Article

Health check-ups of children living in a Belarus district contaminated after the Chernobyl accident

¹ Institute for radiological protection and nuclear safety (IRSN), Fontenay-aux-Roses, France.
² Conservatoire national des arts-et-métiers (Cnam), Paris, France.
³ Chechersk central hospital, Chechersk, Belarus.
⁴ Republican research center for radiation medicine and human ecology (RRCRM&HE), Gomel, Belarus.
⁵ Research institute of radiology (RIR), Gomel, Belarus.
⁶ Centre for quality assurance of health technological applications (CAATS), Bourg-la-Reine, France.
⁷ Norwegian radiation protection authority (NRPA), Østeras, Norway.
⁸ Fert, Minsk, Belarus.

^* catherine.luccioni@lecnam.net

Received: 7 April 2015
Accepted: 8 April 2016

Abstract

The Chernobyl nuclear accident, which occurred on April 26th, 1986, resulted in widespread long-term contamination, mainly due to ¹³⁷Cs, of large territories where populations live. A project was initiated to assess the ¹³⁷Cs body burden and health status, not limited to radiation-induced pathologies, for all children living in a highly contaminated district in Belarus; the aim was to provide detailed information for parents worried about their children’s health, without the intention of quantifying the radiation-induced risk. In total, about 2500 children benefited from these check-ups, which included approximately 30 parameters and were repeated three times between 2005 and 2009. The internal ¹³⁷Cs burden was rather low; about 50% of children had less than 10 Bq kg^-1. The health indicators reported in this paper are the global health status, physical development, and frequencies of thyroid modifications and cardiac dysfunctions. The ¹³⁷Cs body burden or density deposition did not appear to be strongly associated with these health indicators; other parameters, such as quality of living conditions and rural or urban residence, appeared to be more important. The aim of the project was achieved, as the results provided a global overview of the health status and level of internal contamination of children living in a contaminated territory about 20 years after the accident.