Hiroshima radiation sickness

The nuclear explosions that devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed 100,000 to 200,000 people instantaneously. Probably an equal number died later, victims of the radiation released in those explosions. Millions of people were exposed to the radioactivity released by the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The full health effects of that accident may never be known, but 31 people died of radiation sickness within a few weeks of the accident, and more than 2000 people have developed thyroid cancer through exposure to radioactive iodine released in the accident. Even low levels of radiation can cause health problems. For this reason, workers in facilities that use radioisotopes monitor their exposure to radiation continually, and they must be rotated to other duties if their total exposure exceeds prescribed levels. 

Radiation sickness, known as acute radiation sickness (ARS), is a serious illness that occurs when the entire body (or most of It) receives a high dose of radiation, usually over a short period of time. Many survivors of the Hiroshima and Naga.saki atomic bombs in the 1940s and many of the firefighters who first responded after the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident in 1986 became ill with ARS. 

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