The medical consequences for those exposed to radiation as a result of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant (NPP) accident will remain for a long time. The national report of the Russian Federation, timed to coincide with the 35th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident, also speaks of increasing efficiency in providing assistance to such people.
Report “35 years of the Chernobyl accident. Results and problems of overcoming the consequences in Russia ”was prepared by specialists from such state corporations as“ Rosatom ”, Roshydromet, Rospotrebnadzor, etc. The work was published under the auspices of the Institute for the Problems of Safe Development of Nuclear Energy (IBRAE) of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
“The international scientific community also agrees that in the 20 years after the accident, there has been no convincing evidence of other negative health effects of the liquidators and the population (except for thyroid cancer in children) that could be attributed to the exposure to radiation. Therefore, from a radiological point of view, the forecasts for the health of people affected by the accident are generally mostly positive, “- quotes on Monday, April 26, the text of the corresponding report” RIA Novosti “.
Specialists of the Russian National Radiation and Epidemiological Recorder (NRER), using data obtained during the analysis of medical indications accumulated over the past 35 years, refer to radiation-induced consequences mainly as an increased morbidity and mortality from leukemia among the liquidators of the accident in the first 10 years, and there is also a high incidence of thyroid cancer among people who were children and adolescents and lived in an area with a pollution density of more than five curies at the time of the incident. The medical consequences of exposure to radioactive substances include mortality from diseases of the circulatory systems among the same liquidators of the accident.
The NRER experts noted that based on the information received, the problem of minimizing medical consequences and increasing the effectiveness of medical care for people affected by the Chernobyl accident will be relevant not only in the coming years, but also in the long term.
The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant occurred on the night of April 26, 1986. The explosion occurred at the RBMK-1000 nuclear reactor of power unit No. 4, as a result of which a lot of radioactive substances were released into the environment. According to the information provided by the experts, the cause of the incident was a gross violation of the rules for the operation of the nuclear power plant, committed by the personnel of Unit 4. On the territory of Russia, the Bryansk, Kaluga, Oryol and Tula regions suffered the most from atomic pollution.
In November last year, the Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, Oleksandr Tkachenko, proposed to introduce several objects located on the territory of the Chernobyl exclusion zone into the UNESCO World Heritage List.