Title: Chernobyl exposure as stressor during pregnancy and behaviour in adolescent offspring
Author: Huizink AC, Dick DM, Sihvola E, Pulkkinen L, Rose RJ, Kaprio J
Reference: Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica [2007, 116(6):438-446]
DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0447.2007.01050.x
Keywords: stressor, pregnancy, utero exposure
Abstract: Research in animals has shown that exposure to stressors during pregnancy is associated with offspring behavioural disorders. We aimed to study the effect of in utero exposure to the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, and maternal anxiety presumably associated with that exposure, on behaviour disorder observed at age 14.
URL:http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/17997723/reload=0;jsessionid=hGAqsKrHmmv8rx35ys6y.12
Title: Chernobyl: prenatal loss of four hundred male fetuses in the Czech Republic
Author: Peterka M, Peterková R, Likovský Z
Reference: Reprod Toxicol. 2004 Jan-Feb;18(1):75-9.
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.reprotox.2003.10.010
Keywords: Sex ratio, Radiation, Pregnancy outcome, Spontaneous abortion, Czech Republic
Abstract: The long-standing higher male birth fraction is considered an indicator of reproduction stability and health. In contrast, a decrease in the male birth fraction has been reported after prenatal exposure to environmental chemical factors. There is generally higher vulnerability of boys to prenatal damage by environmental stress. We formulated a hypothesis that the Chernobyl disaster might also have had a greater negative impact on male than on female fetuses, leading to their selective loss and to a decrease in the male birth fraction. To test this hypothesis, we examined demographic data on monthly natality in the territory of the Czech Republic from 1950 to 1999. The male birth fraction was higher in the Czech Republic each month between 1950 and 1999 except November 1986, when it was significantly (P< 0.05) reduced. This finding suggests a selective negative effect of the Chernobyl accident on male fetuses during the 3rd month of prenatal development.
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15013066
Title: Saving lives and changing family histories: appropriate counseling of pregnant women and men and women of reproductive age, concerning the risk of diagnostic radiation exposures during and before pregnancy
Author: Robert L. Brent
Reference: American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Volume 200, Issue 1, January 2009, Pages 4-24
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajog.2008.06.032
Keywords: ionizing radiation risk, pregnancy risks, reproductive age
Abstract: There have been many publications concerning the effects of radiation on the developing embryo. The subject includes the effects of ionizing radiation (x-rays, gamma rays, internal and external radionuclides, neutrons) and nonionizing radiation (ie, electromagnetic fields of various frequencies, microwave radiation, communication band radiation, diathermy, lasers, and ultrasound). Exposures to ionizing radiation will be emphasized in this publication.
URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002937808006431
Title: Testicular steroidogenesis is not altered by 137 cesium Chernobyl fallout, following in utero or post-natal chronic exposure
Author: Grignard E, Guéguen Y, Grison S, Dublineau I, Gourmelon P, Souidi M
Reference: Comptes Rendus Biologies, Volume 333, Issue 5, May 2010, Pages 416–423
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.crvi.2010.02.003
Keywords: Steroidogenesis, Cesium, Chronic contamination, Chernobyl, utero exposure, postnatal chronic exposure
Abstract: The testis is especially sensitive to pollutants, including radionuclides. Following the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident, several of these radionuclides were emitted and spread in the environment. Subsequently, children presented some disruptions of the endocrine system. To determine whether these disruptions were due to 137 cesium (137Cs) exposure, the effects of chronic contamination with low doses of 137Cs in utero or from birth on testicular steroidogenesis in rats were studied. Contamination was continued for 9 months. No modification was observed in circulating level of hormones (17β-estradiol, testosterone, follicle-stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone) following in utero or post-natal contamination. Expression of several genes involved in testicular steroidogenesis was affected (cyp19a1, fxr, sf-1), without modification of protein expression or activity. Our results suggest that growing organisms may be affected at the molecular level by 137Cs contamination at this post-accidental dose.
URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1631069110000466
Title: EARLY INFANT MORTALITY IN WEST GERMANY BEFORE AND AFTER CHERNOBYL
Author: G. Luning, J. Scheer, M. Schmidt, H. Ziggel
Reference: The Lancet, Volume 334, Issue 8671, Pages 1081 – 1083, 4 November 1989
doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(89)91091-X
Keywords: infant mortality, West Germany
Abstract: Early infant mortality rates in West Germany were plotted for regions with different radioactive burdens following the Chernobyl nuclear reactor explosion in April, 1986. In all regions, the logarithms of the mortality rates fitted a linear model between 1975 and 1985, but from May, 1986, immediately after the accident, there was a striking deviation from the model in areas with greatest radioactive fallout.
URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014067368991091X
Title: In utero exposure to A-bomb radiation and mental retardation; a reassessment
Author: Masanori Otake, Ph.D. and William J. Schull, Ph.D.
Reference: British Journal of Radiology (1984) 57, 409-414
doi: 10.1259/0007-1285-57-677-409
Keywords: utero exposure, A-bomb, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, mental retardation
Abstract: The prevalence of mental retardation in children exposed in utero to the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki has been re-evaluated in reference to gestational age and tissue dose in the fetus. There was no risk at 0–8 weeks postconception. The highest risk of forebrain damage occurred at 8–15 weeks of gestational age, the time when the most rapid proliferation of neuronal elements and when most, if not all, neuroblast migration to the cerebral cortex from the proliferative zones is occurring. Overall, the risk is five or more times greater in these weeks than in subsequent ones. In the critical period, damage expressed as the frequency of subsequent mental retardation appears to be linearly related to the dose received by the fetus. A linear model is not equally applicable to radiation-related mental retardation after the 15th week, the observed values suggesting that there a threshold may exist. The data are consistent with a probability of occurrence of mental retardation of 0.40% per cGy or 40% per gray.
URL: http://bjr.birjournals.org/content/57/677/409
Title: Chernobyl fallout and perinatal mortality in England and Wales
Author: Graham Bentham
Reference: Environ Res. 1994 Nov;67(2):149–159
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536(91)90324-6
Keywords: Chernobyl fallout, perinatal mortality, England, Wales
Abstract: Previous studies have concluded that radioactive fallout from Chernobyl may have caused an increase in perinatal mortality in West Germany and the U.S.A. The existence of marked geographical variations in contamination from Chernobyl in England and Wales provides an opportunity to investigate this question further by means of a geographical study. The highest doses from Chernobyl in England and Wales were in the counties of Cumbria, Clwyd and Gwynedd where there was heavy rainfall during the passage of the radioactive cloud. However, perinatal mortality in these areas did not rise relative to the national average in the year following Chernobyl. This negative finding was confirmed by a wider study of 14 counties grouped in accordance with levels of radioactive contamination of local milk. It is concluded that this study provides no evidence that radiation from Chernobyl caused a rise in perinatal mortality in England and Wales.
URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0277953691903246
Title: Pregnancy outcome in Finland after the Chernobyl accident
Author: T Harjulehto, T Rahola, M Suomela, H Arvela, L Saxén
Reference: Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy, Volume 45, Issue 6, 1991, Pages 263–266
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0753-3322(91)90027-Q
Keywords: Pregnancy, Finland
Abstract: The explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant caused radioactive fallout in Finland in April–May 1986. The fallout was unevenly distributed geographically, and, accordingly, the country was divided into 3 fallout zones. Wholebody radioactivity measurements of randomly chosen persons showed that the regional differences prevailed throughout the following 2 years. Data for legal abortions, registered congenital malformations as well as preterm births and stillbirths of malformed children were collected. The corresponding expected figures were obtained from statistics for 1984 and 1985. No differences in the expected/observed rates of the above parameters were detected.
URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/075333229190027Q
Title: Pregnancy outcome in Sweden after the Chernobyl accident
Author: Ericson A, Källén B.
Reference: Environ Res. 1994 Nov;67(2):149–159
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/enrs.1994.1070
Keywords: pregnancy, Sweden
Abstract: To study pregnancy outcome including development of childhood cancer in areas within Sweden with the highest radioactive fallout after the Chernobyl accident in 1986.
URL:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001393518471070X
Title: Selective monitoring for a Chernobyl effect on pregnancy outcome in Kiev, 1969-1989
Author: Buzhievskaya TI, Tchaikovskaya TL, Demidova GG, Koblyanskaya GN.
Reference: Hum Biol. 1995 Aug; 67(4):657–672
Keywords: Pregnancy, Ukraine
Abstract: The aim of this investigation was to determine the frequency of adverse pregnancy outcomes in Kiev during the period surrounding the Chernobyl accident on April 26, 1986. Additional effective equivalent doses resulting from the catastrophic irradiation in 1986-1991 was 8.04 mSv for Kiev inhabitants. We retrospectively analyzed the archives of the two largest obstetric hospitals between 1969 and 1990. Spontaneous miscarriages, congenital anomalies, and perinatal mortality varied during the two decades without any pronounced changes in any direction. Additional longterm follow-up is needed to determine mutagenic or carcinogenic effects.
URL:http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/41465414?uid=25665&uid=3738328&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=3&uid=67&uid=25664&uid=62&uid=5911992&sid=21102514197077
