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UNSCEAR on the Health Effects from Chornobyl

The report, published last year, assessed the radiological situation in the highly contaminated regions of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. At the time of the accident, 134 employees of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant and emergency workers received short-term whole-body doses ranging from 800 to 16,000 milligrays of radiation, 28 of whom, as Stone mentions, died within the first 4 months of the accident, due to acute radiation sickness. The fate of the 106 survivors who received doses of 1300 to 5300 milligrays has been monitored up to the present. There have been 11 deaths among them between 1987 and 1998. Only in three cases (one of myeloid leukemia and two of meylodysplastic syndrome) could the death be probably related to radiation. The average yearly dose received by about 5 million inhabitants of the contaminated regions and by 336,000 evacuated persons was about 1 millisievert (mSv), and about 381,000 recovery workers received an average total dose of 100 mSv. For comparison, the dose rate from natural radiation ranges between 1 and 20 mSv/year in most countries, and up to 150 mSv/year in some inhabited regions. No radiation-induced increase of cancers and hereditary diseases has ever been observed in these high natural radiation regions. Also, no hereditary effects were detected after the atomic explosions in Japan.

Apart from an increased incidence of thyroid cancer in children, which Stone discusses, in the general population of contaminated areas, there is no evidence of a major health impact induced by radiation. "No increases in overall cancer (and leukemia) incidence or mortality have been observed that could be attributed to ionizing radiation." And contrary to Stone's article, in which he says that "rates of some noncancer diseases--endocrine disorders and stroke, for instance--appear to be rising disproportionately among [those] who cleaned up the heaviest contamination...," the UNSCEAR committee reported no proof of such disorders that could be attributed to ionizing radiation. However, they did find that "there were widespread psychological reactions to the accident, which were due to fear of the radiation, not to the actual radiation doses."

Regarding the search for genetic effects associated with Chornobyl exposures in Belarus or Ukraine, which had the highest contamination, and in a number of European countries, UNSCEAR's 2001 report states that no unambiguous evidence was found for an increase in the frequencies of, for example, Down's syndrome, congenital anomalies, miscarriages, or perinatal mortality (2). According to UNSCEAR, generally positive prospects for the future health of people in contaminated regions should prevail.

Zbigniew Jaworowski
Central Laboratory for Radilogical Protection,
Konwaliowa 7,
03-194 Warszawa, Poland.
E-mail: jaworo@clor.waw.pl

References and Notes

1. UNSCEAR, "Sources and Effects of Ionizing Radiation: United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation UNSCEAR 2000 Report to the General Assembly, with Scientific Annexes" (United Nations, New York, 2000).
2. UNSCEAR, "Hereditary Effects of Radiation: United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation UNSCEAR 2001 Report to the General Assembly, with Scientific Annex" (United Nations, New York, in press).

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