Dosimetric support of the International Programme on the Health Effects of the Chernobyl Accident (IPHECA) pilot project: main results and problems.

The problem of post-Chernobyl dosimetry is unique in its complexity in the history of radiation medicine and radiation protection. This is because the early experience of mass exposure of people (bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Windscale and South-Ural accidents, exposure of inhabitants of Nevada in the United States of America, the Semipalatinsk area in the former USSR, the Marshall Islands, and the Goiånia accident in Brazil, and others) differed both in the much simpler structure of the irradiation source and in the number and characteristics of exposed persons. It is obvious that post-Chernobyl dosimetry, both as an independent problem, and as a tool for epidemiological studies, requires significant expertise and economic and technical expenditures. Extensive and deep research has been carried out in Ukraine for the past 10 years. This article reviews the main results of these studies.

[The results of an examination of those who took part in extinguishing the fire at the Chernobyl Atomic Electric Power Station on 11-12 October 1991]. / Rezul'taty obsledovaniia lits, prinimavshikh uchastie v tushenii pozhara na Chernobyl'skoi AES 11--12 oktiabria 1991 goda.

Out of 106 firemen who had been engaged in extinguishing fire at Chernobyl NPP in October 11-12, 1991, 39 were examined immediately on the spot and 67--in out-patient department of the Ukrainian Scientific Research Centre of Radiation Medicine. Examination included anamnestic inquest, peripheral blood study and determination of incorporated irradiation. Besides this, about 50 measurements of exposure dose were carried out in the town of Chernobyl, in the NPP territory and in immediate proximity to the site of the accident. Analysis of the data showed that there were no signs of primary reaction of acute atomic disease in all subjects. Measurement of exposure and incorporated doses proved their insignificance with respect to those examined. Complaints and health disorders in firemen are likely to be related to somatic diseases and prolonged emotional exertion during combating fire.