Belarus, thyroid cancer cases

The situation in relation to thyroid effects is serious. Up to the end of 1995, there were more than 800 cases of thyroid cancer reported in children, mainly in Belarus. Thyroid cancer may be induced by causes other than radiation, but all these cases seem likely to be associated with radiation exposure due to the accident. They represent a dramatic increase in the normal incidence of this rare type of cancer and the increase seems not to persist among children born after 1986. Thyroid cancer is usually non-fatal with early diagnosis, treatment and attention. At the time of the Chernobyl Conference, three of the children affected had already died. The prospects cannot be precisely predicted the high incidence is expected to continue for some time and the number of reported cases may be in the thousands the mortality will depend very much on the quality and intensity of the treatment given to the affected children. 

The Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986 resulted in the largest radiation exposure in recent history. The radioactive materials released contained high levels of radioactive iodine (particularly, with a half-life of 8 days), an element that accumulates in the thyroid gland as a component of thyroid hormone. Following the explosion, people were exposed to deadly radioactive materials estimated to be 100 times greater than that associated with the detonation of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima. In Belarus, thyroid cancer in children under 18 increased from an incidence of 0.03-0.05 cases per 100,000 (1986-1988 data) to more than 10 times that level (5-8 cases per 100,000) in the period 1993-2002. Increases in thyroid cancer also were noted in Ukraine, with rates going from 0.02 per 100,000 (1986-1988 data) to 5-10 times that level (1-2.2 per 100,000) over the period from 1993-2002 (Reiners et al., 2013). There is little doubt that Chernobyl radiation exposure caused thyroid cancer among children in the affected area. 

Within the following few weeks 28 of the 32 acute deaths of exposed employees were judged due to radiation exposure. Thyroid cancer in children under 18 rose from an incidence of 0.5 of 100,000 (1986-1988 baseline) to more than ten times that level (5-8 per 100,000) in Belarus (1993-2002). Increases were just as consistent, but of less magnitude for Ukraine, going from 0.2 per 100,000 from 1986 to 1988 (baseline) to 5-10 times that level (1 to 2.2 per 100,000) from 1993 to 2002. There is little doubt that Chernobyl radiation caused thyroid cancer. In 2,000 there were 4,000 cases of thyroid cancer in children under 18 drinking milk contaminated with in 2002 there were 12 deaths related to these exposures. 

However, this incident was dwarfed in scale by the meltdown that took place at the Chernobyl reactor in the former Soviet Union or modern-day Ukraine in 1986. Setting Windscale at 1 on an 1 release scale, Chernobyl comes in at 2300 (Williams, 2006), and within a few years reports were made of a marked increase in cases of thyroid cancer in neighboring areas, such as modern-day Belarus (Kazakov et al, 1992). Studies of the aftermath of the incident continue today, although much uncertainty remains as to the long-term environmental and health effects (Baverstock and Williams, 2006). 

Ingestion is often a very important source of dose, oeeurring when eontaminated food is eaten or from contamination on the hands. Ingesting milk eontaminated hy the Chemohyl accident has caused many cases of thyroid cancer in Belarus and Ukraine. Very high, possibly fatal doses have resulted from ingestion of contamination from a ruptured souree. If eontam-ination is suspected, wash your hands, do not eat or smoke, keep your hands away from your mouth, and advise the pubhe to do the same. However, early (deterministie) injuries and deaths from ingestion of radioactive material are very rare. 

---