Fallout from nuclear tests: health effects in Kazakhstan

Abstract

Nuclear bomb testing was carried out under conditions of secrecy at the Semipalatinsk test site (STS) between 1949 and 1962. The first test on August 29, 1949 unexpectedly contaminated villages to the northeast, both in Kazakhstan and the Altai region of Russian Siberia. In Kazakhstan, extensive measurements were made of fallout concentration on the ground and there were efforts, which were not always successful, to avoid future fallout contamination of population centers. As soon as evidence appeared of excess leukemia risk among the survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and among medically exposed populations, attention turned to potential health consequences in the population near the STS. In 1957, a secret medical institution, specializing in oncology and designated 'Dispensary Number 4', was established in Semipalatinsk to perform diagnostic and clinical ward, to collect data on the population's health status in the Semipalatinsk oblast, and to collect various material for possible future analysis. The Kazakh Research Institute for Radiation Medicine and Ecology (KRIRME), which was founded in 1991, inherited the functions and the formerly top secret health archives of Dispensary No. 4. These archival data including the information on the KRIRME study population of residents of heavily exposed and less exposed villages in the oblast, are the basis for a number of international collaborative projects focussed on fallout exposure and possible health effects in the exposed population.

The cancer epidemiology of radiation

“…Of particular interest are those exposed to fallout from the early weapons tests at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan (Grosche et al, 2002) and residents of communities neighbouring the Techa River (Kossenko et al, 2002). The Techa River received large quantities of highly radioactive effluent from the Mayak nuclear complex in the early years of weapons plutonium production, especially during 1950-1952, leading to heavy contamination of the river and its environs.…”

Ultrasound-Detected Thyroid Nodule Prevalence and Radiation Dose from Fallout

“…In 1957, a military medical dispensary, established under the supervision of the Institute of Biophysics in Moscow, began a long-term study of health effects in the exposed population of the Semipalatinsk region (17,18). The long-term study was to be based on 10,000 then-current residents of 10 settlements, deemed heavily exposed on the basis of soil-sample measurements, and another 6,000 residents of six less-exposed settlements hundreds of kilometers east and southeast of the SNTS.…”

Semipalatinsk test site: Introduction

“…The basic data for the cohort study is described in [6]. Since 131 I played a major role in the exposure pattern, a study on the prevalence of thyroid diseases is of major concern [6].…”

“…Research is still on-going, using different techniques such as dose modeling based on various information, e.g. from military files [3,4], measurement techniques like thermoluminescence dosimetry (TLD) [5] or electron parametric resonance (EPR, as described for the NCI project in [6]), and biological methods [7,8].…”