Biological estimates of dose to inhabitants of Belarus and Ukraine following the Chernobyl accident

Alan Edwards*, P. Voisin, I. Sorokine-Durm, N. Maznik, V. Vinnikov, L. Mikhalevich, Jayne Moquet, D. Lloyd, M. Delbos, V. Durand

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how well various assays on blood can detect radiation dose to people exposed many years previously and, if possible, to estimate that dose. The assays were applied to persons resident close to Chernobyl in 1986. Blood samples were taken 13-15 years after the reactor accident. The assays used were the frequencies of lymphocyte chromosomal translocations, micronuclei, HPRT mutations and apoptotic cells. Translocation yields in the exposed groups were marginally higher than in their respective controls, leading to dose estimates of about 0.2 Gy but with large uncertainties. All other assays showed inconsistency from person to person or other variations apparently not related dose. The measurement of translocations, it is concluded, is the biological method of choice for retrospective dosimetry.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)211-219
Number of pages9
JournalRadiation Protection Dosimetry
Volume111
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2004

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The work described here was funded by an Inco-Copernicus project No IC15-CT98-0220 from the Commission of European Communities. We sadly report the death of one of the authors, Dr. L. S. Mikhalevich, between the conclusion of the project and the submission of this paper.

Copyright:
Copyright 2008 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

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