According to the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), the Chornobyl disaster caused as many as 6,000 cases of thyroid cancer among the inhabitants of the Russian Federation, Belarus, and Ukraine. They concerned children and adolescents exposed to radiation after the explosion. Administering Lugol's fluid and a large-scale iodine policy in Poland could suggest that Poles can also expect a real threat.
On April 26, 1986, there was a fatal accident and the greatest catastrophe in the history of nuclear energy.
The explosion led to the ignition of graphite, and significant amounts of radionuclides, i.e. radioactive materials, entered the environment. Power plant workers, people involved in rescue operations, and the entire population of Ukraine were exposed to three main types: iodine-131, cesium-134, and cesium-137.
On the day of the disaster, out of 600 power plant workers, 134 fell ill with acute radiation sickness, of which 31 (according to the Chornobyl Forum report) died within the first three months. In the rest of the group, the incidence of leukemia and cataracts increased. What about people who have not been exposed to direct contact with dangerous radiation?
Iodine-131 is taken up by the thyroid gland and children are particularly vulnerable to its high doses. According to the 1994 UNSCEAR report, the tissue of the infant thyroid gland, along with the bone marrow, lungs, and premenopausal female mammary glands, is one of the tissues most sensitive to ionizing radiation in the human body.
From the very beginning, when the news of the catastrophe spread around the world, scientists were afraid of the long-term consequences of the catastrophe in the form of an increase in the incidence of, among others, cancer (including solid tumors and leukemia), infertility and genetic defects in children. At the beginning of the 21st century, this hypothesis was negated by the results of WHO, UN, and UNICEF studies. However, it was thyroid cancer that was a real threat.
The 2018 study "Chornobyl Thyroid Cancer: 30 Tears of follow-up" indicates that a significant increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer has occurred throughout Belarus and Ukraine, and in the four most affected regions of the Russian Federation, approaching 20,000 cases.
While about five or six thousand cancers can be linked to milk containing radioactive iodine from cows grazing in contaminated areas, the remaining 15,000. is related to other factors. Including an aging society, better diagnostics, etc., at least that is the opinion of the authors of the research.
Here, however, an unsolved question returns - to what extent is it the effect of radiation, and to what extent is it socioeconomic or an excess of iodine? The UNSCEAR 2000 report indicates that only thyroid cancer in the indicated population can be linked to the effects of the Chornobyl accident.
However, there are reports of a possible negative impact of Lugol's fluid, which was also served to Poles after the disaster. It is supposed to be associated with the increase in the number of anti-thyroid antibodies responsible for Hashimoto's disease.
According to the available data, the radiation dose to which Polish children, as well as adolescents and adults, were exposed was relatively low, i.e. a maximum of less than 180 mSv, and such measures as iodine prophylaxis lowered these values by approx. 30%.
A Polish inhabitant annually absorbs even 3-4 mSv (millisieverts, a unit related to the effect of ionizing radiation on organisms) from natural sources, but in some parts of the globe, these indicators are much higher. For example, in Ramsar, Iran, radiation doses can be as much as 10 to 50 times higher than elsewhere due to the presence of radium-containing hot springs. It is similar in Guarapari, Brazil, where radioactive sand, rich in uranium, or thorium is present. Nevertheless, there is no higher incidence of cancer there.
At the same time, the expert reassures that the remembrance of Chornobyl is not hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism.
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