• Question: in Chernobyl disaster, why after it did the radiation make them deformed .

    Asked by clovesee to Jo, James, Barbara, Andy, Alice JB on 16 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Jo Hulsmans

      Jo Hulsmans answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Hi clovesee!

      There are two risks we have to separate here: the risk immediately after the disaster and the longer term risk.

      To start: radiation is a natural phenomenon and occurs all around us all the time. We have evolved to deal with natural doses of radiation, most of it will be harmlessly absorbed by our skin.
      Immediately after the disaster radiation doses around the reactor were so high that our skin was no longer enough to protect us from the radiation and people exposed to the high doses died because of it.

      The longer term effect is more complicated: because there was so much radiation there was a high chance people in the area would breathe in radioactive particles, which for the most would still not be a big problem as they would leave your body fast enough through the urine etc. However one chemical element (iodine) is stored in the thyroid gland, so it will not leave your body, instead it will continue to expose your body to radiation, and because it is already inside, your skin can no longer protect you.
      In your body the radiation can cause mutations in your DNA, the code of life. These mutations can lead to cancer, or deformities at birth.

    • Photo: Barbara Guinn

      Barbara Guinn answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Mostly men worked in the Chenobyl nuclear power plant and when the reactors leaked radiation it damaged the DNA in their sperm. When they had children that damage became obvious and their children developed leukaemia more often than children whose Dad’s didn’t work at Chenobyl. However the men themselves also got cancer, mostly thyroid cancer, because the radioactivity in the plant was linked to iodine and when we have iodine in our body (from food or our environment) it goes to the thyroid and because it was radioactive and alot of it, it damaged the thyroid and the men developed cancer. There is some really interested information about the disaster at this web site http://chernobyl.cancer.gov/ and children who live in the affected area visit North Wales and stay with families there every year so they can play by the seaside.

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