Chernobyl's legacy to science

摘要

The consequences of the Chernobyl accident have given health physicists and geneticists a wealth of information about the effects of radiation exposure. Some Is reassuring, some less so, but support for structured follow-up studies remains essential. IT might be seen as churlish to look for a silver lining in a cloud as grey and threatening as that caused by the explosion of the Unit 4 reactor at Chernobyl, exactly ten years ago tomorrow. Whatever the precise figures involved turn out to be, the human suffering involved was immense. It includes that of the tens of firemen who died after fighting the fire that followed, of the many hundreds of children who have since developed thyroid cancers from ingesting radioactive iodine, and of the hundreds of thousands of people who suffered severe psychological stress as a result of having to leave their homes and communities.