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PubMed2001

EEG patterns in persons exposed to ionizing radiation as a result of the Chernobyl accident: part 1: conventional EEG analysis.

Prospective conventional EEG study was carried out 3-5 and 10-13 years after the Chernobyl accident (1986) in patients who had acute radiation sickness and in emergency workers in 1986 ("liquidators"). Control groups comprised healthy volunteers; veterans of the Afghanistan war with posttraumatic stress disorder; veterans with mild traumatic brain injury; and patients with dyscirculatory encephalopathy. In 3-5 years after irradiation, there were irritated EEG changes with paroxysmal activity shifted to the left frontotemporal region (cortical-limbic overactivation) that were transformed 10-13 years after irradiation toward a low-voltage EEG pattern with excess of fast (beta) and slow (delta) activity together with depression of alpha and theta activity (organic brain damage with inhibition of the cortical-limbic system). Quantitative EEG is likely to be very informative for investigation of dose-effect relationships.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

EEG patterns in persons exposed to ionizing radiation as a result of the chernobyl accident. Part 2: quantitative EEG analysis in patients who had acute radiation sickness.

Cross-sectional quantitative electroencephalogram (qEEG) study (1996-2001) among Chernobyl accident survivors, who had confirmed acute radiation sickness and were irradiated in dose of 1-5 Gy, revealed the neurophysiological markers of ionizing radiation. Neuropsychological markers were: left fronto-temporal dominant frequency reduction; absolute delta-power lateralization to the left (dominant) hemisphere; relative delta-power increase in the fronto-temporal areas; absolute theta-power decrease in the left temporal region; absolute and relative alpha-power diffusive decrease, which may reflect cortico-limbic dysfunction lateralized to the left, dominant hemisphere, with the fronto-temporal cortical and hippocampal damage. Quantitative electroencephalogram proposed for differentiation of radiation and nonradiation brain damages and as a new biological dosymetry method. High radiosensitivity of the brain, neocortex, and dominant hemisphere higher radiosensitivity are discussed.

Brain Mapping↗
PubMed1996

Thyroid ultrasound findings 7 years after the Chernobyl accident. A comparative epidemiological study in the Bryansk region of Russia.

AIMS: The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power station occurred in April 1986. We report on a comparative epidemiological study on thyroid abnormalities in the contaminated and uncontaminated populations of the Bryansk region, South-West Russia, in 1993, 7 years after the accident. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study material consisted of all inhabitants aged 3-34 years in the contaminated village of Mirnyi and in the uncontaminated village of Krasnyi Rog, excluding those who had moved to the villages after the accident. The total material comprised 302 inhabitants in Mirnyi and 200 in Krasnyi Rog. RESULTS: No pathological US findings in either village were found in children born after the accident. In the age group 0-9 years old at the time of the accident, the prevalence of thyroid abnormalities was 8.1% in the contaminated village compared to 1.6% in the uncontaminated village. In the age group 10-27 years the corresponding figures were 18.8% and 17.7%. Only 55% of the pathological US findings were detected by physical palpation. CONCLUSION: The total prevalence of thyroid abnormalities was higher among children in the contaminated village. We recommend an active screening of young contaminated subjects with US, supplemented with fine needle biopsy.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Estimation of Radiation Exposures of "Liquidators" of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station; Identification of Risk Groups.

Identification of workers who are at high risk and at low risk as a result of participation in the cleanup of the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power station ("liquidators") is important both for scientific research and for the medical care of the individuals involved. Using register data for 36,700 liquidators, the authors estimated the relationships between radiation doses and the following factors: time of arrival at the accident zone, irradiation conditions, and possible health effects following the exposures. The analyses took into account types of work (decontamination, cordon work, building); places and circumstances of work (inside or outside or with machinery); and the use of individual protection measures. Included in possible effects on health were changes in hematologic indexes, weakness, headache, dryness or tickling of the throat, cough, facial hyperemia, metallic taste, anorexia, nausea, vomiting, heaviness in the epigastric region, and instability of defecation. With the help of mathematical models, the rating for each factor was assessed, and on this basis the liquidators were subdivided into risk groups. For workers for whom dose information was not available, probable doses could be calculated. The three most influential variables were time of starting work, type of work done, and the number of health effects.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1997

Evaluation of the Radiation Exposures of Chernobyl "Liquidators": Exploratory Studies of a Sample of Immigrants to Israel.

Workers who were involved in the clean-up and recovery operation after the Chernobyl disaster ("liquidators") numbered about 800,000. Estimates of their exposures are highly relevant to evaluation of possible effects on their health. While some exposure measurements were made, they were also used for job assignments and terminations. The earliest and probably greatest exposure preceded adequate monitoring. By means of exploratory studies, the authors evaluated an exposure-estimating system proposed by a WHO consultation team in St. Petersburg. An index is derived based on recorded or reported 1) calendar time of initiating work, 2) location near or distant from the reactor, 3) duration of exposure, 4) type of work, 5) post-exposure symptoms, 6) blood count decreases, and 7) use of protective equipment. Data were obtained by interviews of liquidators who presented at a Beer Sheva clinic during evaluation of Cs-137 body burden. Of 75 liquidators, four had no data, one had only one item, six had two, 11 had three, 210 had four, 20 had five, 11 had six, and one had seven items. Only 19 had dose estimates. There was no trend in mean scores/item with increase in the number of items, indicating lack of information bias. Measured values, when available, were consistent with the scores. Clastogenic scores were determined for 26 of these subjects; the correlation with exposure indexes was 0.02, but for those with "positive" clastogenic tests (more than six abnormal divisions per 100), the correlation with the scores was 0.44. No such relationship was found for the persons with elevated Cs-137 tests. Glycophorin A antigen tests discriminated between liquidators and others, but, in this small study, did not correlate with the indexes.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2002

Influence of various factors on individual radiation exposure from the Chernobyl disaster.

BACKGROUND: The explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was one of the greatest known nuclear disasters of the 20th century. To reduce individual exposure to ionizing radiation the Soviet Union government introduced a number of counter-measures. This article presents a description of how historical events conspired to disrupt these efforts and affect residents in exposed areas. METHODS: This study employed an extensive review of data on radionuclide deposition, contamination patterns and lifestyle characteristics. Data were obtained from the Ukraine Ministry of Health and the Ukraine Research Center for Radiation Medicine. RESULTS: Data are presented on annual contamination rates in selected locales as well as data on local food consumption patterns. Historical factors including economic and political circumstances are also highlighted. Results show the diminution of individual doses between 1987 and 1991 and then an increase between 1991 and 1994 and the relationship between this increase and changes in the lifestyle of the local population. CONCLUSION: A number of factors played direct and indirect roles in contributing to the populace's cumulative radiation exposure. Future post-contamination studies need to consider these factors when estimating individual exposures.

Disasters↗
PubMed1997

Prevalence of goiter and urinary iodine excretion levels in children around Chernobyl.

The prevalence of goiter among children living in areas affected by the Chernobyl accident was investigated by analysis of data on approximately 120,000 children examined at five medical diagnostic centers in Belarus, Russia, and the Ukraine. Examinations of thyroid gland were conducted with an arch-automatic ultrasonographic instrument at the five centers under the same protocol. The diagnosis of goiter was established when the thyroid volume exceeded a limit calculated from age, height, and body weight of a child. A considerable variation by region was noted in the prevalence of goiter. Highest in the Kiev region, the prevalence in the five regions was 54% in Kiev, 38% in the Zhitomir regions of the Ukraine, 18% in Gomel, 22% in the Mogilev regions of Belarus, and 41% in the Bryansk region of Russia. Urinary iodine content was measured in approximately 5700 children, and an endemic iodine deficient zone was confirmed in the Bryansk, Kiev, and Zhitomir regions. A significant negative correlation was observed between the prevalence of goiter and the median level of urinary iodine content (Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was -0.35, P = 0.025).

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Tritium precipitation in European cities and in Osaka, Japan owing to the Chernobyl nuclear accident.

Tritium precipitations in European cities and in Osaka, Japan were analyzed before and after the Chernobyl nuclear plant accident by the time series analysis code Census IIX11 developed by US Department of Commerce Bureau of the Census. Results of this analysis showed no significant tritium precipitation was produced by the accident although marked amounts of other radioactive nuclides were detected in Europe and Japan immediately after the accident.

Accidents↗
PubMed1993

Female reproductive function in areas affected by radiation after the Chernobyl power station accident.

This paper reports the results of a comprehensive survey of the effects of the accidental release of radiation caused by the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power station in April 1986. The accident and the resulting release of radiation and radioactive products into the atmosphere produced the most serious environmental contamination so far recorded. We have concentrated on evaluating the outcomes and health risks to women, their reproductive situation, and consequences for their progeny. We have concentrated on two well-defined areas: the Chechersky district of the Gomel region in Belorussia and the Polessky district of the Kiev region in the Ukraine. A number of investigations were carried out on 688 pregnant women and their babies, and data were obtained from 7000 labor histories of the development of newborns for a period of 8 years (3 years before the accident and 5 years after it). Parameters examined included birth rate, thyroid pathology, extragenital pathology such as anemias, renal disorders, hypertension, and abnormalities in the metabolism of fats, complications of gestation, spontaneous abortions, premature deliveries, perinatal morbidity and mortality, stillbirths and early neonatal mortality, infections and inflammatory diseases, neurological symptoms and hemic disturbances in both mothers and infants, trophic anomalies, and biochemical and structural changes in the placenta. Several exogenous, complicating influences were also considered such as psycho-emotional factors, stress, lifestyle changes, and others caused directly by the hazardous situation and by its consequences such as treatment, removal from affected areas, etc.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Accidents↗
PubMed1997

Somatic mutations at the glycophorin A (GPA) locus measured in red cells of Chernobyl liquidators who immigrated to Israel.

Glycophorin A (GPA) assays for human erythrocytes with gene expression loss and duplication phenotypes (NO, NN) were carried out on 15 Chernobyl clean-up workers (liquidators) who immigrated to Israel within the preceding 5 years, 19 local Israeli controls, and 14 Russian (nonliquidator) immigrants. GPA phenotype variants in red blood cells of the 15 liquidators showed values ranging from 1 to 101 events/10(6) cells, with a mean +/- SD of 25.6 +/- 7.0. In comparison, the 19 Israeli controls had values ranging from 0 to 13 GPA events per 10(6) cells, with a mean +/- SD of 3.9 +/- 0.8. The difference was highly significant (p < 0.001). Another group of 14 volunteer control subjects (nonliquidators) who had emigrated from the former Soviet Union to Israel during the past 5 years showed values ranging from 0.0 to 35.0 events per 10(6) cells, with a mean +/- SD of 6.1 +/- 2.7. The difference between this group and the liquidator group was significant at p < 0.01. The results are compatible with past exposure to radiation in the group identified as liquidators.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Molecular changes in the offspring of liquidators who emigrated to Israel from the Chernobyl disaster area.

The primary goal of this research was to reveal de novo mutations in the liquidators (cleanup personnel) who emigrated to Israel from the Chernobyl disaster area. We used genome fingerprinting simple sequence repeat-anchored polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification and random amplified polymorphic DNA PCR (RAPD PCR). The methodology involved a combination of RAPD PCR, polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and silver staining, with arbitrarily primed PCR. Use of microsatellite markers appears to be the most promising technique for high sensitivity analysis. The analysis involved DNA isolated from the blood of experimental and control subjects (involving both offspring who were born before or after the disaster and their parents). Our studies have reproducibly detected new bands that appeared in the children born after the disaster. No such bands appeared in the children born in the same family before the accident or in the children of control families who had not been exposed to radiation.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Additional thyroid dose factor from transportation sources in Russia after the Chernobyl disaster.

Beginning approximately 4 years after the Chernobyl nuclear accident a steady increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer was observed in children and adolescents of the Bryansk Oblast, which received the highest level of radionuclide contaminants in Russia. We examined the spatial relationship between the residence location of patients with identified thyroid cancer (0-18 years old at the time of the accident) and a number of geographic parameters to better account for the etiology of thyroid cancer spatial distribution. Geographic parameters analyzed included spatial distribution of 137Cs and 131I in soil, population demographics, measurements and reconstructions. of absorbed thyroid 131I doses in the population, and maps of major transportation arteries. An interesting finding is the lack of a consistent correlation between the spatial distribution of radionuclides in the soil and thyroid cancer incidence. Instead, most of the thyroid cancer cases were diagnosed in settlements situated on major railways and roads. Correlating population with thyroid cancer cases and transportation arteries reveals a much higher cancer rate on or near major roads and railways than at a distance from them, again independent of radionuclide soil concentration. There are other important factors, of course, that must be considered in future evaluations of this phenomenon. These include the influence of iodine endemic zones, genetic predisposition to thyroid cancer, and duration of residence time in contaminated areas. The feasibility of radionuclide transport on railways and roads is discussed, together with the vectors for transfer of the contaminants to the human population. Developing a model to reconstruct the radiation dose to the thyroid over time in this geographic region is proposed in light of the impact of transportation arteries. Specific studies are outlined to provide the data necessary to develop this model as well as to better characterize the feasibility and scientific validity of the contribution to human health effects of this transport factor. Transport factor refers to the transport of radionuclides on transportation arteries and the transfer of these agents to the human population residing in the vicinity of these arteries. If the impact on thyroid cancer of the transport of radionuclides on major railways and roads is indeed significant, a major reappraisal of the risk of large-scale radioactive release into the environment is necessary.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Thyroid-stimulating hormone levels in children from Chernobyl.

This study assesses parameters of thyroid function in persons who resided in Ukraine, Belarus, and southern Russia and exposed at 0 to 16 years of age to radioiodine contamination from the Chernobyl accident. Six to eight years after the accident a group of 300 young people who had immigrated to Israel were interviewed, underwent physical and ultrasound thyroid examination, and had their serum tested for thyroid-stimulating hormones (TSH), thyroid hormones, thyroglobulin, and antithyroid antibodies. Comparative groups came from areas with high (>1 Ci/km2) or low (< 1 Ci/km2) 137Cs ground contamination. Girls from high contamination areas, when compared to girls from areas with low ground contamination, showed significant upward shifts in levels of serum TSH (p = 0.023) although remaining within normal limits. Boys showed no significant differences. There was no evidence for differences in thyroid size or nodularity between the two groups of girls. A working hypothesis is proposed by which the shift in TSH levels in girls from high radiocontamination areas was associated with subclinical radiation damage from environmental radioiodine at the time of the accident.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Lessons learned from the study of immigrants to Israel from areas of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine contaminated by the Chernobyl accident.

During the past 6 years, immigration to Israel of 700,000 persons from the former Soviet Union (FSU) included about 140,000 from radiocontaminated regions of Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia near Chernobyl. In Beer Sheva, a major center for immigrant absorption in Israel, a primary objective was to evaluate their health status and to refer them for care. 137Cs levels in 1228 men, women, and children were measured with a portable whole-body counter. Whole-body counts showed clear correlation with the degree of 137Cs ground contamination in previous regions of residence. The population could thus be sub-divided according to degree of exposure, based on previous regions of residence. The thyroid status of 300 local immigrant children was evaluated because of the increased risk of childhood thyroid cancer in the regions from which they came. This group was subdivided into comparative groups of children who came from less and more contaminated areas according to the International Atomic Energy Agency soil 137Cs contamination maps. Enlarged thyroids were found in about 40% of both groups. One 12-year-old girl from Gomel had a malignant papillary carcinoma. Thyroid-stimulating hormone levels, though within normal limits, were significantly greater (p < 0.02) for girls from high exposure regions. Liquidators showed significant increases in serum clastogenic factor and in the number of circulating glycophorin A-mutated red cells. In studies of over 700 people from both radiocontaminated and unaffected regions of the FSU, evidence for posttraumatic stress disorder was found more frequently in persons coming from the more contaminated areas.

Blood Pressure↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Chernobyl: a survivable ecological disaster?

A study of events occurring after the Chernobyl accident until 1996 was funded by the European Commission (EC). The study included work by hundreds of scientists from the EC and the former Soviet Union. An overview of these studies is given that puts the science into historical context and shows the effects of the radioactive doses on the population and on the environment. The exposed populations are considered in terms of the separate exposure subgroups (emergency workers; inhabitants of settlements near the reactor; inhabitants of settlements receiving high doses of condensation radionuclides; children in the deposition areas; the general population). The scientific understanding of the natural and anthropogenic countermeasures that reduced doses is presented, and the effects on the human population are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Monohydroxylated fatty acid content in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and immune status of people at long times after the Chernobyl accident.

The monohydroxylated fatty acid content of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 23 cleanup workers and 16 unexposed individuals was studied in relation to their immune status after the Chernobyl accident. Men with absorbed doses below 0.32 Gy showed higher levels of free and esterified 12-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (12-HETE) than unexposed men, whereas 15-HETE and the 17-hydroxy derivative of C22 fatty acid (17-OH 22), either free or esterified in phospholipids, were increased in a dose-dependent manner. The percentage of CD4-positive cells was also increased significantly in heavily irradiated men, whereas the percentage of CD8-positive cells tended to decrease with dose. Furthermore, the absolute count of CD4-positive cells was correlated positively with the amount of esterified 15-HETE in the phospholipid fraction of the mononuclear cells and with the total 15-HETE. These results show for the first time that the accumulation of autoxidized/lipoxygenase products of polyunsaturated fatty acids in the mononuclear cells of irradiated individuals was associated with immune imbalance. This may be the basis for certain late effects of radiation such as autoimmune disorders, somatic and neoplastic diseases, and early aging.

12-Hydroxy-5,8,10,14-eicosatetraenoic Acid↗
PubMed2003

Mitochondrial DNA heteroplasmy in laboratory mice experimentally enclosed in the radioactive Chernobyl environment.

Mitochondrial DNA heteroplasmy using the protein-coding cytochrome b (Mtcyb) gene was assessed in laboratory mice (C57BL/6 and BALB/c) exposed to the Chernobyl environment. Subacute to subchronic (30-40 days) exposure resulted in a cumulative radiation dose of 1.2-1.6 Gy ( approximately 0.04 Gy/day). Mice were sampled prior to introduction into the enclosures and again after removal from the enclosures. Nucleotide variation (site heteroplasmy) in 306 pre-exposure Mtcyb gene copies (122400 base pairs) was compared to variation in 354 postexposure gene copies (141600 base pairs). Five mutant copies, each characterized by a single nucleotide substitution, were observed (four in the pre-exposure samples, one in a postexposure sample). The frequencies of mutant gene copies and nucleotide substitutions in pre-exposure and postexposure samples were not significantly different. This suggests that this type of exposure (i.e. low dose rate) does not pose a significant mutation risk to the Mtcyb gene in digit tissue. Furthermore, no significant radiation risk to analogous human tissues may exist when occupational exposures involve low dose rates such as these. Finally, linear, cumulative models of genetic risk currently used to estimate radiation-induced effects are likely to be inappropriate for low-dose-rate exposures and need to be re-evaluated critically.

Animals↗