15. Consequences of the Chernobyl Catastrophe for Public Health and the Environment 23 Years Later

Abstract

More than 50% of Chernobyl's radionuclides were 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/m(2) 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.

Is exposure to ionising radiation associated with childhood cardiac arrhythmia in the Russian territories contaminated by the Chernobyl fallout? A cross-sectional population-based study

“…However, arguing that children have been and are still exposed to 137 Cs because of the consumption of foodstuffs such as mushrooms and berries locally produced and contaminated as a result of a transfer of radionuclides from the soil, some authors attribute to radiation exposure a number of other illnesses exhibited in children living in contaminated territories, such as various infections, gastric symptoms or cardiovascular diseases, among cardiac arrhythmias that are frequently mentioned. 14 These authors state that such diseases would be caused by a chronic incorporation and heterogeneous accumulation of radioactive caesium inside the body, particularly into the myocardium. 11–14 However, there is no indication of an accumulation into the myocardium in a publication presenting an update of the biokinetic models for radiocaesium and its progeny as these radionuclides are known to be distributed mainly in the skeletal muscles.…”

Radioactive contamination in Chernobyl and (epi)genetic stability of plants – A review

“…Chernobyl region depends mainly on the characteristics of soil, climate, biosphere, plant species and populations (Yablokov et al, 2009).…”

“…Radionuclides accumulate in tissues and bones and the most often can result into cancer (Burger and Lichtscheidl, 2019). It is known that health conditions of about seven million people have been in some way affected by Chernobyl and they suffer from numerous diseases as a direct consequence of radioisotope exposure (Yablokov et al, 2009;Ager et al, 2019).…”

Cellular senescence and radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis

“…[13][14][15] In addition, SnCs can also contribute to IRinduced late effects, such as lung, kidney, intestinal, and skin fibrosis; cataract; cognitive dysfunction; and cardiovascular diseases. 6,[16][17][18][19][20][21] Therefore, cellular senescence is a doubleedged sword in the fight against cancer with RT. Inhibiting the induction of senescence is detrimental, but promoting SnC clearance after IR is beneficial (Fig.1).…”