Leukemia in the proximity of a German boiling-water nuclear reactor: evidence of population exposure by chromosome studies and environmental radioactivity.

Exceptional elevation of children's leukemia appearing 5 years after the 1983 startup of the Krümmel nuclear power plant, accompanied by a significant increase of adult leukemia cases, led to investigations of radiation exposures of the population living near the plant. The rate of dicentric chromosomes in peripheral lymphocytes of seven parents of children with leukemia and in 14 other inhabitants near the plant was significantly elevated and indicated ongoing exposures over the years of its operation. These findings led to the hypothesis that chronic reactor leakages had occurred. This assumption is support by identification of artificial radioactivity in air, rainwater, soil and vegetation by the environmental monitoring program at the nuclear power plant. Calculations of the corresponding source terms show that emissions must have been well above authorized annual limits. Bone marrow doses supposedly result primarily through incorporation of bone-seeking beta- and alpha-emitters.

Early infant mortality in West Germany before and after Chernobyl.

Early infant mortality rates in West Germany were plotted for regions with different radioactive burdens following the Chernobyl nuclear reactor explosion in April, 1986. In all regions, the logarithms of the mortality rates fitted a linear model between 1975 and 1985, but from May, 1986, immediately after the accident, there was a striking deviation from the model in areas with greatest radioactive fallout.