Author: Loganovsky K, Havenaar JM, Tintle NL, Guey LT, Kotov R, Bromet EJ.
Reference: Psychol Med. 2008, 38 (4): 481–488.
Keywords: mental health, liquidators, PTSD, suicide, depression
Abstract: BACKGROUND: The psychological aftermath of the Chernobyl accident is regarded as the largest public health problem unleashed by the accident to date. Yet the mental health of the clean-up workers, who faced the greatest radiation exposure and threat to life, has not been systematically evaluated. This study describes the long-term psychological effects of Chernobyl in a sample of clean-up workers in Ukraine.
METHOD: The cohorts were 295 male clean-up workers sent to Chernobyl between 1986 and 1990 interviewed 18 years after the accident (71% participation rate) and 397 geographically matched controls interviewed as part of the Ukraine World Mental Health (WMS) Survey 16 years after the accident. The World Health Organization (WHO) Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) was administered. We examined group differences in common psychiatric disorders, suicide ideation and severe headaches, differential effects of disorder on days lost from work, and in the clean-up workers, the relationship of exposure severity to disorder and current trauma and somatic symptoms. Analyses were adjusted for age in 1986 and mental health prior to the accident.
RESULTS: Relatively more clean-up workers than controls experienced depression (18.0% v. 13.1%) and suicide ideation (9.2% v. 4.1%) after the accident. In the year preceding interview, the rates of depression (14.9% v. 7.1%), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (4.1% v. 1.0%) and headaches (69.2% v. 12.4%) were elevated. Affected workers lost more work days than affected controls. Exposure level was associated with current somatic and PTSD symptom severity.
CONCLUSIONS: Long-term mental health consequences of Chernobyl were observed in clean-up workers.
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18047772
Author: Loganovskaja T.K., Loganovsky K.N.
Reference: Int. J. Psychophysiol. — 1999. — Vol. 34, № 3. — P. 213–224
Keywords: EEG, clinical neuropsychiatric examination, IQ test
Abstract: Computerised EEG, a clinical neuropsychiatric examination, and IQ tests were examined in 50 randomly selected prenatally irradiated 9-10-year-old children and compared with 50 randomly selected non-exposed control children of the same age. In the prenatally irradiated children a disorganised EEG-pattern with slow and paroxysmal activity (acute and high-voltage delta-waves, sometimes: spike-waves) in the left fronto-temporal region was disclosed. There was also a significant predominance of delta- and beta (dominant frequency: 20 Hz)-power in the frontal lobe, particularly, in the left fronto-temporal region, together with depressed spectral theta-power. The more disorganised EEG-patterns were observed in those children exposed at 8-15 weeks of prenatal development, while left-hemisphere abnormalities were more typical for those exposed later at 16-25 weeks of gestation. There was also a significant increase of borderline and low range (70-90) IQ scores and a significant decrease of high verbal (> 110) IQ scores. Disorders of psychological development, particularly specific developmental disorders of speech, language, and scholastic skills were more common and correlated with left-sided slow- and fast-wave activity. Behavioural and emotional disorders (social estrangement, exhaustion, emotional lability, tearfulness, apathy) were also more common and associated with a L > R imbalance in arousal. We hypothesise that the cerebral basis of mental disorders in the prenatally irradiated children is the malfunction of the left hemisphere limbic-reticular structures, particularly in those exposed at the most critical period of cerebrogenesis (16-25 weeks of gestation). We propose that the left hemisphere is more vulnerable to prenatal irradiation than the right.
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10610046
Title: Effect of the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident on radioiodine (131I) content in human breast milk
Author: Nobuya Unno, Hisanori Minakami, Takahiko Kubo, Keiya Fujimori, Isamu Ishiwata, Hiroshi Terada, Shigeru Saito, Ichiro Yamaguchi, Naoki Kunugita, Akihito Nakai, Yasunori Yoshimura
Reference: Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology Research, Volume 38, Issue 5, pages 772–779, May 2012
Keywords: human breast milk; Iodine-131; nuclear power plant accident; radioiodine
Abstract: Environmental pollution with radioiodine (iodine-131, 131I) occurred after an accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant (FNP) on March 11, 2011, in Japan. Whether environmental pollution with 131I can contaminate human breast milk has not been documented. The 131I content was determined in 126 breast milk samples from 119 volunteer lactating women residing within 250 km of the FNP, between April 24 and May 31, 2011. The degree of environmental pollution was determined based on the data released by the Japanese government.
URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1447-0756.2011.01810.x/abstract
Author: Y. Imamura, Y. Nakane, Y. Ohta, H. Kondo
Reference: Acta Psychiatr. Scand. — 1999. — Vol. 100, № 5. — P. 344–349.
Keywords: schizophrenia, risk factor
Abstract: OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between prenatal exposure to atomic bomb (A-bomb) radiation and the development of schizophrenia in adulthood.
METHOD: We investigated the lifetime prevalence of schizophrenia among people prenatally exposed to the 1945 Nagasaki A-bomb, using the schizophrenia register and the A-bomb survivors’ database.
RESULTS: Among 1867 prenatally exposed individuals, 18 subjects (0.96%) had developed schizophrenia later in life. The prevalence was significantly higher in people exposed in the second trimester of pregnancy than in those exposed in the third trimester. The closer they had been to the hypocentre, the higher was the prevalence, but no statistically significant linear relationship was seen.
CONCLUSION: This investigation could not clarify the nature of exposure to A-bomb radiation as a risk factor for schizophrenia in the prenatal period.
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10563451
Title: Dynamic modeling of the radionuclides transfer within hydrobiocenosis and assessing the consequences of radioactive contamination for biota and human
Author: Kryshev, Alexander Ivanovich
Reference: Obninsk, 2008
Keywords: biota, humans, radionuclides, environment, radiation monitoring, hydrobiocenosis, water reservoirs
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to develop an integrated assessment model of the effects of radioactive contamination of hydrobiocenosis on biota and humans, based on the information about the entry of radionuclides into the environment and the radiation monitoring data.
URL:http://www.dissercat.com/content/dinamicheskoe-modelirovanie-perenosa-radionuklidov-v-gidrobiotsenozakh-i-otsenka-posledstvii
Author: Kolominsky Y., Igumnov S., Drozdovitch V J.
Reference: Child Psychol. Psychiatry. — 1999. — Vol. 40, № 2. — P. 299–305
Keywords: physiology, psychiatry, speech-language disorder, IQ
Abstract: This study examined psychological development in 138 children at the age of 6-7 and 10-11 years, who had suffered prenatal radiation exposure at the time of the Chernobyl accident in 1986. These children were compared to a control group of 122 children of the same age from noncontaminated areas of Belarus. The examination included neurological and psychiatric examination, intellectual assessment, and clinical psychological investigation of parents as well as the estimation of thyroid exposure in utero. The exposed group manifested a relative increase in psychological impairment compared with the control group, with increased prevalence in cases of specific developmental speech-language disorders (18.1% vs. 8.2% at 6-7 years; 10.1% vs. 3.3% at 10-11 years) and emotional disorders (20.3% vs. 7.4% at 6-7 years; 18.1 vs. 7.4% at 10-11 years). The mean IQ of the exposed group was lower than that of the control group, and there were more cases of borderline IQ (IQ = 70-79) (15.9% vs. 5.7% at 6-7 years; and 10.1% vs. 3.3% at 10-11 years). The mean value of thyroid doses from 131I 0.4 Gy was estimated for children exposed in utero. No correlation was found between individual thyroid doses and IQ at age 6-7 years or 10-11 years. We notice a positive moderate correlation between IQ of children and the educational level of their parents. There was a moderate correlation between high personal anxiety in parents and emotional disorders in children. We conclude that a significant role in the genesis of borderline intellectual functioning, specific developmental disorders of speech, language and scholastic skills, as well as emotional disorders in the exposed group of children was played by unfavourable social-psychological and social-cultural factors such as a low educational level of parents, the break of microsocial contacts, and adaptational difficulties, which appear following the evacuation and relocation from the contaminated areas.
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10188713
Title: Features of the radiation monitoring of Penza region’s forest ecosystems
Author: Goncharov, Evgeny Alexeyevich
Reference: Yoshkar-Ola, 2007
Keywords: radiation monitoring, forest ecosystems (biogeocenosis) , Penza region, phytocoenosis, cesium-137
Abstract: The purpose of the dissertation – the study of characteristics of 137Cs redistribution in the main components of forest ecosystems of the Penza region to improve the system of radiation monitoring under the low-background contamination terms in the remote period after the Chernobyl accident.
URL:http://www.dissercat.com/content/osobennosti-radiatsionnogo-monitoringa-lesnykh-biogeotsenozov-penzenskoi-oblasti
Reference: ― New York: Academic Press, 1965. ― 365 p.
Keywords: neurology
Abstract: Prepared under the direction of the American Institute of Biological Sciences for the Division of Technical Information, United States Atomic Energy Commission
URL: http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/8568261?versionId=9900454
Author: Kesminiene A.Z., Kurtinaitis J., Rimdeika G.
Reference: Acta Med. Lituanica. — 1997. — Vol. 2. — P. 55–61.
Title: Analysis of the results of cytogenetic studies of people living in radioactively contaminated areas after the Chernobyl accident
Author: Mikhailova, Galina Fyodorovna
Reference: Obninsk, 2007
Keywords: radiobiology, cytogenetic studies, radioactive contamination, chromosomal aberrations, chronic low-intensity radiation, somatic cells
Abstract: The aim of this study is to examine the patterns of the effects of chronic low-intensity radiation on the genetic structure of the somatic cells of people living in areas with different density of radioactive contamination from the Chernobyl accident.
URL:http://www.dissercat.com/content/analiz-rezultatov-tsitogeneticheskikh-issledovanii-naseleniya-prozhivayushchego-na-radioakti
