Twenty years experience with post-Chernobyl thyroid cancer

It is over a hundred years since radioactivity was discovered, and over 60 years since the energy contained within the atom was recognized and the techniques to access that energy developed. Two events since then have had a major impact on the public attitude to the use of atomic energy: the atomic bombing of Japan, with the devastation of the cities of Hiroshima andNagasaki, andthe catastrophic nuclear accidentatChernobyl. Like any bombing, the atomic bombs led to death and serious injury; unlike any previous events they led to lifelong effects on the health of the exposed population due to radiation. These effects have been studied in detail; they still are being studied, and have provided most of our current information about the effect of radiation on human health. The type of radiation exposure after Chernobyl was quite different from the exposures after the atomic bombs. In Hiroshima and Nagasaki well over 100,000 people were exposed to external whole-body radiation from gamma rays and neutrons.