Abstract
Following contamination from the Chernobyl accident in April 1986 excess infant leukemia (0–1 y) was reported from five different countries, Scotland, Greece, Germany, Belarus and Wales and Scotland combined. The cumulative absorbed doses to the fetus, as conventionally assessed, varied from 0.02 mSv in the UK through 0.06 mSv in Germany, 0.2 mSv in Greece and 2 mSv in Belarus, where it was highest. Nevertheless, the effect was real and given the specificity of the cohort raised questions about the safety of applying the current radiation risk model of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) to these internal exposures, a matter which was discussed in 2000 by Busby and Cato [7,8] and also in the reports of the UK Committee examining Radiation Risk from Internal Emitters. Data on infant leukemia in the United Kingdom, chosen on the basis of the cohorts defined by the study of Greece were supplied by the UK Childhood Cancer Research Group. This has enabled a study of leukemia in the combined infant population of 15,466,845 born in the UK, Greece, and Germany between 1980 and 1990. Results show a statistically significant excess risk RR = 1.43 (95% CI 1.13 < RR < 1.80 (2-tailed); p = 0.0025) in those born during the defined peak exposure period of 01/07/86 to 31/12/87 compared with those born between 01/01/80 and 31/12/85 and 01/01/88 and 31/12/90. The excess risks in individual countries do not increase monotonically with the conventionally calculated doses, the relation being biphasic, increasing sharply at low doses and falling at high doses. This result is discussed in relation to fetal/cell death at higher doses and also to induction of DNA repair. Since the cohort is chosen specifically on the basis of exposure to internal radionuclides, the result can be expressed as evidence for a significant error in the conventional modeling for such internal fetal exposures.
Highlights
Data on infant leukemia in the United Kingdom, chosen on the basis of the cohorts defined by the study of Greece were supplied by the UK Childhood
The Chernobyl accident contaminated most of Europe with fission-product radioisotopes including short-lived, high-activity Iodine and Tellurium, and fuel particles containing uranium and other intermediate half-life isotopes, including the 30-year half life Caesium-137 [1]
Combining the UK increases with those in Greece and Germany, gave a 43% increase in infant leukemia in the combined cohort of 2.2 million births in children exposed to a mean population weighted dose of 0.067 mSv
Summary
The Chernobyl accident contaminated most of Europe with fission-product radioisotopes including short-lived, high-activity Iodine and Tellurium, and fuel particles containing uranium and other intermediate half-life isotopes, including the 30-year half life Caesium-137 [1]. In the UK, whole body monitoring showed the persistence of Caesium-137 in the population [2] and grassland surveys enabled the radiological modeling of equivalent dose. The exposures in Europe were examined in some detail and doses to the population were well characterized [1]. For all of the countries of Europe except Belarus, the first year average committed effective doses were below 1 mSv, ranging from. 0.02 mSv for the whole of the UK through 0.07 mSv for the whole of Germany, 0.2 mSv for Greece up to 2 mSv for Belarus. At these levels, the risk model of the International Commission on Radiological. There were reported increases in infant leukemia in the in utero exposed cohort in Scotland [3], Belarus [4] Greece [5], Germany [6] and Wales and Scotland combined [7,8]
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