Chernobyl disaster and experience of population protection from nuclear accident

1. Chernobyl disaster and experience of population protection from nuclear accident Boris Ledoshchuk, MD, PhD, Prof. Kiev Medical University Natalia Gudzenko, MD Research Center for Radiation Medicine of the AMS of Ukraine NATO meeting, Kaunas, August 8-10, 2005

2. NATO meeting, Kaunas, August 8-10, 2005

3. The outstanding prophylactic measures were performed on the wide territories of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus for the minimizing of the population irradiation. Total number of the resettled persons was more than 150 thousand persons. NATO meeting, Kaunas, August 8-10, 2005

4. Chernobyl Catastrophe Victims comprise four main groups • GGroup 1: persons involved in the clean-up operations at the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant (liquidators). • GGroup 2: Persons evacuated from the exclusion zone in 1986 (evacuees) • GGroup 3: Persons resident in the territories monitored (relocation zone) or resident there immediately after the accident (residents). • GGroup 4. Children born to parents in Groups 1-3 (offspring). NATO meeting, Kaunas, August 8-10, 2005

5. Ukrainian State Registry for the persons suffered following Chernobyl catastrophe Goals of the Registry creation and functioning are: • registration of sufferers • monitoring of their health status changes in the short-term and long-term perspective for the medical and social interventions NATO meeting, Kaunas, August 8-10, 2005

6. Structure of persons registered at the State Chernobyl Registry (SChR), 2004 NATO meeting, Kaunas, August 8-10, 2005

7. Identifiers (passport, registration data) Names (first, last, patronymic) Place of residence, Gender, Date of birth, Date of registration, Registration group, Codes of the medical institution, Number of the victim certificate Data on the stay in the contaminated area Place of stay in the contaminated area, Period of stay in the contaminated area, Dose of the external irradiation, Thyroid dose Data on the annual medical examinations Date of medical examination; Diseases first diagnosed in the current year, other diagnoses (ICD-9, ICD-10) Date of death, Cause of death, Data on the disability group, diagnose etc) Chronic diseases diagnosed before the accident Structure of the individual record of the State Chernobyl Registry

8. Main problems to be solved at the State Registry: Completeness of the registration (hundred thousands of victims, living over the country) Completeness of the individual data collected (identification data, impact factor, possible modifiers of the effect, results of the medical examination) Quality of the data registered NATO meeting, Kaunas, August 8-10, 2005

9. Structure of the male liquidators by years of their clean-up activities (SChR data, 2004) NATO meeting, Kaunas, August 8-10, 2005

10. Age structure of the male liquidators (SChR data, 2004) NATO meeting, Kaunas, August 8-10, 2005

11. Distribution of doses registered at the State Chernobyl registry in liquidators in 1986-1989

12. State Chernobyl Registry: Feasibilities • The State Registry is the sufficient tool of the registration and follow up of the Chernobyl Disaster victims • It contains the personal data (names, addresses, dates of: birth, death, diagnosing and registration, diagnosis) • Contains all necessary peaces of information for the person identification and tracing NATO meeting, Kaunas, August 8-10, 2005

13. State Chernobyl Registry: Limitations • Use of the radiation dose values officially registered in the SChR for the dose-dependent diseases risks estimation is limited by their incompleteness and uncertain precision • No information on the modifiers of the risk factor • The registration of the target diseases may be delayed and incomplete during the whole post-accidental period. • The diseases registered need to be verified by experts panel to clarify the type of the diagnoses. NATO meeting, Kaunas, August 8-10, 2005

14. The successful assessment of the health outcomes of the Chernobyl Catastrophe and prevention of the possible future negative effects is in the combining of the international scientific, financial and humanitarian effortes for the solving theseproblems NATO meeting, Kaunas, August 8-10, 2005

15. The suspected medical effects of the Chernobyl disaster are being studied: Ukrainian-American study of leukemia and related diseases in clean-up workers. (RCRM of the AMS of Ukraine, NCI, USA) Franco-German study of leukemia incidence in children and adults in several oblasts in Ukraine. (RCRM of the AMS of Ukraine) International Consortium For Research on the Health Effects of Radiation case-control study of childhood leukemia in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. Ukraine-Belarus-USA study on childhood thyroid cancer. (Institute of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Kiev, Ukraine, NCI, USA) The Ukrainian/American Chernobyl Ocular Study (UACOS) Preliminary study on the feasibility of case-control studies of breast cancer among residents of contaminated regions of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. IARC and ICRHER NATO meeting, Kaunas, August 8-10, 2005

16. Distribution of the information on the radiological disasters and knowledge on the effects of irradiation is a sufficient way of population protection and safety • Global System of the urgent information distribution on radiological accidents • The IT technologies (SuperCourse) • Scientific conferences and seminars • Educational programs (IAEA, Japan, USA, Ukraine, Russia) NATO meeting, Kaunas, August 8-10, 2005

17. We are most grateful to Professor LaPorte and his colleagues for the great opportunity to participate the Symposium Prof. B.Ledoshchuk and Dr. N.Gudzenko NATO meeting, Kaunas, August 8-10, 2005