Title: Concerns With Low-Level Ionizing Radiation * * Based on a Grand Rounds presentation at the Mayo Clinic on Sept. 16, 1992.
Author: YALOW, ROSALYN S.
Reference: Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 69 (5), p.436-440, May 1994
doi: 10.1016/S0025-6196(12)61639-5
Keywords: LET, linear energy transfer, Low-Level Ionizing Radiation
Abstract: …of radiation-induced thyroid nodules is higher than the risk of radiation-induced thyroid cancer. Therefore, as part of the International Chernobyl Project in 1990, data…obtained about the nature of thyroid nodules in the population…
URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025619612616395
Title: Genomic damage in children accidentally exposed to ionizing radiation: A review of the literature
Author: Fucic, A. / Brunborg, G. / Lasan, R. / Jezek, D. / Knudsen, L.E. / Merlo, D.F.
Reference: Mutation Research/Reviews in Mutation Research, 658 (1-2), p.111-123, Jan 2008
doi: 10.1016/j.mrrev.2007.11.003
Keywords: Child; Ionizing radiation; Environment; Chromosome aberration assay; Micronucleus assay; Chernobyl
Abstract: During the last decade, our knowledge of the mechanisms by which children respond to exposures to physical and chemical agents present in the environment, has significantly increased. Results of recent projects and programmes focused on children’s health underline a specific vulnerability of children to environmental genotoxicants. Environmental research on children predominantly investigates the health effects of air pollution while effects from radiation exposure deserve more attention. The main sources of knowledge on genome damage of children exposed to radiation are studies performed after the Chernobyl nuclear plant accident in 1986. The present review presents and discusses data collected from papers analyzing genome damage in children environmentally exposed to ionizing radiation. Overall, the evidence from the studies conducted following the Chernobyl accident, nuclear tests, environmental radiation pollution and indoor accidental contamination reveals consistently increased chromosome aberration and micronuclei frequency in exposed than in referent children.
Future research in this area should be focused on studies providing information on: (a) effects on children caused by low doses of radiation; (b) effects on children from combined exposure to low doses of radiation and chemical agents from food, water and air; and (c) specific effects from exposure during early childhood (radioisotopes from water, radon in homes). Special consideration should also be given to a possible impact of a radiochemical environment to the development of an adaptive response for genomic damage. Interactive databases should be developed to provide integration of cytogenetic data, childhood cancer registry data and information on environmental contamination. The overall aim is to introduce timely and efficient preventive measures, by means of a better knowledge of the early and delayed health effects in children resulting from radiation exposure.
URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1383574207000634
Title: Lessons from Chernobyl: the event, the aftermath fallout: radioactive, political, social.
Author: Robbins J.
Reference: JACOB ROBBINS. Thyroid. April 1997, 7(2): 189-192.
doi: 10.1089/thy.1997.7.189..
Keywords:
Abstract: The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power station on April 26, 1986, released about 300 MCi of radioactive substances, including about 40 MCi of 131I and 100 MCi of short-lived radioiodines. In the immediate surroundings there were 143 cases of acute radiation syndrome, 34 deaths, and hundreds of thousands of people displaced from their homes, many permanently. The social and psychologic stresses that followed have been enormous and long-lasting. This article focuses on the rising incidence of thyroid cancer in exposed children. Radiation-induced thyroid cancer following external radiation is well documented but there is little evidence in humans of thyroid cancer from internal radiation and the risk coefficient for radioiodine exposure is unknown. To achieve this, thyroid dose reconstruction and prospective follow-up of about 50,000 persons who were children in 1986 will be required. Thyroid cancer in children of southern Belarus began to increase in 1990 and there now are about 1000 cases in Belarus and northern Ukraine. These aggressively growing tumors, almost all variants of papillary thyroid cancer, are typical of thyroid cancer in children not exposed to radiation, and a low mortality rate is to be expected. It also is expected, however, that malignant as well as benign thyroid neoplasms will continue to arise in these exposed children well into their adult life.
URL: http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/thy.1997.7.189
Title: Incidence of childhood disease in Belarus associated with the Chernobyl accident.
Author: Lomat L, Galburt G, Quastel MR, Polyakov S, Okeanov A, Rozin S
Reference: . 1997. Environ Health Perspect 105 Suppl 6:1529-32.
Keywords:children, Belarus
Abstract: Study of the childhood incidence of cancer and other diseases in Belarus is of great importance because of the present unfavorable environmental situation. About 20% of the children in the republic were exposed in various degrees to radiation as a result of the Chernobyl accident. Since 1987 increases in the incidence of most classes of disease have been reported, including the development of thyroid cancer. From 1987 to 1995, thyroid cancer was diagnosed in 424 children; its incidence having increased from 0.2 to 4.0/10(5) in 1995. According to preliminary data for 1996, 81 childhood cancer cases were reported. During 1995 there also were increases in the incidence of endocrine and dermatologic diseases and mental disorders. During the period 1987 to 1995 significant increases in the incidences of all illnesses were observed for children listed in the Chernobyl registry. The highest incidence rates were found in evacuated children and those residing in contaminated areas. There also were increased incidences of thyroid and digestive organ diseases among these children and in addition, high prevalence of chronic tonsillitis and adenoiditis was observed. Since 1990 an increase of autoimmune thyroiditis has been observed. The highest rates of hematopoietic tissue diseases were found in children born after the accident to irradiated parents.
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9467077
Title: Time trends of thyroid cancer incidence in Belarus after the Chernobyl accident.
Author: Heidenreich WF, Kenigsberg J, Jacob P, Buglova E, Goulko G, Paretzke HG, Demidchik EP, Golovneva A.
Reference: 1999.Radiation Research Society Radiat Res 151:617-25.
Keywords:childhood thyroid cancer,Belarus
Abstract: The rates of childhood thyroid cancer incidence observed in Belarus during the period 1986 to 1995 are described as a function of time after exposure, age at exposure, and sex. Conclusions are drawn for the excess absolute risk function. After a minimum latent period of about 3 years after exposure, this risk function has a linear increase with time for at least 6 years. After correction for the dependence of average doses on age, the radiation-induced absolute thyroid risk in Gomel is about a factor of 3 higher for children up to age 10 at exposure compared to older ones; this may be due in part to different case-collection quality. In addition, in the group up to 10 years at exposure, the thyroid of girls is more sensitive to radiation by a factor of about 1.5 than the thyroid of boys on an absolute scale. Risk estimates from external exposure are consistent with risk estimates from Gomel assuming that the increase in excess cases reaches a plateau soon.
URL: http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3580038?uid=3738328&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21101947514301
Title: . Iodine deficiency in Belarusian children as a possible factor stimulating the irradiation of the thyroid gland during the Chernobyl catastrophe.
Author: Gembicki M, Stozharov AN, Arinchin AN, Moschik KV, Petrenko S, Khmara IM, Baverstock KF.
Reference: 1997 Environ Health Perspect 105 Suppl 6:1487-90.
Keywords:children, Belarus
Abstract: Ten years after the Chernobyl nuclear plant catastrophe more than 500 children in Belarus are suffering from thyroid cancer. The major cause of the high incidence of thyroid cancer in children under 15 years of age appears to be contamination resulting from that catastrophe, mainly with isotopes of radioactive iodine. Another important factor may be iodine deficiency in the environment. A countrywide program for investigation of goiter prevalence and iodine deficiency has been established in the Republic of Belarus with the assistance of the European World Health Organization office. The program will oversee the examination of 11,000 children and adolescents 6 to 18 years of age from 30 schools in urban and rural areas. The results obtained in a group of 824 children and adolescents (the pilot phase) are typical for significant iodine deficiency and moderate goiter endemism. It is clear that the present situation does not completely reflect the situation that existed at the time of the Chernobyl catastrophe. However, data from epidemiologic studies conducted many years before the accident showed high goiter prevalence in the contaminated areas, indicating that the prevalence of iodine deficiency at the time of the catastrophe was similar to the present one or even greater. Such an assumption could lead to a better understanding of the thyroid pathologies that have been observed.
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9467069
Title: Chernobyl-related thyroid cancer: what evidence for role of short-lived iodines?
Author: Bleuer JP, Averkin YI, Abelin T.
Reference: 1997. Environ Health Perspect 105 Suppl 6:1483-6.
Keywords:
Abstract: Over 500 cases of thyroid cancer were diagnosed in Belarus between 1986 and 1995 among persons exposed as children (under 15 years of age) to radioactive contamination from the Chernobyl nuclear accident. There is little doubt that radioactive iodine isotopes emitted during the nuclear explosion and subsequent fire were instrumental in causing malignancy in this particular organ. Comparison of the observed geographic distribution of Chernobyl-associated thyroid cancer incidence rates by districts with contamination maps of radioactive fallout shows a better fit for estimated 131I contamination than for 137Cs. Because 131I used for medical purposes had not been considered carcinogenic in humans in the past, and in view of the unusually short latency period between exposure and clinical manifestation of cancer, it is suspected that not only 131I but also energy-rich shorter-lived radioiodines may have played a role in post-Chernobyl thyroid carcinogenesis. Measurements of iodine isotopes are not available, but reconstruction of geographic distributions and estimations of radioactive fallout based on meteorological observations immediately following the accident could provide a basis for comparison with the distribution of thyroid cancer cases. In this paper, data from the Epidemiological Cancer Register for Belarus will be used to show geographic and time trends of thyroid cancer incidence rates in the period from 1986 to 1995 among persons who were exposed as children, and these will be compared with the estimated contamination by radioiodines. Tentative conclusions are drawn from the available evidence and further research requirements discussed.
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9467068
Title: Chernobyl-related thyroid cancer in children of Belarus: a case-control study.
Author: Astakhova LN, Anspaugh LR, Beebe GW, Bouville A, Drozdovitch VV, Garber V, Gavrilin YI, Khrouch VT, Kuvshinnikov AV, Kuzmenkov YN, Minenko VP, Moschik KV, Nalivko AS, Robbins J, Shemiakina EV, Shinkarev S, Tochitskaya SI, Waclawiw MA.
Reference: Radiat Res 150:349-56. Research Institute of Radiation Medicine, Ministry of Health, Minsk, Belarus.
Keywords: children , Belarus
Abstract: The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on April 26, 1986, released approximately 2 EBq of 131I and other radioiodine isotopes that heavily contaminated southern Belarus. An increase in thyroid cancer reported in 1992 and attributed to the Chernobyl accident was challenged as possibly the result of intensive screening. We began a case-control study to test the hypothesis that the Chernobyl accident caused the increase in thyroid cancer. Records of childhood thyroid cancer in the national therapy centers in Minsk in 1992 yielded 107 individuals with confirmed pathology diagnoses and available for interview. Pathways to diagnosis were (1) routine endocrinological screening in 63, (2) presentation with enlarged or nodular thyroid in 25 and (3) an incidental finding in 19. Two sets of controls were chosen, one matched on pathway to diagnosis, the other representing the area of heavy fallout, both matched on age, sex and rural/urban residence in 1986. The 131I dose to the thyroid was estimated from ground deposition of 137Cs, ground deposition of 131I, a data bank of 1986 thyroid radiation measurements, questionnaires and interviews. Highly significant differences were observed between cases and controls (both sets) with respect to dose. The differences persisted within pathway to diagnosis, gender, age and year of diagnosis, and level of iodine in the soil, and were most marked in the southern portion of the Gomel region. The case-control comparisons indicate a strong relationship between thyroid cancer and estimated radiation dose from the Chernobyl accident.
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9728663
Title: GROUNDWATER RADIOIODINE: PREVALENCE, BIOGEOCHEMISTRY, AND POTENTIAL REMEDIAL APPROACHES
Author: Denham, M. / Kaplan, D. / Yeager, C.
Reference: Sep 2009 Savannah River National Laboratory
doi: 10.2172/965394
Keywords: Iodine-129, iodine-131,iodide, iodate, remediation,fission product, organic matter, microbiology, silver, sorption, risk assessment
Abstract: This report was prepared for the United States Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC09-08SR22470 and is an account of work performed under that contract. Neither the United States Department of Energy, nor SRNS, nor any of their employees makes any warranty, expressed or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for accuracy, completeness, or usefulness, of any information, apparatus, or product or process disclosed herein or represents that its use will not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, name, manufacturer or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply endorsement, recommendation, or favoring of same by Savannah River Nuclear Solutions or by the United States Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of the authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof.
…function of time after the Chernobyl accident. Note that 131 I…that the maximum dose to the thyroid occurs. As the amount of 129…and 10 4 nCi the dose to the thyroid decreases sharply due to its…activity, does not demonstrate a thyroid dose sensitivity to the amount of radioactivity…
URL: http://sti.srs.gov/fulltext/SRNL-STI-2009-00463.pdf
Title: MMJ’03-final Chernobyl: A Legacy of Disaster
Author: Gregory Gurda
Reference: [PDF-431K] MICHIGAN MEDICAL JOURNAL VOLUME 4 NUMBER1 SEPTEMBER 2003
Keywords:
Abstract: …reflect various aspects of cancer as it intersects with human…further about issues surrounding cancer and other serious life-altering…1 Flight * Noelle Goodin 5 Chernobyl: A Legacy of Disaster Gregory…Above Adam Possner Living with Cancer 8 Surviving Cancer: A Medical…
URL: http://www.umich.edu/~michmedj/mmj03.pdf
