Chernobyl irradiation has caused structural anomalies and tumorlike changes in many
plant species. Unique pathologic complexes are seen in the Chernobyl zone, such as a
high percentage of anomalous pollen grains and spores. Chernobyl’s irradiation has led
to genetic disorders, sometimes continuing for many years, and it appears that it has
awakened genes that have been silent over a long evolutionary time.
There are thousands of papers about agricultural,
medicinal, and other plants and mushrooms
contaminated after theChernobyl catastrophe
(Aleksakhin et al., 1992; Aleksakhin,
2006; Grodzinsky et al., 1991; Ipat’ev 1994,
1999; Parfenov and Yakushev, 1995; Krasnov,
1998; Orlov, 2001; and many others).
There is also an extensive body of literature
on genetic, morphological, and other changes
in plants caused by Chernobyl radiation. In
this chapter we present only a relatively small
number of the many scientific papers that
address Chernobyl’s radioactive impact on
flora.
The Chernobyl fallout has ruined the pine
forests near the nuclear power plant, which
were not able to withstand the powerful radioactive
impact, where contamination in the
first weeks and months after the catastrophe
reached several thousand curies per square
kilometer. With the catastrophe’s initial atmospheric
radiotoxins (see Chapter 8) and the
Address for correspondence: Alexey V. Yablokov, Russian
Academy of Sciences, Leninsky Prospect 33, Office 319, 119071
Moscow, Russia. Voice: +7-495-952-80-19; fax: +7-495-952-80-19.
Yablokov@ecopolicy.ru
powerful irradiation caused by “hot particles,”
the soil and plants surfaces became contaminated
and a cycle of absorption and release of
radioisotopes from soil to plants and back again
was put into motion (Figure 9.1).
Soon after the catastrophe plants and fungi
in the contaminated territories became concentrators
of radionuclides, pulling them from
the soil via their roots and sending them to
other parts of the plant. Radionuclide levels in
plants depend on the transfer ratio (TR, transition
coefficient) and the coefficient of accumulation
(CA)―the relationship of specific activity
of a radionuclide in a plant’s biomass to
the specific activity of the same radionuclide in
soil: [TR = (Bq/kg of plant biomass)/(kBq/m2
for soil contamination); CA = (Bq/kg of plant
biomass)/(Bq/kg of soil)].
9.1. Radioactive Contamination of
Plants, Mushrooms, and Lichens
The level of radionuclide incorporation (accumulation)
in a living organism is a simple
and reliable mark of the potential for damage
to the genetic, immunological, and life-support
237
238 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
Figure 9.1. Radioautographs of plants with Chernobyl radionuclides: (A) leaf of common
plantain (Plantago major); (B) aspen leaf (Populus tremula) Bryansk Province, Russia, 1991.
Spots of the raised radioactivity are visible. (A. E. Bakhur photo, with permission.)
systems of that organism. The first part of
this section presents data regarding radioactive
contamination in plants and the second relates
to the levels of contamination in mushrooms
and lichens.
9.1.1. Plants
1. The levels of surface contamination of
three species of plants in Kiev City reached
399 kBq/kg and varied by specific location and
particular radionuclide (Table 9.1).
TABLE 9.1. Chernobyl Radioactivity (Bq/kg, dry weight) of Leafage in Three Species in Kiev City at the
End of July 1986 (Grodzinsky, 1995b)
Nuclide Aesculus hippocastanum∗ Tilla cordata∗∗ Betula verrucosa∗∗ Pinus silvestris∗∗
Pm-144 58,800 146,150 10,800 –
Ce-141 18,800 – 6,500 4,100
Ce-144 63,300 – 21,800 18,800
La-140 1,100 1,930 390 660
Cs-137 4,030 – 3,400 4,300
Cs-134 2,000 – 1,540 2,100
Ru-103, Rh-103 18,350 36,600 10,290 7,180
Ru-106 14,600 41,800 400 5,700
Zr-95 35,600 61,050 11,400 6,500
Nb-95 53,650 94,350 18,500 9,900
Zn-65 – 400 – –
Total activity 312,000 399,600 101,400 70,300
∗Near underground station “Darnitza”; ∗∗ near underground station “Lesnaya.”
2. Table 9.2 presents data on radionuclide
accumulation in the pine needles in Finland
after the catastrophe.
3. Data inTable 9.3 indicate the level of plant
radionuclide contamination that was reached
worldwide after the catastrophe.
4. There were high levels of radionuclide accumulation
in aquatic plants (Table 9.4).
5. After the catastrophe the levels of incorporated
radionuclides jumped in all of the heavily
contaminated territories. In annual plants
such as absinthe (Artemisia absinthium), C-14
Yablokov: Radioactive Impact on Flora 239
TABLE 9.2. Concentration of Three Radionuclides
in Pine Needles in Central Finland, May–
December 1986 (Lang et al., 1988)
Radionuclide Concentration, Bq/kg
Cs-137 30,000
Ce-141 40,000
Ru-103 35,000
concentrations increased as much as fivefold
in 1986 (Grodzinsky et al., 1995c). Figure 9.2
shows the concentration of C-14 in three rings
(percent compared to the 1950 level) of pine
(Pinus silvestris) from the 10-km zone.
6. There was a marked increase in the total
amount of radionuclides in tree rings of
pine (Pinus silvestris) in the Karelia Republic,
Russian northwest (more than 1,200 km from
Chernobyl) after the catastrophe (Figure 9.3).
It is important to note that Karelia officially
characterized the level of contamination as very
moderate ( oakwood (241) > depressions
between hill-forest of flood plain (188) >
pinewood (94) > undrained lowland swamp
(78) > hill forest of flood plains (68) > upland
meadows (21) > drained peat-bog soil (11)
> long-term fallow soil (0.04; Elyashevich and
Rubanova, 1993).
15. Transfer ratios from soil to plants are different
for each species and also vary by season
and habitat (Table 9.5).
16. The maximum transfer ratio (from soil
to plant) of Sr-90 was measured in wild strawberries
(TR 14–15), and the minimum was
in bilberry (TR 0.6–0.9) in Belarus. The Cs-
137 transfer ratio in bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus)
is threefold higher than that for wild strawberry
(Fragaria vesca; Ipat’ev, 1994; Bulavik,
1998).
17. Plants growing on hydromorphic landscapes
accumulate 10-fold more Cs-137 than
those in automorphic soil. There is up to a
50-fold difference in the Cs-137 TR between
an automorphic and a hydromorphic environment:
intensity of accumulation of Cs-137 in
berries is much lower on richer and dry soils as
compared with poor and wet soils (Tsvetnova
et al., 1990;Wirth et al., 1996; Korotkova, 2000;
and others).
18. There are heavy accumulations of Cs-
137 in a plant’s above-ground biomass in the
Ukrainian wet pine subor for the cowberry
family species (Vacciniaceae): TR is about 74
Yablokov: Radioactive Impact on Flora 241
Figure 9.3. Total radioactivity in tree rings of pine (Pinus silvestris) near Petrozavodsk
City, Karelia, for the period 1975–1994 (Rybakov, 2000).
in bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus), 67 in cowberry
(Vaccinium vitis-idaea), and 63 in blueberry (Vaccinium
uliginosum; Krasnov, 1998).
19. For nonwood medicinal plants the decreasing
order of Cs-137 incorporation is as
follows: berries (Vaccinium myrtillus) > leaf (Vaccinium
myrtillus) > grass (Thymus serpyllum) >
Figure 9.4. Correlation between the amount of
Cs-137 in fresh bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) (Bq/kg)
and the level of soil contamination (kBq/m2) for
four different biospheres in Central Poles’e, Ukraine
(Orlov, 2001): (vertical axis) specific activity, Bq/kg;
(horizontal axis) soil contamination, kBq/m2 (B2,
fresh subor; B3, dry subor; C2, fresh sudubrava; C3,
dry sudubrava).
grass (Convallaria majalis) > grass (Fragaria vesca)
> flowers (Helichrysum arenarium) > grass (Hypericum
perforatum and Betonica officinalis) > grass
(Origanum vulgare; Orlov, 2001).
20.ThemaximumTRvalues are: wild plants
(Ledum palustre) 451, grass (Polygonum hydropiper)
122, fruits (Vaccinium myrtillus) 159, leaves (Fragaria
vesca) 73 and (Vaccinium vitis-idaea) 79, and
buds (Pinus sylvestris) 61 and (Betula pendula) 47
(Elyashevich and Rubanova, 1993).
21. In the Ukrainian Poles’e, Cs-137 in fresh
berries and air-dried bilberry offsets decreased
fivefold in 1998 in comparison with 1991
(Korotkov, 2000). In other data, from 1991 to
1999 the amount of Cs-137 in bilberry fruit
(Vaccinium myrtillus) fluctuated greatly (Orlov,
2001).
22. In mossy pine forests the concentration
of Cs-137 in bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) fruit
TABLE 9.5. Cs-137 TR from Soil to Fresh Fruits
of the Principal Wild Ukrainian Berries (Orlov,
2001)
Species TR Species TR
Vaccinium myrtillus 3.4–16.1 Rubus nessensis 6.6
V. vitis-idaea 8.3–12.9 Rubus caesius 1.0
V. uliginosum 9.4–11.7 Fragaria vesca 2.0–10.9
Oxycoccus palustris 13.0–16.6 Sorbus aucuparia 1.0
Rubus idaeus 0.8–8.4 Viburnum opulus 0.3
242 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
Figure 9.5. Variations of the transfer ratio for Cs-
137 for three medicinal plants: the grasses Convallaria
majalis and Hypericum perforatum and the bark
Frangula alnus over several years (1991–1995). Average
data for 28 stations in Ukrainian Poles’e (Krasnov,
1998).
from 1987 to 1990 was practically stable in
some places, whereas in other areas there was
a threefold decrease in the TR in 1989–1990
as compared with 1987–1988 (Parfenov and
Yakushev, 1995).
23. Maximum Cs-137 activity in the
vegetative parts of undershrubs and trees
is observed in May and June (Korotkova
and Orlov, 1999; Borysevich and Poplyko,
2002).
Figure 9.6. Variation of the transfer ratio for Cs-
137 for three species of wild forest berries in Belarus:
raspberry (Rubus idaeus), strawberry (Fragaria
vesca), and blueberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) in the
same area from 1990 to 1998 (Ipat’ev, 1999).
TABLE 9.6. Inter- and Intraspecific Variations of
TR (m2/kg × 10–3) from Soil to Fresh Wild Edible
Berries in Belarussian, Ukrainian, and Russian Forest
Zones Affected by Chernobyl Fallout (Based on
Many References from Orlov, 2001)
Species TR (Lim) Max/min
Rubus idaeus 0.8–8.4 10.5
Fragaria vesca 2.0–10.9 5.5
Vaccinium myrtillus 3.4–16.1 5.3
Vaccinium vitis-idaea 8.1–12.9 1.6
Oxycoccus palustris 13–16.6 1.3
Vaccinium uliginosum 9.4–11.7 1.2
Rubus nessensis 6.6
Rubus caesius 1.0
Sorbus aucuparia 1.0
Viburnum opulus 0.3
24. Specific Sr-90 activity in the fresh fruits
of bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) in the Ukrainian
pine forests varied from 2 to 555 Bq/kg (Orlov,
2001).
25. Long-termdynamics of Cs-137 TR from
soil to plants revealed all possible variations:
for the grass Convallaria majalis there was a significant
decrease over time; for the grass Hypericum
perforatum there was a marked decrease
from 1991 to 1992, but more than a twofold
increase from 1993 to 1995; for the bark
Frangula alnus there was a steady total threefold
decrease in 1995 as compared with 1991
(Figure 9.5); for blueberries there was a slight
decrease over 9 years; and for strawberries there
was a sharp increase followed by a slower one
(Figure 9.6).
26. The lognormal distribution of the TR in
the same species in a similar ecological ambience
makes it impossible to correctly estimate
specificTRby sporadic observations (Jacob and
Likhtarev, 1996).
27. There are wide inter- and intraspecies
variations in TR for the edible wild berries
(Table 9.6).
28. TR differs for the same species for different
biotopes (Table 9.7).
29. Dynamics of Cs-137 contamination of
various parts of pine (Pinus silvestris) are presented
in Figure 9.7. The levels of contamination
in the trunk, branches, and needles were
nearly stable over 12 years.
Yablokov: Radioactive Impact on Flora 243
TABLE 9.7. Average TR in Fresh Blueberries (Vaccinium
myrtillus) in Three Different Types of Pine
Forests in 1995 (Ipat’ev and Bulko, 2000)
Type of pine forest TR
Bilberry 5.19
Polytric 14.00
Ledum 24.00
30. In automorphic landscapes the Cs-137
TR decreased in grass species from 1988 to
1995. In hydromorphic landscapes there was
gradual increase in this coefficient beginning
in 1992 (Tscheglov, 1999).
31. The intensities of Cs-137 accumulation
in herbs that were studied are divided into
five groups: very strong accumulation (average
TR >100), strong accumulation (TR 50–100),
moderate accumulation (TR 10–50), weak accumulation
(TR 1–10), and very weak accumulation
(TR Vaccinium myrtillus>Vaccinium
vitis-idaea > Vaccinium uliginosum > Viburnum
opulus.
35. The following order of TR for medicinal
undershrubs is: rhamn (Rhamnus) and mountain
ash (Sorbus aucuparia), fresh hydrotops 3–
4, quercus bark 7, branches of aglet (Corylus
avellana) and buckthorn (Frangula alnus) 7–9,
branch of raspberry (Rubus idaeus) 11, branch
of European dewberry (Rubus caesius) 13, and
branch of mountain ash (Sorbus aucuparia) in the
wet biotopes 13–18 (Borysevich and Poplyko,
2002).
36. The TR for Sr-90 was 14.0–15.1 for
wild strawberry (Fragaria), 0.6–0.9 for blueberry
(Vaccinium myrtillus), and 0.9 for raspberry (Rubus
idaeus; Ipat’ev, 1999).
37. The TR for Sr-90 in wild forest
berries depends on the level of soil contamination:
it appears that the TR is lower
under conditions of higher contamination
(Table 9.9).
38. In Belarus in increasing order for Cs-137
levels in cereal grains that were studied: spring
wheat 100 Paxill (Paxilus sp.), yellow boletus (Suillus
luteus)
5. The specific Cs-137 activity in the fruit
of mushrooms Lactarius necator, Armillariella mellea,
andXerocomus badius increased exponentially
with increased density of radioactive soil contamination
(Krasnov et al., 1998).
6. The Cs-137 accumulation in the fruit of
mushrooms is lower in richer environmental
conditions: in russulas (Russula sp.) a difference
between Cs-137 accumulation in sudubravas
(mixed oak forests), pine forests, and subors
are up to fourfold, and in lurid boletus (Boletus
luridus) about threefold.
7. The Cs-137 accumulations in the fruit
bodies of the edible boletus (Boletus edulus) were
noticeably low in pine forests and for the Polish
mushroom (Xerocomus badius) in subors (Krasnov
et al., 1998).
The level of radionuclide accumulation in
plants and mushrooms depends upon the
soil, the climate, the particular biosphere,
the season, spotty radioactive contamination,
the species, and the population (subspecies,
cultivars), etc. Each radionuclide has its own accumulation
characteristics. Coefficients of accumulation
and transition ratios vary so much
in time and space that it is difficult, if not impossible,
to predict the actual levels of the Cs-137,
Sr-90, Pu-238, Pu-239, Pu-240, and Am-241 in
246 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
each place and time for each individual plant
or mushroom.
9.2. Radioinduced Morphology,
Anomalies, and Tumors
Changes from the normal morphological
structure of plants under the impact of irradiation
(radiomorphosis) are typical manifestations
in the heavily contaminated territories
(Grodzinsky et al., 1991; Grodzinsky,
1999c; Gudkov and Vinichuk, 2006; and others).
Radiomorphosis arises primarily because
of the impaired duplication process in live cells
under the influence of external and/or internal
irradiation.
1. Radiation-induced changes that have
been observed in plants in the Chernobylcontaminated
territories include alterations
in shape, intercepts, twists, wrinkling, bifurcations,
abnormal flattening of stems, etc.
(Table 9.12).
2. When top buds, which contain the actively
dividing cells die, there is a loss of apical
domination and transfer of activity to axial
buds, which under normal conditions are
in a resting state and are more radioresistant.
The newly active buds produce extra shoots,
leaves, and flowers (Gudkov and Vinichuk,
2006).
3. Radiation-induced death of the main root
meristem in plants with pivotal root systems
results in more active development of lateral
roots, which in turn provokes growth of some
above-ground organs. Swelling-like excrescents
on leaves, stems, roots, flowers, and other organs
also appeared as the result of irradiation in
the 30-km zone in 1986. In 1987 and the years
following, the number of such abnormalities
increased and were observed mainly in coniferous
trees, on which needles are replaced once
every few years and on perennial shoots and
branches (Figure 9.8).
4. Table 9.13 presents examples of radiationinduced
morphologic changes in pine (Pinus silvestris)
and spruce (Picea abies).
TABLE 9.12. Some Radiation-Induced Morphological
Changes in Plants in Heavily Contaminated
Territories after the Catastrophe (Grodzinsky,
1999; Gudkov and Vinichuk, 2006)
Part Morphological changes
Leaves Increase or decrease in size and quantity
Shape change
Twists
Wrinkles
Nervation break
Asymmetry
Thickening
Leaf plates inosculation
Fasciations and swellings
Appearance of necrotic spots
Loss of leaf plate
Premature defoliation
Shoots Additional vegetative lateral and
apex shoots
Impairment of geotopical orientation
of the shoots
“Bald” shoots
Stems Speedup or inhibition of growth
Phyllotaxis failure (order of leaf placing)
Color change
Loss of apical dominance
Dichotomy and fasciations
Change of intercepts
Swellings
Roots Speedup or inhibition of growth
Splitting of main root
Death of main root
Trimming of meristem zone
Absence of lateral roots
Swellings and twists
Appearance of aerial roots
Heliotropism break
Flowers Speedup or inhibition of flowering
Color change
Increase or decrease of quantity
Shape change
Defoliation of flowers and floscules
Swellings
Sterility
5. The number of pollen structural anomalies
in winter wheat increased in the heavily
contaminated territories (Kovalchuk et al.,
2000).
6. Several years after the catastrophe
there was a significant rise in the incidence
Yablokov: Radioactive Impact on Flora 247
Figure 9.8. Anomalies in the shoots of pine (Pinus silvestris: A, B) and spruce (Picea excelsa: C–G) in the
30-km zone in 1986–1987 (Kozubov and Taskaev, 2002; Grodzinsky et al., 1991).
of various teratological characteristics in
plantain seedlings (Plantago lanceolata) growing
within the 30-km zone (Frolova et al.,
1993).
7. The incidence of two morphologic characteristics
in winter wheat (Triticum aestivum) increased
after the catastrophe and decreased in
the next two generations (Group 1); the frequency
of nine other morphologic characteristics
(Group 2) increased in subsequent generations
(Table 9.14).
8. Irradiation in the contaminated territories
caused a noticeably stronger influence on
barley pollen than did experimental gamma-
TABLE 9.13. Chernobyl’s Irradiation Impact on Pine (Pinus silvestris) and Spruce (Picea abies) Morphometrics
(Sorochinsky, 1998)∗
Characters Low contamination Heavy contamination
Pine Length of needles, mm 60 ±4 19 ± 3
Weight of needles, mg 80 ±3 14 ± 2
Spruce Length of needles, mm 16 ±2 40 ± 3
Weight of needles, mg 5 ±1 95 ± 5
∗All differences are significant.
irradiation done under controlled conditions
(Table 9.15).
9. Chernobyl radiation, causing morphogenetic
breaks, provokes the development of
tumors caused by the bacterium Agrobacterium
tumefaciens. Active development of such tumors
is seen in some plants, including Hieracium
murorum, Hieracium umbellatum, Rubus idaeus, and
Rubus caesius, in the heavily contaminated territories
(Grodzinsky et al., 1991).
10. Tumorlike tissue is found in 80% of individual
milk thistle (Sonchus arvensis) plants growing
in heavily contaminated soil (Grodzinsky
et al., 1991).
248 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
TABLE 9.14. Frequency of Some Morphologic
Changes in Three Generations of a Species of Winter
Wheat (Triticum aestivum) in the Chernobyl-
Contaminated Territories (Grodzinsky et al., 1999;
Grodzinsky, 2006)
Year
Characters 1986 1987 1988
Group 1
Infertile zones in spike 49.0 29.8 1.9
Truncated spike 10.0 9.4 0.8
Lengthened stem 4.4 4.7 5.4
Scabrous beard 1.4 3.4 2.9
Group 2
Split spike 4.5 11.1 9.4
Lengthened beard 2.8 2.8 4.7
Angular forms 4.9 14.0 24.7
Change of stalk color 0.9 1.7 1.9
Spike gigantism 1.4 1.8 2.9
Stem plate 4.5 5.7 4.9
Additional spikelets 14.0 14.8 29.7
11. In the heavily contaminated territories
there was a significant increase in gall formation
on oak (Quercus) leaves (Grodzinsky et al.,
1991).
12. Formation of tumoral tissue (callus) in
plants under the influence of soil contaminated
TABLE 9.15. Frequency of Abnormal Barley
(Hordeum vulgare) Pollen Grains (per 1,000,000)
after 55 Days of Irradiation around Chernobyl’s
NPP and in the Experimental Gamma-Field
(Bubryak et al., 1991)
Dose rate, Dose, Abnormal
μSv/h mSv grains,%
30-km zone Control (0.96) 1.3 0
59 75 23
320 422 79
400 528 86
515 680 90
Experimental Background 0.1 0
gamma-field (0.11)
5 3.0 43
50 29.6 45
500 296 59
5,000 2,960 57
50,000 29,600 72
TABLE 9.16. Influence of a Chernobyl Soil Extract
(Cs-137 and Ce-144 with Total Activity of 3.1 ×
104 Bq/kg) on Growth and Cell Division of a Stramonium
(Datura stramonium; Grodzinsky, 2006)
Cells, Cells,
per 1 g tissue, per callus
n × 105 % n × 105 %
Normal tissue 39.7 100 78.6 100
With an extract 38.9 98 100.4 127.6
Tumorous tissue 23.0 100 74.5 100
With an extract 32.4 140.7 91.5 122.8
with radioactivity has been confirmed experimentally
(Table 9.16).
13. There is some tendency toward normalization
of the number of gametogenetic anomalies
in soft wheat (Triticum aestivum) in four to
six generations after the Chernobyl irradiation,
but there was an accumulation of mutations
in some wheat populations (Grodzinsky et al.,
1995a).
9.3. Genetic Changes
1. Immediately after the catastrophe, the frequency
of plant mutations in the contaminated
territories increased sharply, and the increase
was maintained at a high level for several years
(Tables 9.17 and 9.18).
2. In the first 2–3 years after the catastrophe,
the number of lethal and chlorophyll
TABLE 9.17. Frequency (%) of Chlorophyll Mutations
in Barley (Hordeum vulgare), and Rye (Secale
seriale) in the 30-km Zone with Cs-134, Cs-
137, Ce-144, and Ru-106 Ground Contamination
(Grodzinsky et al., 1991)
Contamination
Years
Control 1986 1987 1988 1989
Rye, var. “Kiev-80” 0.01 0.14 0.40 0.91 0.71
Rye, var. 0.02 0.80 0.99 1.20 1.14
“Kharkov-03”
Barley, var. # 2 0.35 0.81 0.63 0.70 0.71
Yablokov: Radioactive Impact on Flora 249
TABLE 9.18. Frequency of Chromosomal Aberrations
(%) in Root Meristems of Some Cultivated
Plants in the Chernobyl-Contaminated Territories,
1986–1989 (Grodzinsky, 2006)∗
Years
Control 1986 1987 1988 1989
Lupinus alba 0.9 19.4 20.9 14.0 15.9
Pisum sativum 0.2 12.9 14.1 9.1 7.9
Secale cereale 0.7 14.9 18.7 17.1 17.4
Triticum aestivum 0.9 16.7 19.3 17.7 14.2
Hordeum vulgare 0.8 9.9 11.7 14.5 9.8
∗All differences from controls are significant.
mutations in all studied populations of Arabidopsis
thaliana in the 30-km zone increased significantly.
The original spontaneous level of mutation
was reached in 6 years in areas with
gamma-radiation levels up to 10 mR/h. In
areas with gamma-radiation levels up to 130
mR/h the level of mutations was up to eightfold
higher than the spontaneous level for 8
years after the catastrophe (Abramov et al.,
1995).
3. The frequency of mutations in wheat
(Triticum aestivum) was sixfold higher in the contaminated
territories (Kovalchuk et al., 2000).
Some 13 years after the catastrophe the frequency
of chromosome aberrations in two
wheat cultivars in the 30-km zone was significantly
higher than the spontaneous frequency
(Yakimchuk et al., 2001).
4. In acorns of the oak Quercus robur and
the pine Pinus silvestris in Voronez City areas
contaminated by Chernobyl fallout there was
significantly increased mitotic activity, demonstrated
by increased frequency of cells with a
TABLE 9.19. Damage of Apical Root Meristem (Growing Tip) of Onions (Allium cepa) under Different
Levels of the Chernobyl Soil Contamination (Grodzinsky, 2006)
Percent of control
Soil activity, Number of Mitotic Aberrant Cells with Degenerate
kBq/kg cells, n index,% cells micronucleus cells
Control 15,005 4.1 100 100 100
37 33,275 4.4 240 171 250
185 29,290 4.4 216 129 500
370 23,325 117 150 229 900
residual karyo nucleus at metaphase, anaphase,
and telophase and with multinucleated cells
persisting “many years” after the catastrophe
(Butoryna et al., 2000; Artyukhov et al.,
2004).
5. The level of chromosomal aberrations
in onions was correlated with the density
of radioactive contamination of the territory
(Table 9.19).
6. The average frequency of mutations in
pine (Pinus silvestris) correlated with the density
of radiation contamination in an area, and in
the 30-km zone was 10-fold higher than in control
locations (Shevchenko et al., 1996).
7. Progeny tests of plantain (Plantago lanceolata),
gosmore (Hypochoeris radicata), autumnal
hawkbit (Leontodon autumnalis), wall lettuce
(Mycelis muralis), bloodwort (Achillea millefolium),
gold birch (Solidago virgaurea), and field wormwood
(Artemisia camprestris) collected in the 30-
km zone (gamma-activity at ground level 130–
3,188 Ci/km2) and after additional intense irradiation
developed significantly more mutations
than in controls (i.e., the number of chromosomal
aberrations is correlated with the density of
contamination). Only devil’s-bit (Succisa pratensis)
showed increased resistance to radioactivity
(Dmitryeva, 1996).
8. The significantly increased mutation level
in pine (Pinus sylvestris) seeds from the 30-km
zone persisted for 8 years after the catastrophe
(Kal’chenko et al., 1995).
9. In the 6 to 8 years after the catastrophe,
the number of meiosis anomalies in microspore
formation (the number of anomalies
in a root meristem) and the number of pollen
grain anomalies documented in 8–10% of
250 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
TABLE 9.20. Change in Anthocyanin Concentration
in Irradiated Plants (Grodzinsky, 2006)
Levels of Anthocyanin
irradiation (% of control)
Corn (Zea mays), Soil 975 Bq/kg 119
sprouts
Mung (Phaseolus Chronic irradiation, 157
aureus) 0.5 Gy
Arabidopsis Chronic irradiation, 173
thaliana 0.5 Gy
94 plant species correlate with the level of
gamma-irradiation (Kordyum and Sydorenko,
1997).
10. In natural populations of Crepis tectorum
from the 30-km zone, the sprouting of seeds
did not exceed 50%. The number of a growing
root cells with chromosome disorders (inversions,
translocations, change in number of
chromosomes, etc.) is significantly higher than
in controls (Shevchenko et al., 1995).
11. The number of sterile pollen grains in
violets (Viola matutina) correlates with the level
of radioactive soil contamination (Popova et al.,
1991).
12. More than a 10-fold lower frequency
of extrachromosomal homologous
recombinations are found in native Arabidopsis
thaliana plants from radioactively contaminated
territories (Kovalchuk et al., 2004).
13. Unique polynoteratogenic complexes are
seen in the 30-km Chernobyl zone: a high
percentage of pollen grains and spores with
different genetic anomalies (underdeveloped
pollen grains/spores, dwarf and ultradwarf
forms, and polynomorphs that diverge from
the norm in several morphological characters).
This indicates that the Chernobyl catastrophe
caused a “geobotanical catastrophe”
(Levkovskaya, 2005).
9.4. Other Changes in Plants and
Mushrooms in the Contaminated
Territories
1. Coniferous forests have suffered most
strongly from irradiation (so-called “Red forest”)
as compared with mixed and deciduous
forests (Kryshev and Ryazantsev, 2000).
2. Some metabolic processes in plants
are disturbed in the contaminated territories
(Sorochin’sky, 1998). Table 9.20 lists examples
of such impairments, expressed in changes of
anthocyanin (purple color) concentration.
3. Radiosensitivity of some plant species increases
under chronic low-rate irradiation in
the 30-km zone owing to a gradual loss of the
ability to repair DNA (Grodzinsky, 1999).
4. Some phenolic compounds with altered
qualitative structure accumulated in all winter
wheat, winter rye, and corn cultivars in the
30-km zone during the 6 years after the catastrophe
(Fedenko and Struzhko, 1996).
5. The radial growth in trees in the heavily
contaminated territories was slowed (Kozubov
and Taskaev, 1994; Shmatov et al., 2000).
6.A new form of stem rust fungus (Puccinia
graminis) is present in the Chernobyl zone, and
its virulence is greater than in the control form
(Dmitryev et al., 2006).
It is clear that plants andmushrooms became
natural accumulators of Chernobyl radionuclides.
The levels of such uptake and the transition
of radionuclides from soil to plants and
mushrooms are specific for each radionuclide
and vary from species to species, by season, by
year, and by landscape, etc.
Chernobyl irradiation has caused many
structural anomalies and tumorlike changes in
many plant species and has led to genetic disorders,
sometimes continuing for many years. It
appears that the Chernobyl irradiation awakened
genes that had been quiescent for long
evolutionary periods.
Twenty-three years after the catastrophe it is
still too early to know if the whole spectrum of
plant radiogenic changes has been discerned.
We are far from knowing all of the consequences
for flora resulting fromthe catastrophe.
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CHERNOBYL
10. Chernobyl’s Radioactive Impact on Fauna
Alexey V. Yablokov
The radioactive shock when the Chernobyl reactor exploded in 1986 combined with
chronic low-dose contamination has resulted in morphologic, physiologic, and genetic
disorders in every animal species that has been studied―mammals, birds, amphibians,
fish, and invertebrates. These populations exhibit a wide variety ofmorphological
deformities not found in other populations. Despite reports of a “healthy” environment
in proximity to Chernobyl for rare species of birds and mammals, the presence
of such wildlife is likely the result of immigration and not from locally sustained
populations. Twenty-three years after the catastrophe levels of incorporated
radionuclides remain dangerously high for mammals, birds, amphibians, and fish in
some areas of Europe. Mutation rates in animal populations in contaminated territories
are significantly higher and there is transgenerational genomic instability in
animal populations, manifested in adverse cellular and systemic effects. Long-term
observations of both wild and experimental animal populations in the heavily contaminated
areas show significant increases in morbidity and mortality that bear a
striking resemblance to changes in the health of humans―increased occurrence of
tumor and immunodeficiencies, decreased life expectancy, early aging, changes in
blood and the circulatory system, malformations, and other factors that compromise
health.
The Chernobyl catastrophe has impacted on
fauna and will continue to have an impact for
many decades to come, with effects ranging
from changes in population vitality to abnormal
reproductive and genetic disorders. It is
well to remember that Homo sapiens are a part of
the animal kingdom and suffer the same kinds
of health consequences that are observed in
animals.
As in the earlier chapters, only a small
part of the available scientific literature is
presented here, but several monographic reviews
have been included: Frantsevich et al.,
1991; Sutshenya et al., 1995; Zakharov and
Krysanov, 1996; Sokolov and Kryvolutsky,
1998; Ryabov, 2002; Goncharova, 2000; and
others.
Address for correspondence: Alexey V. Yablokov, Russian Academy
of Sciences, Leninsky Prospect 33, Office 319, 119071 Moscow,
Russia. Voice: +7-495-952-80-19; fax: +7-495-952-80-19. Yablokov@
ecopolicy.ru
Apart from zoological studies, there are
many hundreds of studies published by veterinarians
in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia that
show deterioration in the health of cows, boars,
sheep, and chickens in the areas contaminated
by Chernobyl.
The first section of this chapter is devoted
to levels of Chernobyl radionuclide accumulations
in various species. The second section
addresses reproductive impairment in animals
in the contaminated territories and the resultant
genetic changes. The order of presentation
is mammals, birds, amphibians, fish, and
invertebrates.
10.1. Incorporation
of Radionuclides
The level of radionuclides maintained in an
animal’s body depends on the transfer ratio
(TR, transition coefficient) and the coefficient
255
256 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
TABLE 10.1. Maximum Concentration (Bq/kg, Fresh Weight) of Some Radionuclides after the
Catastrophe
Nuclide Bq/kg Species Country Reference
Sr-90 1,870 Bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus) Belarus Ryabokon’ et al., 2005∗
Cs-137 400,000 Bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus) Belarus Ryabokon’ et al., 2005∗
187,000 Wild swine (Sus scrofa) Russia Pel’gunov et al., 2006
74,750 Roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) Russia Pel’gunov et al., 2006
48,355 Common shrew (Sorex araneus) Russia Ushakov et al., 1996
42,000 Little shrew (Sorex minutus) Russia Ushakov et al., 1996
24,630 Yellow neck mouse Russia Ushakov et al., 1996
(Apodemus flavicollis)
7,500 Brown hare (Lepus europaeus) Russia Pel’gunov et al., 2006
3,320 Moose (Alces alces) Russia Pel’gunov et al., 2006
1,954 White tailed deer Finland Rantavaara, 1987
1,888 Arctic hare (Lepus timidus) Finland Rantavaara et al., 1987
1,610 Moose (Alces alces) Finland Rantavaara et al., 1987
7601 Moose (Alces alces) Sweden Johanson and
Bergstr¨om, 1989
720 Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) Finland Rissanen et al., 1987
Cs-134 60,000 Bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus) Belarus Ryabokon’ et al., 2005∗
Cs134/Cs-137 100,000 Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) Norway Strand, 1987
15,000 Sheep (Ovis ammon) Norway Strand, 1987
3,898 Sheep (Ovis ammon) Great Britain Sherlock et al., 1988
(Cumbria)
3,200 Roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) Germany Heinzl et al., 1988
Pu-239 + Pu-240 1.3 Bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus) Belarus Ryabokon’ et al., 2005∗
Pu-238 0.6 Bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus) Belarus Ryabokon’ et al., 2005∗
Am-241 12 Bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus) Belarus Ryabokon’ et al., 2005∗
14 × 103 Bq/kg) and by Ru-193
(>750 Bq/kg; Bunzl and Kracke, 1988).
23. Table 10.7 provides data on Chernobyl
radionuclide concentrations in zooplankton
that reflect both high levels of bioaccumulation
and the wide range of contaminated waters.
24. Radioactive contamination of Baltic
plankton in 1986 reached 2,600 Bq/kg
(gross-beta) and 3,900 Bq/kg of Np-239
(Ikaheimonen et al., 1988).
10.2. Reproductive Abnormalities
Regular biological observations in the heavily
contaminated territories of Ukraine, Belarus,
and European Russia were not begun
260 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
TABLE 10.4. Concentration of Some Radionuclides (Bq/kg, Fresh Weight) in Several Bird Species after
the Catastrophe
Radionuclide Bq/kg Species Country Reference
Sr-90 1,635,000 Great tit (Parus major) Ukraine Gaschak et al., 2008
556,000 Long-tailed tit (Aegithalos caudatus) Ukraine Gaschak et al., 2008
226,000 Nightingale (Luscinia luscinia) Ukraine Gaschak et al., 2008
Cs-137 367,000 Great tit (Parus major) Ukraine Gaschak et al., 2008
305,000 Blackbird (Turdus merula) Ukraine Gaschak et al., 2008
85,000 Song thrush(Turdus philomelos) Ukraine Gaschak et al., 2008
1,930 Mallard duck (Anas platyrynchus) Russia Pel’gunov et al., 2006
450 Gray partridge (Perdix perdix) Russia Pel’gunov et al., 2006
470 Woodcock (Scopolas rusticola) Russia Pel’gunov et al., 2006
350 Robin (Erithacus rubecola) Netherlands De Knijff and Van Swelm, 2008
Cs-134 112 Robin (Erithacus rubecola) Netherlands De Knijff and Van Swelm, 2008
Cs-134, Cs-137 10,469 Waterfowl (Anas sp.) Finland Rantavaara et al., 1987
6,666 Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula) Finland Rantavaara et al., 1987
Zr-95 467 Robin (Erithacus rubecola) Netherlands De Knijff and Van Swelm, 2008
Nb-95 1,292 Robin (Erithacus rubecola) Netherlands De Knijff and Van Swelm, 2008
Total gamma >13,000 Teal (Quercuedula quercuedula Belarus Sutchenya et al., 1995
and Q. crecca)
10,000 Mallard ducks (Anas platyrhyncha) Belarus Sutchenya et al., 1995>>4,000 Coots (Fulica atra) Belarus Sutchenya et al., 1995
until 2 months after the explosion. Fortunately,
during that time, data concerning the harmful
effects of the Chernobyl contamination on cattle
and other farm animals were collected from
many veterinarians (Il’yazov, 2002;Konyukhov
et al., 1994; Novykov et al., 2006; and many
others).
1. By September 1986, the population of
murine species in the heavily contaminated
Ukrainian territories had decreased up to fivefold
(Bar’yakhtar, 1995).
TABLE 10.5. Cs-137 Accumulation (Bq/kg of
Wet Weight) in Three Game Bird Species from
Bryansk Province Areas Contaminated at a Level
of 8–28 Ci/km2, 1992–2006 (Pel’gunov et al.,
2006)
Species Average Min–max∗
Mallard duck (Anas 920 314–1,930
platyrynchus), n = 28
Gray partridge (Perdix 350 280–450
perdix), n = 14
Woodcock (Scopolas 370 270–470
rusticola), n = 11
∗Russian permissible level―180 Bq/kg.
2. The mortality of laboratory mice (Mus
musculus) that remained in the 10-km zone from
1 to 14 days increased significantly and is associated
with additional radiation (Nazarov et al.,
2007).
3. There was an increasing incidence of embryo
deaths over 22 generations of bank voles
(Clethrionomys glareolus) from the contaminated
territories that correlated with the radionuclide
levels in monitored areas. A significantly
high prenatal mortality has persisted despite
a decrease in the level of ground contamination
(Goncharova and Ryabokon’, 1998a,b;
Smolich and Ryabokon’, 1997).
4. For 1.5 months sexually active male rats
(Rattus norvegicus) within the 30-km zone demonstrated
suppressed sexual motivation and erections,
which resulted in a reduction in the
number of inseminated females, reduced fertility,
and an increase in preimplantation deaths
(Karpenko, 2000).
5. Observations in farm hog sires (Sus
scrofa) with Cs-137 contamination levels of
1–5 Ci/km2 plus Sr-90 at a level of 0.04–
0.08 Ci/km2 demonstrated significantly fewer
Yablokov: Radioactive Impact on Fauna 261
TABLE 10.6. Concentration (Bq/kg) of Some Radionuclides in Fishes after the Catastrophe
Nuclide Concentration Species Country Reference
Cs-137 16,000 Perch (Perca fluviatilis) Finland Saxen and Rantavaara, 1987
10,000 Pike (Esox luceus) Finland Saxen and Rantavaara, 1987
7,100 Whitefish (Coregonus sp.) Finland Saxen and Rantavaara, 1987
6,500 Catfish (Silurus glanis) Ukraine Zarubin, 2006
4,500 Bream (Abramis brama) Finland Saxen and Rantavaara, 1987
2,000 Vendace (Coregonus albula) Finland Saxen and Rantavaara, 1987
708 Crucian carp (Carassius carassius) Russia Ushakov et al., 1996
493 Bream (Abramis brama)∗ Poland Robbins and Jasinski, 1995
190 “Fish” Baltic Ilus et al., 1987
15–30 “Pike and cod”∗∗ Baltic Ikaheimonen et al., 1988
Cs-134/137 55,000 “Freshwater fish” Norway Strand, 1987
12,500 Brown trout (Salmo trutta) Norway Brittain et al., 1991
Sr-90 157 Crucian carp (Carassius carassius) Russia Ushakov et al., 1996
Total gamma 300,000 Raptorial fish Ukraine Gudkov et al., 2004
∗120 times that of pre-Chernobyl level.
∗∗About five times the pre-Chernobyl level.
semen channels (especially for hogs 2 to 4 years
old), as well as widening, necrosis, and unusual
positions of sex cells within the channels
(Table 10.8).
6. There was a marked decrease in insemination
and 1.8 to 2.5% of the piglets were born
dead or with congenital malformations involving
the mouth, anus, legs, and gigantic heads,
etc. (Oleinik, 2005).
7. Pregnancy outcomes and some health
characteristics of calves (Bos taurus) (a Poles’e
breed) in the heavily contaminated Korosten
and Narodnitsky districts, Zhytomir Province,
Ukraine (Cs-137 levels of 5–15 Ci/km2) were
significantly different from the same species
bred in the less contaminated (70% composed of copepod fecal
pellets
Fowler et al., 1987
Black Sea May–June, 1986 At a depth of 1,071 m (Emiliania
huxleyi)
Buesseler et al., 1987;
Kempe et al., 1987
North Pacific and
Bering Sea
June–July, 1986 From 110 to 780 m Kusakabe and Ku, 1988
owing to sterility, as well as to abnormal
spermatozoa (Pomerantseva et al., 1990, 1996).
10. Higher antenatal mortality was observed
in field mice (Clethrionomys and Microtus
sp.) in the first years after the catastrophe
in the heavily contaminated areas owing
to pathologic changes in the urogenital tract
and embryo resorption in the early stages of
development (Medvedev, 1991; Sokolov and
Krivolutsky, 1998).
11. In October 1986 in Chernobyl City, a
special animal facility was established for laboratory
rats (Rattus norvegicus) from the breeding
group that originated in the Kiev laboratory
colony. After the catastrophe there was a significant
decrease in the average life span of laboratory
rats (Rattus norvegicus) in animal facilities in
both Chernobyl and Kiev (Table 10.11).
12. The sex ratio of bank voles (Clethrionomys
sp.) as a percent of the current year of breeding
young deviated significantly in the heavily contaminated
territories (Kudryashova et al., 2004).
TABLE 10.8. Histological Characteristics of Hog Testes Associated with Sr-90 and Cs-137 Contamination
(Oleinik, 2005)
Specific numbers of semen channels Thickness of white envelopes, mkm
Age Contaminated Control Contaminated Control
5 months 39.0 ± 0.7 63.7 ± 2.8∗ 178.0 ± 8.5∗ 465.2 ± 11.7
8 months 20.5 ± 0.9 21.4 ± 0.9∗ 231.0 ± 12.7∗ 572.0 ± 18.1
2 years 13.4 ± 0.4 21.2 ± 0.8 335.0 ± 8.81∗ 428.0 ± 17.3
4 years 12.9 ± 0.6 19.2 ± 0.9∗ 380.3 ± 22.2 349.5 ± 26.0
∗p 20,000 Bq/kg Germany UNSCEAR, 1988
Sheep’s milk 18,000 Bq/liter Greece Assikmakopoulos et al., 1987
Mushrooms 16,300 Bq/kg∗∗ Japan Yoshida et al., 1994
Reindeer >10,000 Bq/kg Sweden UNSCEAR, 1988
Potatoes 1.100 ± 0.650 Bq/kg Croatia Franic et al., 2006
Lamb 1,087 Bq/kg Sweden Rosen et al., 1995
Milk 500 Bq/liter United Kingdom Clark, 1986
Meat 395 Bq/kg Italy Capra et al., 1989
Milk 254 Bq/dm3 Italy Capra et al., 1989
Perch 6,042 (mean) Bq/kg Sweden Hakanson et al., 1989
Perch 3,585 (mean) Bq/kg Sweden Hakanson et al., 1989
Farm milk 2,900 Bq/liter Sweden Reizenstein, 1987
Milk 400 Bq/liter Bulgaria Energy, 2008
I-131 Milk 135,000 Italy Orlando et al., 1986
Yogurt 6,000 Bq/kg Greece Assikmakopoulos et al., 1987
Edible seaweed 1,300 Bq/kg Japan Hisamatsu et al., 1987
Milk 500 Bq/liter United Kingdom Clark, 1986
Breast milk 110 Bq/liter (mean) Czechoslovakia Kliment and Bucina, 1990
Breast milk 55 Bq/l (mean Czechoslovakia Kliment and Bucina, 1990
Pork 45 Bq/kg (mean) Czechoslovakia Kliment and Bucina, 1990
Milk 21.8 Bq/liter Japan Nishizawa et al., 1986
Milk 20.7 Bq/liter United States RADNET, 2008
Total Reindeer meat 15,000 Bq/kg Sweden Fox, 1988
Mutton 10,000 Bq/kg Yugoslavia Energy, 2008
Milk 3,000 Bq/liter Yugoslavia Energy, 2008
Fruits >1,000 Bq/kg Italy Energy, 2008
∗Limits of Cs-137 for consumption in EU: 600 Bq/kg for food items; 370 Bq/kg for milk and baby food; 3,000
Bq/kg for game and reindeer meat.
∗∗Year 1990.
Th-232, Mn-54, Co-60, I-131, etc.) in an individual’s
body as well as the specific dose.
It is certified by the Belarus State Committee
on Standardization and also registered
by the State Registry of Belarus. Each IRC
scanner undergoes an annual official inspection.
All measurements are done according
to protocols approved by that committee.
For additional accuracy, the BELRAD IRC
SCANNER-3M system was calibrated with
the “Julich” Nuclear Center in Germany (see
Table 12.7).
1. Measurements were taken in Valavsk Village,
in the El’sk District, Gomel Province,
where there were 800 inhabitants, including
159 children. The village is located in an
area with Cs-137 contamination of 8.3 Ci/km2
(307 kBq/m2). According to the 2004 data, the
total annual effective dose was 2.39 mSv/year,
and an internal irradiation dose was
1.3 mSv/year.
2. There was a correlation between the levels
of local food contamination (Figure 12.4) and
the level of incorporated radionuclides in the
children’s bodies (Figure 12.5).
The pattern of curves in Figures 12.4 and
12.5 reflects the seasonal (within the year) variation
of contaminated food consumption and
thus the accumulation of Cs-137 in a child’s
body. As a rule, the level of contamination
296 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
TABLE 12.7. Cs-137 Body Burden in Children of Narovlya, Bragin, and Chechersk Districts as Measured
by Individual Radiation Counters, 1999–2003 (BELRAD Data)
Measured by IRC children, % Children with exposure
Date Location n (% of total inhabitants) dose ≥ 1 mSv/year
June 1999 Grushevka 35 (18.6) 26
November 2001 44 (23.4) 11
April 2002 64 (34) 11
November 2001 Verbovichi 60 (20) 33
January 2002 65 (21.5) 9
April 2002 64 (21) 5
November 2002 41 (13.5) 20
December 2002 35 (11.6) 13
November 2003 51 (16.8) 20
November 2001 Golovchitsy 139 (33) 8
January 2002 56 (13.3) 4
November 2002 103 (24.5) 2
October 2003 130 (30.9) 2
January 1999 Demidov 109 (38.5) 10
November 2001 110 (38.8) 12
December 2001 91 (32.3) 9
April 2002 94 (33.2) 9
November 2002 75 (26.5) 12
January 2003 65 (23) 5
January 2000 Zavoit 51 (12.8) 4
November 2001 52 (13) 19
January 2002 49 (12.3) 2
October 2003 50 (12.5) 6
January 1999 Kyrov 94 (22.2) 16
March 1999 98 (23.1) 21
November 2001 92 (21.7) 22
January 2002 84 (19.8) 13
March 2002 91 (21.5) 22
April 2002 75 (17.7) 12
May 2002 90 (21.2) 12
June 2003 43 (10.1) 7
June 1999 Krasnovka 21 (11) 14
November 2001 Narovlya 34 5
January 2002 221 14
February 2002 170 8
November 2002 56 7
November 2003 140 6
December 2003 35 6
February 1999 Dublin 98 (28.3) 4
February 1999 Belyaevka 98 (23.8) 11
March 1999 96 (23.3)
October 2001 81 (19.7)
January 1999 Poles’e 132 (25.3) 14
October 1999 185 (35.4) 3
October 2001 95 (18.2) 25
November 2001 95 (18.2) 25
January 2002 148 (28.4) 11
April 2002 144 (27.6) 3
(Continued)
Nesterenko et al.: Radioactive Contamination of Food and People 297
TABLE 12.7. Continued
Measured by IRC children, % Children with exposure
Date Location n (% of total inhabitants) dose ≥ 1 mSv/year
January 2003 148 (28.4) 5
September 2003 141 (27) 9
November 2003 140 (26.8) 10
December 2001 Sydorovychi 84 (30.3)
January 2002 105 (37.9)
increased in the autumn and winter (third and
fourth quarters) because of increased consumption
of especially heavily contaminated foods
(mushrooms, berries, wild animal meat). Milk
contamination reflects forage with high levels
of Cs-137 prepared for the winter.
3. Of about 300,000 children from heavily
contaminated territories of Belarus who
were tested by BELRAD from 1995 to 2007,
some 70–90% had levels of Cs-137 accumulation
higher than 15–20 Bq/kg (leading to 0.1
mSv/year internal irradiation). In many villages
levels of Cs-137 accumulation reached
200–400 Bq/kg, and some children in Gomel
and Brest provinces had levels up to 2,000
Bq/kg (up to 100 mSv/year) (Table 12.7).
4. Belarus and Ukraine, with levels of incorporation
of 50 Bq/kg, which is common
for territories with Cs-137 contamination of
555 kBq/m2, show an increase in various dis-
Figure 12.4. Percentage of foodstuffs exceeding permissible levels of Cs-137 for the
years 2000 to 2005, Valavsk Village, Gomel Province, Belarus (BELRAD data). The horizontal
axis shows the year divided into quarters; the vertical axis indicates the percentage of
foodstuffs in which levels exceeded the norm.
eases and death rates and a decrease in the
number of healthy children (Resolution, 2006;
see also Chapter II).
5. High levels of the accumulation of Cs-137
have been found in a significant number of children
in the Lel’chitsy District (Figure 12.6), the
El’sk District (Figure 12.7), and the Chechersk
District (Figure 12.8) of Gomel Province.Maximum
levels of accumulation of Cs-137 (6,700–
7,300 Bq/kg) have been found in a significant
number of children in the Narovlya District of
Gomel Province. In many villages in this district
up to 33% of children have dose levels exceeding
the officially permissible 1 mSv/year
(Figure 12.9).
6. The level of radionuclide incorporation
is significantly different for different organs
(Table 12.8).
7. Average Sr-90 concentration in the bodies
of inhabitants of Gomel Province noticeably
298 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
Figure 12.5. Average specific activity of Cs-137 (Bq/kg) in children from Valavsk Village,
Gomel Province, Belarus, from 2000 to 2005 (BELRAD data).
increased from 1991 to 2000 (Borysevich and
Poplyko, 2002).
8. The Pu body contamination of Gomel
citizens 4–5 years after the Chernobyl accident
is on average three to four times higher than
global levels (Hohryakov et al., 1994).
12.2.2. Other Countries
1. DENMARK. Sr-90 and Cs-137 contamination
occurs in humans, with Sr accumulating
along with Ca and Cs occurring in the same
tissues as K. The Sr-90 mean content in adult
Figure 12.6. Cs-137 levels in children
of Lel’chitsy District, Gomel Province, Belarus
(Nesterenko, 2007).
human vertebral bone collected in 1992 was
18 Bq (kg Ca)−1. Whole body measurements
of Cs-137 were resumed after the Chernobyl
accident. The measured mean level of Cs-137
in 1990 was 359 Bq (kg K)−1 (Aarkrog et al.,
1995).
2. FINLAND. Peak body burdens in Finland in
1986 were 6,300 and 13,000 Bq for Cs-134 and
for Cs-137, respectively (Rahola et al., 1987).
The average Cs-137 body burden 17 years
after the catastrophe for the entire country
was about 200 Bq; for inhabitants of Padasyoki
Figure 12.7. Cs-137 levels in children of
El’sk District, Gomel Province, Belarus (Nesterenko,
2007).
Nesterenko et al.: Radioactive Contamination of Food and People 299
Figure 12.8. Cs-137 levels in children of Chechersk
District, Gomel Province, Belarus (Nesterenko,
2007).
City it was 3,000 Bq (the maximum figure was
15,000 Bq). At the end of 1986 the mean Cs-
134 body burden was 730 Bq. The Cs-137
mean body burden increased from150 to 1,500
Bq in December 1986. The maximum levels
of body burdens for Cs-134 and C-137 were
Figure 12.9. Cs-137 levels in children
of Narovlya District, Gomel Province, Belarus
(Nesterenko, 2007).
TABLE 12.8. Concentration (Bq/kg) of the Cs-
137 in Autopsied Organs (56 Persons), Gomel
Province, 1997 (Bandazhevsky, 2003)
Organ Concentration
Thyroid 2,054 ± 288
Adrenal glands 1,576 ± 290
Pancreas 1,359 ± 350
Thymus 930 ± 278
Skeletal muscle 902 ± 234
Spleen 608 ± 109
Heart 478 ± 106
Liver 347 ± 61
6,300 and 13,000 Bq, respectively (Rahola et al.,
1987).
3. JAPAN. Before the Chernobyl accident Cs-
137 body burdens were about 30 Bq, rising the
year following 1986 to more than 50 Bq with
values still increasing in May 1987. This compares
to body burdens in England of 250–450
Bq (Uchiyama et al., 1998). Peak concentrations
of I-131 in urine increased to 3.3 Bq/ml
in adult males (Kawamura et al., 1988). Before
the Chernobyl catastrophe Cs-137 body burdens
were about 30 Bq, rising to more than
50 Bq in 1986 with values continuing to increase
inMay 1987 (Uchiyama andKobayashi,
1988).
4. ITALY. Average I-131 thyroid incorporation
for 51 adults was 6.5 Bq/g from May 3 to
June 16, 1986 (Orlando et al., 1986). Peak urinary
excretion of Cs-137 occurred 300 to 425
days after the main fallout cloud had passed on
May 5, 1986: pv 15–20 Bq/day (Capra et al.,
1989).
5. GERMANY AND FRANCE. There are data
concerning human contamination by Chernobyl
radionuclides outside of the Former Soviet
Union. Figure 12.10 shows body burden
levels of Cs-137 in Germany and France.
6. GREAT BRITAIN. Average Cs-134 + Cs-
137 body burden levels for adults in Scotland
in 1986 after the catastrophe were: Cs-134, 172
Bq; Cs-137, 363 Bq; and K-40, 4,430 Bq. Peak
concentrations were: Cs-134, 285 Bq and Cs-
137, 663 Bq (Watson, 1986). The Cs-137 body
300 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
Figure 12.10. Body burden of Cs-137 (Bq) in humans in Munich, Germany: (A) males,
(B) females); in Grenoble, France (C) adults (UNSCEAR, 1988).
burden in England in 1987 was 250–450 Bq
(Uchiyama and Kobayashi, 1988). The thyroid
I-131 burden measured in the neck region was
up to 33 Bq in adults and up to 16 Bq in children
in Britain (Hill et al., 1986).
12.3. Conclusion
All people living in territories heavily contaminated
by Chernobyl fallout continue to be
exposed to low doses of chronic radiation. Human
beings do not have sense organs to detect
ionizing radiation because it cannot be perceived
by sight, smell, taste, hearing, or touch.
Therefore without special equipment to identify
levels of environmental contamination, it
is impossible to know what radionuclide levels
are in our food and water or have been incorporated
into our bodies.
The simplest way to ensure radiation safety
in all areas contaminated by Chernobyl is to
monitor food for incorporated radionuclides.
Analysis of levels of incorporated gammaradionuclides
by individual spectrometry (IRC)
and radioactive monitoring of local food
in many Belarussian locations have demonstrated
a high correlation between Cs-137 food
contamination and the amount of radionuclides
in humans and, most importantly, in
children.
Chapter II of this volume detailed many
cases of deterioration in public health associated
with the Chernobyl radionuclide contamination.
Many people suffer from continuing
chronic low-dose radiation 23 years after the
catastrophe, owing primarily to consumption
of radioactively contaminated food. An important
consideration is the fact that given an identical
diet, a child’s radiation exposure is threeto
fivefold higher than that of an adult. Since
more than 90% of the radiation burden nowadays
is due to Cs-137, which has a half-life of
about 30 years, contaminated areas will continue
to be dangerously radioactive for roughly
the next three centuries.
Experience has shown that existing official
radioactive monitoring systems are inadequate
(not only in the countries of the Former Soviet
Union). Generally, the systems cover territories
selectively, do not measure each person,
and often conceal important facts when releasing
information. The common factor among
all governments is to minimize spending for
which they are not directly responsible, such as
the Chernobyl meltdown, which occurred 23
years ago. Thus officials are not eager to obtain
objective data of radioactive contamination
of communities, individuals, or food. Under
such circumstances, which are common,
an independent system of public monitoring is
needed. Such an independent system is not a
Nesterenko et al.: Radioactive Contamination of Food and People 301
substitute for official responsibility or control,
but is needed to provide regular voluntary
monitoring of food for each family, which
would determine the radionuclide level in each
person.
We have to take responsibility not only for
our own health, but for the health of future
generations of humans, plants, and animals,
which can be harmed by mutations resulting
from exposure to even the smallest amount of
radioactive contamination.
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CHERNOBYL
13. Decorporation of Chernobyl
Radionuclides
Vassily B. Nesterenko and Alexey V. Nesterenko
Tens of thousands of Chernobyl children (mostly from Belarus) annually leave to receive
treatment and health care in other countries. Doctors from many countries gratuitously
work in the Chernobyl contaminated territories, helping to minimize the consequences
of this most terrible technologic catastrophe in history. But the scale and spectrum of
the consequences are so high, that no country in the world can cope alone with the
long-term consequences of such a catastrophe as Chernobyl. The countries that have
suffered the most, especially Ukraine and Belarus, extend gratitude for the help that
has come through the United Nations and other international organizations, as well
as from private funds and initiatives. Twenty-two years after the Chernobyl releases,
the annual individual dose limit in heavily contaminated territories of Belarus, Ukraine,
and EuropeanRussia exceed 1mSv/year just because of the unavoidable consumption of
locally contaminated products. The 11-year experience of the BELRAD Institute shows
that for effective radiation protection it is necessary to establish the interference level
for children at 30% of the official dangerous limit (i.e., 15–20 Bq/kg). The direct whole
body counting measurements of Cs-137 accumulation in the bodies of inhabitants of
the heavily contaminated Belarussian region shows that the official Dose Catalogue underestimates
the annual dose burdens by three to eight times. For practical reasons the
curative-like use of apple-pectin food additives might be especially helpful for effective
decorporation of Cs-137. From 1996 to 2007 a total of more than 160,000 Belarussian
children received pectin food additives during 18 to 25 days of treatment (5 g twice a
day). As a result, levels of Cs-137 in children’s organs decreased after each course of
pectin additives by an average of 30 to 40%. Manufacture and application of various
pectin-based food additives and drinks (using apples, currants, grapes, sea seaweed,
etc.) is one of the most effective ways for individual radioprotection (through decorporation)
under circumstances where consumption of radioactively contaminated food is
unavoidable.
There are three basic ways to decrease the radionuclide
levels in the bodies of people living
in contaminated territories: reduce the amount
of radionuclides in the food consumed, accelerate
removal of radionuclides from the body,
and stimulate the body’s immune and other
protective systems.
Address for correspondence: Alexey V. Nesterenko, Institute of Radiation
Safety (BELRAD), 2-nd Marusinsky St. 27, Minsk, 220053, Belarus.
Fax: +375 17 289-03-85. anester@mail.ru
13.1. Reducing Radionuclides
in Food
Soaking in water, scalding, salting, and pickling
foods such as mushrooms and vegetables
and processing the fats in milk and cheeses can
reduce the amount of radionuclides in some
foods severalfold.
Stimulation of the body’s natural defenses
through the use of food additives that raise
one’s resistance to irradiation is also useful.
Among such additives are the antioxidant vitamins
A andCand themicroelements I, Cu, Zn,
Se, and Co, which interfere with free-radical
303
304 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
formation. The additives prevent the oxidation
of organic substances caused by irradiation
(lipid peroxidation). Various food supplements
can stimulate immunity: sprouts of plants, such
as wheat, seaweed (e.g., Spirulina), pine needles,
mycelium, and others.
Accelerating the removal of radionuclides
is done in three ways (Rudnev et al., 1995;
Trakhtenberg, 1995; Leggett et al., 2003; and
many others):
• Increase the stable elements in food to impede
the incorporation of radionuclides.
For example, K and Rb interfere with the
incorporation of Cs; Ca interferes with Sr;
and trivalent Fe interferes with the uptake
of Pu.
• Make use of the various food additives that
can immobilize radionuclides.
• Increase consumption of liquids to “wash
away” radionuclides―infusions, juices,
and other liquids as well as enriched food
with dietary fiber.
Decorporants (decontaminants) are preparations
that promote the removal of incorporated
radionuclides via excretion in feces and
urine. Several effective decorporants specific
for medical treatment of heavy radionuclide
contamination are known (for Cs, Fe compounds;
for Sr, alginates and barium sulfates;
for Pu, ion-exchange resins, etc.). They are effective
in cases of sudden contamination. In the
heavily contaminated Belarussian, Ukrainian,
and European Russian territories the situation
is different. Daily exposure to small amounts
of radionuclides (mostly Cs-137) is virtually unavoidable
as they get into the body with food
(up to 94%), with drinking water (up to 5%),
and through the air (about 1%). Accumulation
of radionuclides in the body is dangerous, primarily
for children, and for those living in the
contaminated territories where there are high
levels of Cs-137 in local foodstuffs (see Chapter
IV.12). The incorporation of radionuclides
is now the primary cause of the deterioration
of public health in the contaminated territories
(see Chapter II for details), and all possible approaches
should be employed to mitigate the
consequences of that irradiation.
There is evidence that incorporation of
50 Bq/kg of Cs-137 into a child’s body can
produce pathological changes in vital organ systems
(cardiovascular, nervous, endocrine, and
immune), as well as in the kidneys, liver, eyes,
and other organs (Bandazhevskaya et al., 2004).
Such levels of radioisotope incorporation are
not unusual in the Chernobyl-contaminated
areas of Belarus, Ukraine, and European Russia
nowadays (see Chapter III.11 for details),
which is why it is necessary to use any and
all possible measures to decrease the level of
radionuclide incorporation in people living in
those territories. When children have the same
menu as adults, they get up to five times higher
dose burdens from locally produced foodstuffs
because of their lower weight and more active
processes of metabolism. Children living
in rural villages have a dose burden five
to six times higher than city children of the
same age.
13.2. Results of Decontamination
by the Pectin Enterosorbents
It is known that pectin chemically binds
cations such as Cs in the gastrointestinal tract
and thereby increases fecal excretion. Research
and development by the Ukrainian Center
of Radiation Medicine (Porokhnyak-Ganovska,
1998) and the Belarussian Institute of Radiation
Medicine and Endocrinology (Gres’ et al.,
1997) have led to the conclusion that adding
pectin preparations to the food of inhabitants
of the Chernobyl-contaminated regions promotes
an effective excretion of incorporated
radionuclides.
1. In 1981, based on 2-year clinical tests, the
Joint Committee of the World Health Organization
(WHO) and the U.N. Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) on Food Additives
declared the pectinaceous enterosorbents effective
and harmless for everyday use (WHO,
1981).
Nesterenko & Nesterenko: Decorporation of Radionuclides 305
2. In Ukraine and Belarus various pectinbased
preparations have been studied as agents
to promote the excretion of incorporated radionuclides
(Gres’, 1997; Ostapenko, 2002;
Ukrainian Institute, 1997). The product based
on the pectin from an aquatic plant (Zostera),
known commercially as Zosterin-Ultra is a
mass prophylaxis agent used in the Russian
nuclear industry. As it is a nonassimilated
pectin, the injection of zosterine into the bloodstream
does not harmnutrition,metabolism, or
other functions. Zosterin-Ultra in liquid form
for oral administration was approved by the
Ukrainian Ministry of Health (1998) and the
Russian Ministry of Health (1999) as a biologically
active (or therapeutic) food additive endowed
with enterosorption and hemosorption
properties.
3. In 1996, the BELRAD Institute initiated
enterosorbent treatments based on pectin food
additives (Medetopect, France; Yablopect,
Ukraine) to accelerate the excretion of Cs-
137. In 1999 BELRAD together with “Hermes”
Hmbh (Munich, Germany) developed a
composition of apple pectin additives known as
Vitapect powder, made up of pectin (concentration
18–20%) supplemented with vitamins
B1, B2, B6, B12, C, E, beta-carotene, folic acid;
the trace elements K, Zn, Fe, and Ca; and flavoring.
BELRAD has been producing this food
additive, which has been approved by the Belarussian
Ministry of Health, since 2000.
4. In June–July 2001 BELRAD together with
the association “Children of Chernobyl of Belarus”
(France) in the Silver Springs sanatorium
(Svetlogorsk City, Gomel Province) conducted
a placebo-controlled double-blind study of 615
children with internal contamination who were
treated with Vitapect (5 g twice a day) for a 3-
week period. In children taking the Vitapect
(together with clean food) Cs-137 levels were
lowered much more effectively than in the control
group, who had clean food combined with
a placebo (Table 13.1 and Figure 13.1).
5. In another group of children the relative
reduction in the specific activity of Cs-137 in
the Vitapect-intake group was 32.4 ± 0.6%,
TABLE 13.1. Decreased Cs-137 Concentration
after Using Vitapect for 21 Days (Total 615 Children)
in 2001 in the Silver Springs Belarussian
Sanatorium (BELRAD Institute Data)
Concentration of Cs-137, Bq/kg
Group Before In 21 days Decrease,%
Vitapect 30.1 ± 0.7 10.4 ± 1.0 63.6∗
Placebo 30.0 ± 0.9 25.8 ± 0.8 13.9
∗p 0.001), with a mean effective halflife
for Cs-137 in a body of 27 days for the
pectin group, as compared with 69 days without
pectin. This was a reduction of the effective
half-life by a factor of 2.4. These results mean
that the pectin additive Vitapect with clean nutrition
appears to be 50% more effective in decreasing
the levels of Cs-137 than clean nutrition
alone (Nesterenko et al., 2004).
6. A clinical study of 94 children, 7 to 17
years of age, divided into two groups according
to their initial level of Cs-137 contamination
determined by whole body counting
(WBC) and given Vitapect orally for 16 days
(5 g twice a day) revealed both a significant
decrease in incorporated Cs-137 and marked
Figure 13.1. Decrease in levels of specific activity
of Cs-137 in children’s bodies after Vitapect
intake (5 g twice a day) for 21 days (Nesterenko
et al., 2004).
306 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
TABLE 13.2. EKG Normalization Results in the
Two Groups of Children Contaminated with Cs-
137 Treated with Vitapect (Bandazevskaya et al.,
2004)
Before After 16 days
Normal Normal
Group EKG,% Bq/kg EKG,% Bq/kg
1 72 38 ± 2.4 87 23
2 79 122 ± 18.5 93 88
improvement in their electrocardiograms
(EKG; Table 13.2).
7. From 2001 to 2003 the association “Children
of Chernobyl in Belarus” (France), Mitterand’s
Fund (France), the Fund for Children
of Chernobyl (Belgium), and the BELRAD Institute
treated 1,400 children (10 schools serving
13 villages) in the Narovlyansky District,
Gomel Province, in cycles in which the children
received the pectin preparation Vitapect
five times over the course of a year. The results
demonstrated a three- to fivefold annual
decrease in radioactive contamination in children
who took the Vitapect. The results for one
village can be seen in Figure 13.2.
8. There was concern that pectin enterosorbents
remove not only Cs-137, but also vital
microelements. Special studies were carried out
in 2003 and 2004 within the framework of the
Figure 13.2. Changes in average specific activity of Cs-137 (Bq/kg) in the bodies of
children of Verbovichi Village, Narovlyansky District, Gomel Province. Averages for these data
are shown. Dotted line indicates the periods of Vitapect intake (Nesterenko et al., 2004).
TABLE 13.3. Results of Treatment of 46 Children
for 30 Days in France in 2004 (BELRAD Institute
Data)
Concentration, Bq/kg
Decrease,
Before After %
Vitapect 39.0 ± 4.4 24.6 ± 3.4 37∗
Placebo 29.6 ± 2.7 24.6 ± 2.1 17
∗p fox > wild boar > roe deer >
hare > duck > elk.
13. In contaminated territories the same
species of fish taken from rivers and streams
have significantly lower radionuclide levels than
those from lakes and ponds. Phytophagous fish
have three to four times lower radionuclide levels
than predatory species (catfish, pike, etc.).
Benthic fishes (crucian, tench, etc.) have several
times more contamination than fish that
live in the top water layers (small fry, chub,
etc.).
14. There are some effective methods to significantly
decrease radionuclide contamination
in pond cultures by plowing fromthe pond bottom
down to a depth up to 50 cm and washing
with flowing water, applying potash fertilizers,
and using vitamins and antioxidants (radioprotectants)
as food additives for the fish (Slukvin
and Goncharova, 1998).
14.3. Radiation Protection
Measures in Everyday Life
Instructions for radiation protection and
self-help countermeasures can be found in
Ramzaev, 1992; Nesterenko, 1997; Beresdorf
andWright, 1999; Annenkov andAverin, 2003;
Babenko, 2008; Parkhomenko et al., 2008; and
many others.
It is very important to avoid radionuclides in
food and if they are consumed to try to eliminate
them from the body as quickly as possible.
In a baby, the biological half-life of Cs-137 is 14
days; for a 5-year old it is 21 days; for a 10-year
old, 49 days; for teenagers, about 90 days; and
for a young male, about 100 days (Nesterenko,
1997).
1. The most direct way of decreasing radionuclide
intake is to avoid foods that are potentially
heavily contaminated and to consume
foodstuffs with lower levels. However, this is
not easy to do because the average level of
radionuclide bioaccumulation differs in each
region owing to differences in soils, cultivars,
agriculture techniques, etc.
Several examples of differing levels of contamination
are presented below.
1.1. Vegetables: Order of decreasing Cs-137
in some areas of Belarus: sweet pepper > cabbage
>potatoes > beetroot > sorrel > lettuce
> radish > onion > garlic > carrots >
cucumbers > tomatoes. Order of decreasing
levels in Gomel Province: sorrel > beans >
radish > carrots > been root > potatoes >
garlic > sweet pepper > tomatoes > squash >
cucumbers > cabbage (kohlrabi) > cauliflower
> colewort (Radiology Institute, 2003).
1.2. Berries: Order of decreasing Cs-137
among some berries: blueberry (Vaccinium myrtillus),
cowberry (V. vitis-idaea), red and black
currants (Ribes sp.), and cranberry (Oxycoccus)
usually accumulate more Cs-137 than strawberry
(Fragaria), gooseberry (Grossularia), white
currant, raspberry (Rubus), and mountainash
(Sorbus).
1.3. Meat: Order of decreasing Cs-137 in
some meats: poultry > beef > mutton > pork.
Meats from older animals have more radionuclides
that meat from younger ones owing to
accumulation over time. Bones of young animals
have more Sr-90. Among visceral organs
the order of decreasing levels of Cs-137 is: lung
> kidney > liver > fat.
1.4. Eggs: Order of decreasing levels: shell >
egg-white > yolk.
1.5. Fish: Predatory and benthic fishes (pike,
perch, carp, catfish, tench, etc.) are more contaminated,
and fish living in rivers and streams
are always less contaminated than those from
lakes and ponds.
1.6. Mushrooms: The cap usually contains
more Cs-137 than the pedicle. Agaric (Agaricales)
mushrooms usually concentrate more radionuclides
than boletuses (Boletus).
2. The biological properties of Cs-137 are
similar to those of stable K and Rb, and Sr-90
and Pu are similar to Ca. These properties determine
where they concentrate in the body so
the use of stable elements may help to decrease
the absorption of radionuclides.
316 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
Foods rich in K include potatoes, maize,
beans, beets, raisins, dried apricots, tea, nuts,
potatoes, lemons, and dried plums. Ca-rich
foods include milk, eggs, legumes, horseradish,
green onions, turnip, parsley, dill, and spinach.
Green vegetables, apples, sunflower seeds,
black chokeberries, and rye bread are rich in
Fe; and Rb is found in red grapes.
3. A diet to protect against radioactive
contamination should include uncontaminated
fruits and vegetables, those rich in pectin, and
those with high-fiber complexes to promote the
rapid elimination of radionuclides.
4. High intake of fluids including fruit drinks
helps promote excretion of contaminants in
urine.
5. Daily addition of antioxidants (vitamins A,
C, E, and the trace elements Zn, Co, Cu, and
Se) is recommended.
6. Individuals exposed to radioactive contamination
should consume special food additives
such as Vitapect (see Chapter IV.13) and
products made from apples, green algae (Spirulinae),
fir-needles, etc.
7. There are several simple cooking techniques
that decrease radionuclides: boil foods
several times and discard the water, wash food
thoroughly, soak some foods and discard the
water, avoid the rinds of fruits and vegetables,
salt and pickle some foods but throw away the
pickling juice! Avoid eating strong bouillon, use
rendered butter, etc.
Experiences from around the world after the
catastrophe show that citizens of countries that
did not provide information and methods to
counter the effects of the radioactive fallout
fared more poorly than those in countries that
did provide such help. In 1986 the effective
individual dose to the “average” person in Bulgaria,
where there was no emergency protection
was 0.7 to 0.8 mSv, or about threefold
higher than the dose for the “average” Norwegian.
The Norwegian government placed a
prohibition against eating leafy vegetables and
drinking fresh milk, destroyed contaminated
meat, maintained cattle in stalls, deactivated
pastures and reservoirs, and mandated that
prior to slaughter the cattle be fed on clean forage,
etc. This disparity in contamination doses
occurred even though the level of contamination
in Bulgaria wasmeasurably lower than that
in Norway (Energy, 2008).
Since 1994, radiation exposure of individuals
living in the contaminated territories of Belarus,
Ukraine, and Russia has continued to increase
owing to internal absorption of radionuclides―
the most dangerous form of radiation exposure
despite natural radioactive decay.
Migration of Chernobyl radionuclides into
soil root zones allows plants to absorb them,
transport them to the surface, and incorporate
them into edible portions of the plant. Agricultural
and forest product radionuclides are introduced
into food chains, significantly increasing
the radiation danger for all who consume those
foodstuffs. Today the most serious contaminating
agents are Cs-137 and Sr-90. In coming
years the situation will change and Am-241 will
present a very serious problem (see Chapter I
for details).
For at least six to seven generations, vast
territories of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine
must take special measures to control radiation
exposure in agriculture, forestry, hunting,
and fishing. So too must other countries with
areas of high radioactive contamination, including
Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Austria,
France, and Germany. This means, that local
economies will require external grants-in-aid
and donations to minimize the level of radionuclides
in all products because many areas simply
do not have the funds to monitor, teach,
and mandate protection. Thus the problem of
contamination is dynamic and requires constant
monitoring and control―for Cs-137 and
Sr-90 pollution at least 150 to 300 years into
the future. The contamination from the wider
spectrum of radioisotopes is dynamic and will
require constant monitoring and control essentially
forever.
Nesterenko & Nesterenko: Protective Measures for Activities 317
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Sanzheva, N. I., Ageets, V. Yu. & Kashparov, V.
A. (2006). Role of protective measures in rehabilitation
of contaminated territories. International Conference.
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and Sustainable Development of Affected Territories. April
19–21, 2006, Minsk, Belarus (Materials, Minsk): pp.
103–108 (in Russian).
Aleksakhin,R.M.,Vasyl’ev, A.V.&Dykarev,V.G. (1992).
Agricultural Radioecology (“Ecologiya,” Moscow): 400
pp. (in Russian).
Annenkov, B. N. & Averin, V. S. (2003). Agriculture in
Radioactive Contaminated Areas: Radionuclides in Food
(“Propiley,” Minsk): 84 pp. (in Russian).
Babenko, V. I. (2008). How to protect yourself and
your child from radiation (//www.belradinstitute.
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Bagdevich, I. M., Putyatin, Yu. V., Shmigel’skaya, I. A.,
Tarasyuk, S.V.,Kas’yanchik, S. A.&Ivanyutenko,V.
V. (2001). Agricultural Production on Radioactive Contaminated
Territories (Institute for Soil Science and Agrochemistry,
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Beresdorf, N, A. & Wright, S. M. (Eds.) (1999). Selfhelp
countermeasure strategies for populations living
within contaminated areas of the former Soviet
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from agricultural usage. EC projects RESTORE
(F14-CT95–0021) and RECLAIM (ERBIC15-
CT96–0209) (Institute of Terrestrial Ecology, Monks
Wood): 83 pp.
Energy (2008). Chernobyl echo in Europe (//www.
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(in Russian).
Gudkov, I. N. (2006). Strategy of biological radiation
protection of biota in radionuclide contaminated
territories. In: Signa, A. A. & Durante, M. (Eds.),
Radiation Risk Estimates in Normal and Emergency Situations
(Dordrecht Springer, Berlin/London/New
York): pp. 101–108.
Ipat’ev, V. (2008). Clean soil under radio-contaminated
forest: Is it real? Sci. Innovat. 61(3): 36–38 (in
Russian).
Kashparov, V. A., Lazarev, N. M. & Poletchyuk, S. V.
(2005). Actual problems of agricultural radiology in
Ukraine. Agroecolog. J. 3: 31–41 (in Ukrainian).
Kenik, I. A. (Ed.) (1998). Belarus and Chernobyl: Priorities
for Second Decade after the Accident (Belarus Ministry for
Emergency Situations, Minsk): 92 pp. (in Russian).
Maradudin, I. I., Panfylov, A.V.,Rusyna, T.V., Shubin,V.
A., Bogachev, V. K., et al. (1997). Manual for forestry
in Chernobyl radioactively contaminated zones (for
period 1997–2000). Authorized by order N 40 from
1.03.97 of Russian Federal Forestry Service: 7 pp. (in
Russian).
National Belarussian Report (2006). Twenty Years after Chernobyl
Catastrophe: Consequences for Belarus Republic and Its
Surrounding Areas (Shevchuk, V. F. & Gurachevsky, V.
L., Eds.) (Belarus National Publishers, Minsk): 112
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Nesterenko, V. B. (1997). Radiation monitoring of inhabitants
and their foodstuffs in Chernobyl zone of Belarus.
BELRAD Inform. Bull. 6 (“Pravo Ekonomika,”
Minsk): 71 pp. (in Russian).
Parkhomenko, V. I., Shutov, V. N., Kaduka, M. V.,
Kravtsova, O. S., Samiolenko, V. M., et al. (2008).
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(in Russian).
CHERNOBYL
15. Consequences of the Chernobyl
Catastrophe for Public Health and the
Environment 23 Years Later
Alexey V. Yablokov, Vassily B. Nesterenko,
and Alexey V. Nesterenko
More than 50% of Chernobyl’s radionuclideswere dispersed outside of Belarus, Ukraine,
and European Russia and caused fallout as far away as North America. In 1986 nearly
400 million people lived in areas radioactively contaminated at a level higher than
4 kBq/m2 and nearly 5 million individuals are still being exposed to dangerous contamination.
The increase in morbidity, premature aging, and mutations is seen in all
the contaminated territories that have been studied. The increase in the rates of total
mortality for the first 17 years in European Russia was up to 3.75% and in Ukraine it
was up to 4.0%. Levels of internal irradiation are increasing owing to plants absorbing
and recycling Cs-137, Sr-90, Pu, and Am. During recent years, where internal levels
of Cs-137 have exceeded 1 mSv/year, which is considered “safe,” it must be lowered
to 50 Bq/kg in children and to 75 Bq/kg in adults. Useful practices to accomplish this
include applying mineral fertilizers on agricultural lands, K and organosoluble lignin
on forestlands, and regular individual consumption of natural pectin enterosorbents.
Extensive international help is needed to provide radiation protection for children,
especially in Belarus, where over the next 25 to 30 years radionuclides will continue
to contaminate plants through the root layers in the soil. Irradiated populations of
plants and animals exhibit a variety of morphological deformities and have significantly
higher levels of mutations that were rare prior to 1986. The Chernobyl zone is a “black
hole”: some species may persist there only via immigration from uncontaminated
areas.
The explosion of the fourth block of the Chernobyl
nuclear power plant in Ukraine on April,
26, 1986 was the worst technogenic accident
in history. The information presented in the
first 14 parts of this volume was abstracted
from the several thousand cited scientific papers
and other materials. What follows here is
a summary of the main results of this metaanalysis
of the consequences of the Chernobyl
catastrophe.
The principal methodological approach of
this meta-review is to reveal the consequences
Address for correspondence: Alexey V. Yablokov, Russian
Academy of Sciences, Leninsky Prospect 33, Office 319, 119071
Moscow, Russia. Voice: +7-495-952-80-19; fax: +7-495-952-80-19.
Yablokov@ecopolicy.ru
of Chernobyl by comparing differences among
populations, including territories or subgroups
that had and have different levels of contamination
but are comparable to one another in
ethnic, biologic, social, and economic characteristics.
This approach is clearly more valid
than trying to find “statistically significant” correlations
between population doses that are impossible
to quantify after the fact and health
outcomes that are defined precisely by morbidity
and mortality data.
15.1. The Global Scale of the
Catastrophe
1. As a result of the catastrophe, 40%
of Europe was contaminated with dangerous
318
Yablokov et al.: Consequences of the Chernobyl Catastrophe 319
radioactivity. Asia and North America were
also exposed to significant amounts of radioactive
fallout. Contaminated countries include
Austria, Finland, Sweden, Norway,
Switzerland, Romania, Great Britain, Germany,
Italy, France, Greece, Iceland, and Slovenia,
as well as wide territories in Asia, including
Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, The Emirates,
China, and northernAfrica. Nearly 400 million
people lived in areas with radioactivity at a level
exceeding 4 kBq/m2 (≥0.1 Ci/km2) during the
period from April to July 1986.
2. Belarus was especially heavily contaminated.
Twenty-three years after the catastrophe
nearly 5 million people, including some 1
million children, live in vast areas of Belarus,
Ukraine, and European Russia where dangerous
levels of radioactive contamination persist
(see Chapter 1).
3. The claim by the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations
Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic
Radiation (UNSCEAR), and several other
groups that the Chernobyl radioactive fallout
adds “only”2%to the natural radioactive background
ignores several facts:
• First, many territories continue to have dangerously
high levels of radiation.
• Second, high levels of radiation were spread far
and wide in the first weeks after the catastrophe.
• Third, there will be decades of chronic,
low-level contamination after the
catastrophe (Fig. 15.1).
• Fourth, every increase in nuclear radiation has
an effect on both somatic and reproductive
cells of all living things.
4. There is no scientific justification for the
fact that specialists from IAEA and the World
Health Organization (WHO) (Chernobyl Forum,
2005) completely neglected to cite the
extensive data on the negative consequences
of radioactive contamination in areas other
than Belarus, Ukraine, and European Russia,
Figure 15.1. Total additional radioactivity (in
petabequerels) in the global environment after the
Chernobyl catastrophe: (1) Am-241, (2) Pu (239 +
240), (3) Pu-241, (4) Sr-90, (5) Cs-137, (6) I-131
(Mulev, 2008).
where about 57% of the Chernobyl radionuclides
were deposited.
15.2. Obstacles to Analysis of the
Chernobyl Consequences
1. Among the reasons complicating a fullscale
estimation of the impact of the Chernobyl
catastrophe on health are the following:
• Official secrecy and unrectifiable falsification
of Soviet Union medical statistics for
the first 3.5 years after the catastrophe.
• Lack of detailed and clearly reliable medical
statistics in Ukraine, Belarus, and
Russia.
• Difficulties in estimating true individual radioactive
doses in view of: (a) reconstruction
of doses in the first days, weeks, and
months after the catastrophe; (b) uncertainty
as to the influence of individual “hot
particles”; (c) problems accounting for uneven
and spotty contamination; and (d)
inability to determine the influence of each
of many radionuclides, singly and in combination.
320 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
• Inadequacy of modern knowledge as to:
(a) the specific effect of each of the many
radionuclides; (b) synergy of interactions of
radionuclides among themselves and with
other environmental factors; (c) population
and individual variations in radiosensitivity;
(d) impact of ultralow doses and dose
rates; and (e) impact of internally absorbed
radiation on various organs and biological
systems.
2. The demand by IAEA and WHO experts
to require “significant correlation” between the
imprecisely calculated levels of individual radiation
(and thus groups of individuals) and precisely
diagnosed illnesses as the only iron clad
proof to associate illness with Chernobyl radiation
is not, in our view, scientifically valid.
3. We believe it is scientifically incorrect to
reject data generated by many thousands of scientists,
doctors, and other experts who directly
observed the suffering of millions affected by radioactive
fallout in Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia
as “mismatching scientific protocols.” It is
scientifically valid to find ways to abstract the
valuable information from these data.
4. The objective information concerning the
impact of the Chernobyl catastrophe on health
can be obtained in several ways:
• Compare morbidity and mortality of territories
having identical physiographic, social,
and economic backgrounds and that
differ only in the levels and spectra of
radioactive contamination to which they
have been and are being exposed.
• Compare the health of the same group of
individuals during specific periods after the
catastrophe.
• Compare the health of the same individual
in regard to disorders linked to radiation
that are not a function of age or sex (e.g.,
stable chromosomal aberrations).
• Compare the health of individuals living in
contaminated territories by measuring the
level of incorporated Cs-137, Sr-90, Pu,
and Am. This method is especially effective
for evaluating children who were born
after the catastrophe.
• Correlate pathological changes in particular
organs by measuring their levels of
incorporated radionuclides.
The objective documentation of the catastrophe’s
consequences requires the analysis of
the health status of about 800,000 liquidators,
hundreds of thousands of evacuees, and those
who voluntary left the contaminated territories
of Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia (and their
children), who are now living outside of these
territories, even in other countries.
5. It is necessary to determine territories in
Asia (including Trans-Caucasus, Iran, China,
Turkey, Emirates), northern Africa, and North
America that were exposed to the Chernobyl
fallout from April to July 1986 and to analyze
detailed medical statistics for these and surrounding
territories.
15.3. Health Consequences
of Chernobyl
1. A significant increase in generalmorbidity
is apparent in all the territories contaminated
by Chernobyl that have been studied.
2. Among specific health disorders associated
with Chernobyl radiation there are increased
morbidity and prevalence of the following
groups of diseases:
• Circulatory system (owing primarily to radioactive
destruction of the endothelium,
the internal lining of the blood vessels).
• Endocrine system (especially nonmalignant
thyroid pathology).
• Immune system (“Chernobyl AIDS,” increased
incidence and seriousness of all illnesses).
• Respiratory system.
• Urogenital tract and reproductive disorders.
• Musculoskeletal system (including pathologic
changes in the structure and
Yablokov et al.: Consequences of the Chernobyl Catastrophe 321
composition of bones: osteopenia and osteoporosis).
• Central nervous system (changes in frontal,
temporal, and occipitoparietal lobes of the
brain, leading to diminished intelligence
and behaviorial and mental disorders).
• Eyes (cataracts, vitreous destruction,
refraction anomalies, and conjunctive
disorders).
• Digestive tract.
• Congenital malformations and anomalies
(including previously rare multiple defects
of limbs and head).
• Thyroid cancer (All forecasts concerning
this cancer have been erroneous;
Chernobyl-related thyroid cancers have
rapid onset and aggressive development,
striking both children and adults. After
surgery the person becomes dependent on
replacement hormone medication for life.)
• Leukemia (blood cancers) not only in children
and liquidators, but in the general
adult population of contaminated
territories.
• Other malignant neoplasms.
3. Other health consequences of the catastrophe:
• Changes in the body’s biological balance,
leading to increased numbers of serious
illnesses owing to intestinal toxicoses, bacterial
infections, and sepsis.
• Intensified infectious and parasitic diseases
(e.g., viral hepatitis and respiratory
viruses).
• Increased incidence of health disorders in
children born to radiated parents (both to
liquidators and to individuals who left the
contaminated territories), especially those
radiated in utero. These disorders, involving
practically all the body’s organs and
systems, also include genetic changes.
• Catastrophic state of health of liquidators
(especially liquidators who worked in
1986–1987).
• Premature aging in both adults and children.
• Increased incidence of multiple somatic
and genetic mutations.
4. Chronic diseases associated with radioactive
contamination are pervasive in liquidators
and in the population living in contaminated
territories. Among these individuals
polymorbidity is common; that is, people are
often afflicted by multiple illnesses at the same
time.
5. Chernobyl has “enriched”worldmedicine
with such terms, as “cancer rejuvenescence,” as
well as three new syndromes:
• “Vegetovascular dystonia”―dysfunctional
regulation of the nervous system
involving cardiovascular and other organs
(also called autonomic nervous system dysfunction),
with clinical signs that present
against a background of stress.
• “Incorporated long-life radionuclides”―
functional and structural disorders of the
cardiovascular, nervous, endocrine, reproductive,
and other systems owing to absorbed
radionuclides.
• “Acute inhalation lesions of the upper respiratory
tract”―a combination of a rhinitis,
throat tickling, dry cough, difficulty
breathing, and shortness of breath owing
to the effect of inhaled radionuclides, including
“hot particles.”
6. Several new syndromes, reflecting increased
incidence of some illnesses, appeared
after Chernobyl. Among them:
• “Chronic fatigue syndrome”―excessive
and unrelieved fatigue, fatigue without obvious
cause, periodic depression, memory
loss, diffusemuscular and joint pains, chills
and fever, frequentmood changes, cervical
lymph node sensitivity, weight loss; it is also
often associated with immune system dysfunction
and CNS disorders.
• “Lingering radiating illness syndrome”―a
combination of excessive fatigue, dizziness,
trembling, and back pain.
• “Early aging syndrome”―a divergence
between physical and chronological age
322 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
with illnesses characteristic of the elderly
occurring at an early age.
7. Specific Chernobyl syndromes such as
“radiation in utero,” “Chernobyl AIDS,”
“Chernobyl heart,” “Chernobyl limbs,” and
others await more detailed definitive medical
descriptions.
8. The full picture of deteriorating health
in the contaminated territories is still far from
complete, despite a large quantity of data. Medical,
biological, and radiological research must
expand and be supported to provide the full picture
of Chernobyl’s consequences. Instead this
research has been cut back in Russia, Ukraine,
and Belarus.
9. Deterioration of public health (especially
of children) in the Chernobyl-contaminated
territories 23 years after the catastrophe is not
due to psychological stress or radiophobia, or
from resettlement, but is mostly and primarily
due to Chernobyl irradiation. Superimposed
upon the first powerful shock in 1986 is continuing
chronic low-dose and low-dose-rate radionuclide
exposure.
10. Psychological factors (“radiation phobia”)
simply cannot be the defining reason
because morbidity continued to increase for
some years after the catastrophe, whereas radiation
concerns have decreased. And what is the
level of radiation phobia among voles, swallows,
frogs, and pine trees, which demonstrate similar
health disorders, including increased mutation
rates? There is no question but that social
and economic factors are dire for those sick
from radiation. Sickness, deformed and impaired
children, death of family and friends,
loss of home and treasured possessions, loss of
work, and dislocation are serious financial and
mental stresses.
15.4. Total Number of Victims
1. Early official forecasts by IAEA andWHO
predicted few additional cases of cancer. In
2005, the Chernobyl Forum declared that the
total death toll from the catastrophe would be
about 9,000 and the number of sick about
200,000. These numbers cannot distinguish
radiation-related deaths and illnesses from the
natural mortality and morbidity of a huge population
base.
2. Soon after the catastrophe average life expectancy
noticeably decreased and morbidity
and mortality increased in infants and the elderly
in the Soviet Union.
3. Detailed statistical comparisons of heavily
contaminated territories with less contaminated
ones showed an increase in the mortality
rate in contaminated European Russia
and Ukraine of up to 3.75% and 4.0%, respectively,
in the first 15 to 17 years after the
catastrophe.
4. According to evaluations based on detailed
analyses of official demographic statistics
in the contaminated territories of Belarus,
Ukraine, and European Russia, the additional
Chernobyl death toll for the first 15 years after
the catastrophe amounted to nearly 237,000
people. It is safe to assume that the total Chernobyl
death toll for the period from 1987
to 2004 has reached nearly 417,000 in other
parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and nearly
170,000 in North America, accounting for
nearly 824,000 deaths worldwide.
5. The numbers of Chernobyl victims will
continue to increase for several generations.
15.5. Chernobyl Releases and
Environmental Consequences
1. Displacement of the long half-life Chernobyl
radionuclides by water, winds, and migrating
animals causes (and will continue to
cause) secondary radioactive contamination
hundreds and thousands of kilometers away
from the Ukrainian Chernobyl Nuclear Power
Station.
2. All the initial forecasts of rapid clearance
or decay of the Chernobyl radionuclides from
ecosystemswere wrong: it is takingmuch longer
than predicted because they recirculate. The
overall state of the contamination in water, air,
Yablokov et al.: Consequences of the Chernobyl Catastrophe 323
and soil appears to fluctuate greatly and the
dynamics of Sr-90, Cs-137, Pu, and Am contamination
still present surprises.
3. As a result of the accumulation of Cs-137,
Sr-90, Pu, and Am in the root soil layer, radionuclides
have continued to build in plants
over recent years. Moving with water to the
above-ground parts of plants, the radionuclides
(which earlier had disappeared from the surface)
concentrate in the edible components, resulting
in increased levels of internal irradiation
and dose rate in people, despite decreasing total
amounts of radionuclides from natural disintegration
over time.
4. As a result of radionuclide bioaccumulation,
the amount in plants, mushrooms, and
animals can increase 1,000-fold as compared
with concentrations in soil and water. The factors
of accumulation and transition vary considerably
by season even for the same species,
making it difficult to discern dangerous levels
of radionuclides in plants and animals that appear
to be safe to eat. Only direct monitoring
can determine actual levels.
5. In 1986 the levels of irradiation in
plants and animals in Western Europe, North
America, the Arctic, and eastern Asia were
sometimes hundreds and even thousands of
times above acceptable norms. The initial
pulse of high-level irradiation followed by exposure
to chronic low-level radionuclides has
resulted in morphological, physiological, and
genetic disorders in all the living organisms in
contaminated areas that have been studied―
plants, mammals, birds, amphibians, fish, invertebrates,
bacteria, and viruses.
6. Twenty years after the catastrophe all
gameanimals in contaminated areas of Belarus,
Ukraine, and European Russia have high levels
of the Chernobyl radionuclides. It is still possible
to find elk, boar, and roe deer that are
dangerously contaminated in Austria, Sweden,
Finland, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, and
several other countries.
7. All affected populations of plants and animals
that have been the subjects of detailed
studies exhibit a wide range of morphological
deformities that were rare or unheard of prior
to the catastrophe.
8. Stability of individual development (determined
by level of fluctuating symmetry―a
specific method for detecting the level of individual
developmental instability) is lower in all
the plants, fishes, amphibians, birds, and mammals
that were studied in the contaminated
territories.
9. The number of the genetically anomalous
and underdeveloped pollen grains and spores
in the Chernobyl radioactively contaminated
soils indicates geobotanical disturbance.
10. All of the plants, animals, and microorganisms
that were studied in the Chernobyl
contaminated territories have significantly
higher levels of mutations than those in
less contaminated areas. The chronic low-dose
exposure in Chernobyl territories results in a
transgenerational accumulation of genomic instability,
manifested in cellular and systemic
effects. The mutation rates in some organisms
increased during the last decades, despite
a decrease in the local level of radioactive
contamination.
11. Wildlife in the heavily contaminated
Chernobyl zone sometimes appears to flourish,
but the appearance is deceptive. According to
morphogenetic, cytogenetic, and immunological
tests, all of the populations of plants, fishes,
amphibians, and mammals that were studied
there are in poor condition. This zone is analogous
to a “black hole”―some species may only
persist there via immigration from uncontaminated
areas. The Chernobyl zone is the microevolutionary
“boiler,” where gene pools of
living creatures are actively transforming, with
unpredictable consequences.
12. What happened to voles and frogs in the
Chernobyl zone shows what can happen to humans
in coming generations: increasing mutation
rates, increasing morbidity and mortality,
reduced life expectancy, decreased intensity of
reproduction, and changes in male/female sex
ratios.
13. For better understanding of the processes
of transformation of the wildlife in the
324 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
Chernobyl-contaminated areas, radiobiological
and other scientific studies should not
be stopped, as has happened everywhere in
Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia, but must be
extended and intensified to understand and
help to mitigate expected and unexpected
consequences.
15.6. Social and Environmental
Efforts to Minimize the
Consequences of the Catastrophe
1. For hundreds of thousands of individuals
(first of all, in Belarus, but also in vast territories
of Ukraine, Russia, and in some areas of
other countries) the additional Chernobyl irradiation
still exceeds the considered “safe” level
of 1 mSv/year.
2. Currently for people living in the contaminated
regions of Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia,
90% of their irradiation dose is due to consumption
of contaminated local food, so measures
must be made available to rid their bodies
of incorporated radionuclides (see Chapter
IV.12–14).
3. Multiple measures have been undertaken
to produce clean food and to rehabilitate the
people of Belarus, Ukraine, and European
Russia. These include application of additional
amounts of select fertilizers, special programs
to reduce levels of radionuclides in farm products
and meat, organizing radionuclide-free
food for schools and kindergartens, and special
programs to rehabilitate children by periodically
relocating them to uncontaminated
places. Unfortunately these measures are not
sufficient for those who depend upon food from
their individual gardens, or local forests, and
waters.
4. It is vitally necessary to develop measures
to decrease the accumulation of Cs-137 in the
bodies of inhabitants of the contaminated areas.
These levels, which are based upon available
data concerning the effect of incorporated
radionuclides on health, are 30 to 50 Bq/kg
for children and 70 to 75 Bq/kg for adults. In
some Belarus villages in 2006 some children
had levels up to 2,500 Bq/kg!
5. The experience of BELRAD Institute in
Belarus has shown that active decorporation
measures should be introduced when Cs-137
levels become higher than 25 to 28 Bq/kg.
This corresponds to 0.1 mSv/year, the same
level that according to UNSCEAR a person
inevitably receives from external irradiation living
in the contaminated territories.
6. Owing to individual and family food
consumption and variable local availability of
food, permanent radiation monitoring of local
food products is needed along with measurement
of individual radionuclide levels, especially
in children. There must be general
toughening of allowable local food radionuclide
levels.
7. In order to decrease irradiation to a considered
safe level (1 mSv/year) for those in
contaminated areas of Belarus, Ukraine, and
Russia it is good practice to:
• Applymineral fertilizers not less than three
times a year on all agricultural lands, including
gardens, pastures, and hayfields.
• Add K and soluble lignin to forest ecosystems
within a radius up to 10 km from settlements
for effective reduction of Cs-137
inmushrooms, nuts, and berries, which are
important local foods.
• Provide regular individual intake of natural
pectin enterosorbents (derived from
apples, currants, etc.) for 1 month at least
four times a year and include juices with
pectin daily for children in kindergartens
and schools to promote excretion of
radionuclides.
• Undertake preventive measures for milk,
meat, fish, vegetables, and other local food
products to reduce radionuclide levels.
• Use enterosorbents (ferrocyanides, etc.)
when fattening meat animals.
8. To decrease the levels of illness and promote
rehabilitation it is a good practice in the
contaminated areas to provide:
Yablokov et al.: Consequences of the Chernobyl Catastrophe 325
• Annual individual determination of actual
levels of incorporated radionuclides using
a whole-body radiation counter (for children,
this must be done quarterly).
• Reconstruction of all individual external
irradiation levels from the initial period after
the catastrophe using EPR-dosimetry
and measurement of chromosomal aberrations,
etc. This should include all victims,
including those who left contaminated
areas―liquidators, evacuees, and
voluntary migrants and their children.
• Obligatory genetic consultations in the
contaminated territories (and voluntary for
all citizens of childbearing age) for the risks
of severe congenital malformations in offspring.
Using the characteristics and spectra
of mutations in the blood or bone marrow
of future parents, it is possible to define
the risk of giving birth to a child with severe
genetic malformations and thus avoid
family tragedies.
• Prenatal diagnosis of severe congenital
malformations and support for programs
for medical abortions for families living
in the contaminated territories of Belarus,
Ukraine, and Russia.
• Regular oncological screening and preventive
and anticipatory medical practices
for the population of the contaminated
territories.
9. The Chernobyl catastrophe clearly shows
that it is impossible to provide protection from
the radioactive fallout using only national resources.
In the first 20 years the direct economic
damage to Belarus, Ukraine, andRussia has exceeded
500 billion dollars. To mitigate some of
the consequences, Belarus spends about 20% of
its national annual budget, Ukraine up to 6%,
and Russia up to 1%. Extensive international
help will be needed to protect children for at
least the next 25 to 30 years, especially those
in Belarus because radionuclides remain in the
root layers of the soil.
10. Failure to provide stable iodine in April
1986 for those in the contaminated territories
led to substantial increases in the number of
victims. Thyroid disease is one of the first consequences
when a nuclear power plant fails,
so a dependable system is needed to get this
simple chemical to all of those in the path of
nuclear fallout. It is clear that every country
with nuclear power plants must help all countries
stockpile potassium iodine in the event of
another nuclear plant catastrophe.
11. The tragedy of Chernobyl shows that
societies everywhere (and especially in Japan,
France, India, China, the United States, and
Germany) must consider the importance of independent
radiation monitoring of both food
and individual irradiation levels with the aim
of ameliorating the danger and preventing additional
harm.
12. Monitoring of incorporated radionuclides,
especially in children, is necessary
around every nuclear power plant. This monitoring
must be independent of the nuclear industry
and the data results must be made available
to the public.
15.7. Organizations Associated
with the Nuclear Industry Protect
the Industry First―Not the Public
1. An important lesson from the Chernobyl
experience is that experts and organizations
tied to the nuclear industry have dismissed and
ignored the consequences of the catastrophe.
2. Within only 8 or 9 years after the catastrophe
a universal increase in cataracts was admitted
by medical officials. The same occurred
with thyroid cancer, leukemia, and organic central
nervous system disorders. Foot-dragging in
recognizing obvious problems and the resultant
delays in preventing exposure and mitigating
the effects lies at the door of nuclear power advocates
more interested in preserving the status
quo than in helping millions of innocent
people who are suffering through no fault
of their own. It need to change official
agreement between WHO and IAEA (WHO,
1959) providing hiding from public of any
326 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
information which can be unwanted of nuclear
industry.
15.8. It Is Impossible
to Forget Chernobyl
1. The growing data about of the negative
consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe for
public health and nature does not bode well
for optimism. Without special large-scale national
and international programs, morbidity
and mortality in the contaminated territories
will increase. Morally it is inexplicable that the
experts associated with the nuclear industry
claim: “It is time to forget Chernobyl.”
2. Sound and effective international and national
policy for mitigation and minimization
of Chernobyl’s consequences must be based
on the principle: “It is necessary to learn
and minimize the consequences of this terrible
catastrophe.”
15.9. Conclusion
U.S. President John F. Kennedy speaking
about the necessity to stop atmospheric nuclear
tests said in June 1963:
. . . The number of children and grandchildren
with cancer in their bones, with leukemia in their
blood, or with poison in their lungs might seem
statistically small to some, in comparison with natural
health hazards, but this is not a natural health
hazard―and it is not a statistical issue. The loss of
even one human life or the malformation of even
one baby―who may be born long after we are
gone―should be of concern to us all. Our children
and grandchildren are not merely statistics toward
which we can be indifferent.
The Chernobyl catastrophe demonstrates
that the nuclear industry’s willingness to risk
the health of humanity and our environment
with nuclear power plants will result, not only
theoretically, but practically, in the same level
of hazard as nuclear weapons.
References
Chernobyl Forum (2005). Environmental Consequences
of the Chernobyl Accident and Their Remediation:
Twenty Years of Experience. Report of
the UN Chernobyl Forum Expert Group “Environment”
(EGE) Working Draft, August 2005
(IAEA, Vienna): 280 pp. (//www-pub.iaea.org/
MTCD/publications/PDF/Pub1239_web.pdf).
Kennedy, J. F. (1963). Radio/TV address regarding the
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, July 26, 1963 (//www.ratical.
org/radiation/inetSeries/ChernyThyrd.html).
Mulev, St. (2008). Chernobyl’s continuing hazards. BBC
News website, April 25, 17.25. GMT (//www.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4942828.stm).
WHO (1959). Resolution World Health Assembly.
Rez WHA 12–40, Art. 3, §1(//www.resosol.
org/InfoNuc/IN_DI.OMS_AIEA.htm).
CHERNOBYL
Conclusion to Chapter IV
In the last days of spring and the beginning
of summer of 1986, radioactivity was released
from the Chernobyl power plant and fell upon
hundreds of millions of people. The resulting
levels of radionuclides were hundreds of times
higher than that from the Hiroshima atomic
bomb.
The normal lives of tens of millions have
been destroyed. Today, more than 6 million
people live on land with dangerous levels of
contamination―land that will continue to be
contaminated for decades to centuries. Thus
the daily questions: how to live and where to
live?
In the territories contaminated by the Chernobyl
fallout it is impossible to engage safely
in agriculture; impossible to work safely in
forestry, in fisheries, and hunting; and dangerous
to use local foodstuffs or to drink
milk and even water. Those who live in
these areas ask how to avoid the tragedy of
a son or daughter born with malformations
caused by irradiation. Soon after the catastrophe
these profound questions arose among
liquidators’ families, often too late to avoid
tragedy.
During this time, complex measures to minimize
risks in agriculture and forestry were developed
for those living in contaminated territories,
including organizing individual radiation
protection, support for radioactive-free agricultural
production, and safer ways to engage in
forestry.
Most of the efforts to help people in the
contaminated territories are spearheaded by
state-run programs. The problem with these
programs is the dual issue of providing help
while hoping to minimize charges that Chernobyl
fallout has caused harm.
To simplify life for those suffering irradiation
effects a tremendous amount of educational
and organizationalwork has to be done to monitor
incorporated radionuclides, monitor (without
exception) all foodstuffs, determine individual
cumulative doses using objective methods,
and provide medical and genetic counseling,
especially for children.
More than 20 years after the catastrophe, by
virtue of the natural migration of radionuclides
the resultant danger in these areas has not decreased,
but increases and will continue to do
so for many years to come. Thus there is the
need to expand programs to help people still
suffering in the contaminated territories, which
requires international, national, state, and philanthropic
assistance.
327