Physical Health Effects

Immediately following the Chernobyl explosions, those in close proximity were subject to acute medical consequences. Of the 444 workers at the plant and the responding firefighters, 31 succumbed to their injuries (29 to acute radiation sickness) by the end of the summer (Hohenemser 1988). For instance, the firefighters were exposed to steam and radioactively contaminated water which led to whole body doses of radiation, thermal burns, and beta burns to their skin. The symptoms of radiation exposure appeared quickly and included vomiting, nausea, radiation-induced skin burns, and the temporal development of lymphocyte and platelet counts (Hohenemser 1988). Those with radiation doses high enough to affect bone marrow were susceptible to infection and received treatment involving antimicrobial, antifungal, and antiviral medications (Hohenemser 1988). Individuals who received severe amounts of radiation were treated with bone marrow or fetal liver transplants; unfortunately, all but one died from transplant rejection (Hohenemser 1988).

The greatest threat to long-term physical health in the fallout of Chernobyl is, by far, the manifestation of thyroid carcinoma in children, with papillary cancer being the primary pathological type (Cardis et al. 2006). It has been shown that a child’s thyroid is ultra-sensitive to the absorption of cancerous agents, such as the radioiodine isotopes that were released during the Chernobyl explosion (Pacini et al. 1993:3567). Furthermore, the risk of developing thyroid carcinoma in the subsequent years is higher among very young children as opposed to slightly older children (around 9 years old) (Pacini et al. 1993:3568).

Immediately after the fallout, a short latency period was observed, followed by a substantial increase in aggressive cancers among children (Nikiforov and Gnepp 1994). A case-control study done by Astakhova and colleagues indicates that the increase in thyroid cancer among Children in Belarus is, in fact, due to the nuclear fallout and not to the increased and intensive screening in response to the disaster by Soviet health authorities (1998). The study illustrates an increase of thyroid carcinoma well into 1997 (when the study was being undertaken) solely in children that had been alive or in utero in areas affected by the accident (Astakhova et al. 1998). In addition, “a majority of the cancers were larger than 1 cm or had spread beyond the thyroid capsule, and 62% had metastasized to regional lymph nodes, characteristics that distinguish them from occult cancers” (Astakhova 1998:355).

A complimentary study also designed to prove the positive correlation between Chernobyl and thyroid carcinoma in adolescents (ages 14 – 21) is a comparative study undertaken by Pacini et al. (1997). Those studied were adolescents at the time of diagnosis and were compared with other adolescents from Italy and France that exhibited naturally occurring thyroid carcinoma (Pacini et al 1997). The results show that adolescents demonstrated an increase in thyroid carcinoma, similar to children (under the age of 14), but in a less pronounced manner (Pacini et al. 1997). It is thus suggested that the fallout-induced thyroid cancer epidemic may have reached its peak by 1993, before levelling off (Pacini et al. 1997). Furthermore, it was shown that those diagnosed with carcinoma in Belarus were primarily under the age of 14, while those in Italy and France were over the age of 14 and showed a scale of progressive diagnoses over time (Pacini et al. 1997). The cases of thyroid cancer in Belarus then appear to be linked to a rather sudden exposure collectively. In Italy and France, females seem to exhibit higher levels of the cancer, whereas the occurrence in Belarus is much more equal between males and females (Pacini et al. 1997). Such data illustrates the causal significance of exposure to the Chernobyl fallout in comparison to differences in sex.

Overall, it is clear that the increase in thyroid cancer among those that were children during the Chernobyl disaster is directly related to the nuclear fallout. Along with the association between acute radiation sickness and radioiodines, the several studies conducted illustrate an equal association between thyroid carcinoma and radioiodines.