title: Thyroid dose estimates for a cohort of Belarusian children exposed to radiation from the Chernobyl accident.
abstract: The U.S. National Cancer Institute, in collaboration with the Belarusian Ministry of Health, is conducting a study of thyroid cancer and other thyroid diseases in a cohort of about 12,000 persons who were exposed to fallout from the Chernobyl accident in April 1986. The study subjects were 18 years old or younger at the time of exposure and resided in Belarus in the most contaminated areas of the Gomel and Mogilev Oblasts, as well as in the city of Minsk. All cohort members had at least one direct thyroid measurement made in April-June 1986. Individual data on residential history, consumption of milk, milk products and leafy vegetables as well as administration of stable iodine were collected for all cohort members by means of personal interviews conducted between 1996 and 2007. Based on the estimated (131)I activities in the thyroids, which were derived from the direct thyroid measurements, and on the responses to the questionnaires, individual thyroid doses from intakes of (131)I were reconstructed for all cohort members. In addition, radiation doses to the thyroid were estimated for the following minor exposure pathways: (a) intake of short-lived (132)I, (133)I and (132)Te by inhalation and ingestion; (b) external irradiation from radionuclides deposited on the ground; and (c) ingestion intake of (134)Cs and (137)Cs. Intake of (131)I was the major pathway for thyroid exposure; its mean contribution to the thyroid dose was 92%. The thyroid doses from (131)I intakes varied from 0.5 mGy to almost 33 Gy; the mean was estimated to be 0.58 Gy, while the median was 0.23 Gy. The reconstructed doses are being used to evaluate the risk of thyroid cancer and other thyroid diseases in the cohort.
authors.affiliation: Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, NIH, DHHS, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA. drozdovv@mail.nih.gov
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Drozdovitch
authors.forename: Victor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Minenko
authors.forename: Valeri
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Khrouch
authors.forename: Svetlana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Leshcheva
authors.forename: Yury
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gavrilin
authors.forename: Arkady
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khrutchinsky
authors.forename: Tatiana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kukhta
authors.forename: Semion
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kutsen
authors.forename: Nickolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Luckyanov
authors.forename: Sergey
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shinkarev
authors.forename: Sergey
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tretyakevich
authors.forename: Sergey
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Trofimik
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Voillequé
authors.forename: André
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bouville
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001692:Biological Transport; D047852:Chernobyl Nuclear Accident; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007457:Iodine Radioisotopes / Q000378:metabolism; D007700:Kinetics; D011874:Radiometry / Q000379:methods*; D002094:Republic of Belarus; D013961:Thyroid Gland / Q000378:metabolism / Q000528:radiation effects*; D035501:Uncertainty
chemical_list: D007457:Iodine Radioisotopes
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