It resulted in the largest uncontrolled release of radiation (iodine-131, cesium-134 and cesium-137) in history.
This article discusses them and their health impacts in adulthood.
Weather patterns played a role in how the radioactive particles dispersed.
Yuri Kozyrev / Getty Images
About 60% of it fell on Belarus.
It affected parts of Russia and northwest Ukraine before drifting into Poland and other European nations.
That led to heightened radiation doses.
The surviving recovery workers, for example, are closely monitored because of their high cancer risk.
Did Chernobyl Affect Reproductive Health?
However, fertility was affected, likely because of the effects of radiation on ovarian tissue.
The rate ofBRAF genetic mutationsand associated thyroid cancers in those exposed at a young age remains high.
More than a million children live in areas that are still contaminated.
Someone who was 10 years old at the time will turn 50 in 2026.
Later generations were born into the regions affected by the fallout.
Researchers think that may not be the case.
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Drozdovitch V.Radiation exposure to the thyroid after the Chernobyl accident.Front Endocrinol (Lausanne).
2021 Jan 5;11:569041. doi:10.3389/fendo.2020.569041
Nuclear Regulatory Commission.Backgrounder on Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident.
2021;372(6543):eabg2538.
doi:10.1126/science.abg2538
Chernobyl Children International.About Chernobyl.
