Health & Psychological Consequences Of Chernobyl

Health Effects

Increase In Thyroid Cancer. Between 1981 - 1985, the five years preceding the accident, the average thyroid cancer rate was 4-6 incidents per million Ukrainian young children (birth to 15 years). However between 1986 - 1997 this rose to 45 incidents per million.

Reachers also found that 64% of all Ukrainian thyroid cancer patients age 15 of younger lived in the most contaminated regions (the provinces of Kiev, Chernigov, Zhitomir, Cherkassy, and Rovno and the city of Kiev)

Both sets of figures are based upon a Ukrainain study in CANCER published on 1st July 1999.

Increases In Other Cancers. There have also been some reports in increases of specific cancers in certain populations living in contaminated areas and among liquidators (Those who helped with the clean up of the accident)

30 lives were lost during the accident or within a few months after it. Figures from the Ukraine Radiological Institute suggest that over 2,500 deaths were caused by the Chernobyl accident.

Psychological Consequences

There have been significant increases in psychological health disorders and incidence such as:

Anxiety
Depression
Helplessness and despair leading to, social withdrawal and loss of hope for the future.
Other disorders attributable to mental stress

These were a result of the lack of public information available after the accident, the stress and trauma of evacuation and concerns of the people affected and about their children's health. Furthermore there is much understandable scepticism over official statements as people were not told the truth until several years after the accident.