Environmental Health Perspectives 105, Supplement 6, December 1997

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Lessons Learned from the Study of Immigrants to Israel from Areas of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine Contaminated by the Chernobyl Accident

Michael R. Quastel,1 John R. Goldsmith,5 Julie Cwikel,6 Ludmilla Merkin,1 Vered Y. Wishkerman,1 Svetlana Poljak,1 Anna Abdelgani,6 Ella Kordysh,5 Amos Douvdevani,2 Jakov Levy,3 Rafael Gorodisher,3 Yehiel Barki,4 Ingrid Emerit,7 and Gary Kramer8

1Nuclear Medicine, 2Nephrology, 3Pediatrics, and 4Ultrasound, Soroka Medical Center and Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel
5Epidemiology and 6Social Work, Faculties of Health and Behavioural Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel
7Pierre and Marie Curie University, Paris, France
8Radiation Protection Bureau, Health Canada, Ottawa, Canada

Abstract
During the past 6 years, immigration to Israel of 700,000 persons from the former Soviet Union (FSU) included about 140,000 from radiocontaminated regions of Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia near Chernobyl. In Beer Sheva, a major center for immigrant absorption in Israel, a primary objective was to evaluate their health status and to refer them for care. 137Cs levels in 1228 men, women, and children were measured with a portable whole-body counter. Whole-body counts showed clear correlation with the degree of 137Cs ground contamination in previous regions of residence. The population could thus be sub-divided according to degree of exposure, based on previous regions of residence. The thyroid status of 300 local immigrant children was evaluated because of the increased risk of childhood thyroid cancer in the regions from which they came. This group was subdivided into comparative groups of children who came from less and more contaminated areas according to the International Atomic Energy Agency soil 137Cs contamination maps. Enlarged thyroids were found in about 40% of both groups. One 12-year-old girl from Gomel had a malignant papillary carcinoma. Thyroid-stimulating hormone levels, though within normal limits, were significantly greater (p<0.02) for girls from high exposure regions. Liquidators showed significant increases in serum clastogenic factor and in the number of circulating glycophorin A-mutated red cells. In studies of over 700 people from both radiocontaminated and unaffected regions of the FSU, evidence for posttraumatic stress disorder was found more frequently in persons coming from the more contaminated areas. -- Environ Health Perspect 105(Suppl 6):1523-1527 (1997)

Key words: radiation, Chernobyl, Israel, radiocesium, thyroid, psychosocial, liquidators, TSH, thyrotropin, glycophorin A, clastogenic factor, posttraumatic stress disorder

This paper is based on a presentation at the International Conference on Radiation and Health held 3-7 November 1996 in Beer Sheva, Israel. Abstracts of these papers were previously published in Public Health Reviews 24(3-4):205-431 (1996). Manuscript received at EHP 12 August 1997; accepted 2 October 1997.

Support of the Israel Ministry of Health and of the Jewish Community Endowment Fund, Toronto, Canada, is gratefully acknowledged. We are most appreciative of the laboratory assistance of A. Snopik.

Address correspondence to Dr. M.R. Quastel, Institute of Nuclear Medicine, Soroka Medical Center, P.O. Box 151, Beer Sheva, Israel 84101. Telephone: 972-7-6400754. Fax: 972-7-6400765. E-mail: maay100@bgumail.bgu.ac.il

Abbreviations used: AMA, antimitochondrial antibody; ATG, antithyroglobulin antibody; CF, clastogenic factor; CIS, community of independent states; cSv, centisievers; FSU, former Soviet Union; GPA, glycophorin A; IAEA, International Atomic Energy Agency; IES, Impact of Events scale; N/Ø, N (blood group)/null alleles; PTSD, posttraumatic stress disorder; TSH, thyroid-stimulating hormone.

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