Effects of radiation on children

• Published in: Nature (London) 1996-09, Vol.383 (6597), p.226-226
• Main Authors: Satoh, Chiyoko, Kodaira, Mieko
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Child; DNA Fingerprinting; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; multidisciplinary; Mutation; Power Plants; Radiation Effects; Radioactive Hazard Release; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); scientific-correspondence; Ukraine
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/383226a0

Dubrova et al. reported that mutation rates at minisatellite loci in 79 children of parents who lived in heavily polluted areas of Belarus after the Chernobyl accident were twice that of 105 control children from the United Kingdom. They suggested that initial acute exposure to iodine-131 or chorionic exposure of the parents to caesium-137 was responsible for the increased mutation rates, although they noted that the individual dose of super(137)Cs "was estimated to be less than 5 mSv per year, a value far below that predicted from mouse and human data." But they do not exclude the possibility of other contaminants such as industrial and agricultural pollutants, to which we add virus infections such as JC polyoma virus, which is suggested by the existence of rogue cells with extreme chromosome damage observed in Belarus. We recently reported a study of children of survivors of the Hiroshima/Nagasaki atom bombs, in which we reported no genetic effects at six minisatellite loci after examining 50 exposed families with 64 children and 50 control families with 60 children. Except for parental exposure to radiation, the genetic and environmental backgrounds are identical and mean parental ages at the birth of the children are indistinguishable in the two groups.