Social and economic effects

Validity of Thyroid Cancer Incidence Data Following the Chernobyl Accident

“…There was a phenomenon known as "Chernobyl victim syndrome" (Bay and Oughton 2005): Some people strived for registration as Chernobyl victims, while the data on their whereabouts during and after the accident were trimmed or confabulated. Apart from the benefits, it was seen as a way to access modern diagnostics and therapy.…”

“…Apart from the benefits, it was seen as a way to access modern diagnostics and therapy. At the same time, resources were often allocated not on the basis of medical need but rather on an individual's ability to register as a victim (Bay and Oughton 2005). Considering that old neglected cancers were misclassified as aggressive radiogenic tumors developing after a short latency, some immunohistochemical and molecular tests, performed within the framework of international research, were based on inadequate material.…”

Social and ethical issues in environmental risk management

“…Five years after Chernobyl, an IAEA report claimed that the psycho‐social consequences of the accident outweighed any direct health effects from radiation exposure (IAEA 1991). The enormous social and economic consequences (Bay and Oughton 2005; IAEA 2005) caused several people to question the ethics of risk management (Jaworowski 1999), and specifically whether the benefits from reduction in radiation exposure outweighed the huge negative consequences of the remediation measures. But is it correct to assess the negative impacts of radiation exposure purely in terms of cancer risk?…”

“…The consequences of Chernobyl go far beyond health issues (UNDP 2002; Bay and Oughton 2005; IAEA 2005). While the radiation doses to people living in contaminated areas are relatively low, their lives are still impacted by the accident.…”

Thyroid cancer after Chernobyl: mechanisms of overestimation

“…The following should be commented in addition. The widely spread ''Chernobyl victim syndrome'' (Bay and Oughton 2005) impeded evaluation of the cause-effect relationship: some people used social competence and other tools to be registered as Chernobyl victims and confabulated information on their whereabouts during and after the accident. Many advanced cases found shortly after the Chernobyl accident and classified as radiogenic were obviously caused by the screening with detection of old neglected cancers, unrelated to the ionizing radiation, and by the fact that patients were brought from other areas and falsely registered as Chernobyl-related cases (Jargin 2010).…”