OBJECTIVE To investigate childhood cardiac arrhythmia and chronic exposure to caesium-137 (137Cs) resulting from the Chernobyl accident. DESIGN Prospective cross-sectional study using exposed/unexposed design conducted in the Bryansk region from May 2009 to May 2013 on children selected on the basis of 137Cs soil deposition: control territories ([137Cs]<37 kBq per square metre, where children...

BACKGROUND The Chernobyl disaster in 1986 and the breakup of the former Soviet Union (FSU) in 1991 challenged the public health infrastructure in the former Soviet republic of Belarus. Because infant mortality is regarded as a sensitive measure of the overall health of a population, patterns of neonatal and postneonatal deaths were examined within the Mogilev region of Belarus between 1980 and ...

We investigated the motility and morphology of live sperm from barn swallows Hirundo rustica breeding in radioactively contaminated areas around Chernobyl and control areas in Ukraine in order to test the hypothesis that swimming behaviour and morphology of sperm was impaired by radioactive contamination. We obtained sperm samples from 98% of sampled birds, thus avoiding sampling bias due to th...

The impact of the radioactive fallout caused by the accident at the Chernobyl NPP on the Baltic Sea is discussed in this paper. The fallout from Chernobyl was very unevenly distributed in the drainage area of the Baltic Sea; the Bothnian Sea and the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland received most of the deposition. This was reflected in the activity concentrations of the main fallout nuclides...

“Chernobyl” has become synonymous with the deathly dangers of radiation, a word evoking fear and horror that continues to color meaning ruined remains at center exploded reactor n° 4 in so-called “Zone Exclusion.” At same time, over past dozen years—until war Ukraine 2022—the site been magnet attracting steady stream “dark tourism” “stalkers” who want get as close possible what they imagine Che...

Introduction Transfer of long lived radionuclides such as Cs, Sr and transuranic elements in contaminated soils at Chernobyl to edible plants were examined. Analysis of radionuclides uptake from contaminated soils by plants is important from the point of view of not only the re-use of the soil, but also the decontamination of the contaminated soils by plants. This is especially true in the envi...

The most dramatic effect of exposure to fallout from the Chernobyl accident on physical health has been the increase in thyroid cancer. When this was first reported 1,2, there was scepticism in Europe and the US, as it was not thought plausible that exposure to radio-isotopes of iodine in fallout could lead to such an increase in thyroid cancer with such a short latency. This review will discus...

The National Cancer Registry has been operational in the Republic of Belarus since 1973: information on all new cases of malignant tumours is registered. The data are kept in a computer database and used for assessing the oncological status of the population, and for epidemiological studies. We compared findings before the Chernobyl accident of April 26, 1986 (Chernobyl) and findings between 19...

Nuclear disasters at Chernobyl and Fukushima provide examples of effects of acute ionizing radiation on mutations that can affect the fitness and distribution of species. Here, we investigated the prevalence of Microbotryum lychnidis-dioicae, a pollinator-transmitted fungal pathogen of plants causing anther-smut disease in Chernobyl, its viability, fertility and karyotype variation, and the acc...