Thyroid status of children immigrating from the vicinity of Chernobylsk

The area surrounding the Chernobyl plant is generally recognized as a goitreogenous area, in the sense that soils and water are deficient in Iodine, and the incidence of goitre is relatively high. These conditions assure the avid uptake of an iodine as a pollutant, if and when present. The Chernobyl explosion and fire is estimated to have released 1.8*10E18 Bq of Iodine 131 and 3.7*10E18 Bq Iodine 133, together accounting for a large portion of the total radioactive emissions (US Department of Energy z Table 4.3, p. 4.15 in Health and Environmental Consequences of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Accident DOE/ER-0322, June 1987). Uptake was measured in the thyroid glands of many of those exposed. Within the past three years, the frequency of cancer of the thyroid in children in the Ukraine Belarus and in the Bryansk Region of the Russian Federation has risen rapidly, from less than one case per 100,000 per year in Belarus to over 10 cases in 1991, per 100,000 per year. In respect to the unusual exposures and risks, this report describes what studies we have done among Jewish immigrants from the areas and what our findings seem to mean. (authors). 8 refs., 1 tab., 1 fig