Health impact of the accident

The health impact of the Chernobyl accident can be classified into 3 categories:

1. Acute radiation syndrome - some nuclear station workers and people who intervened in the early phase to fight fires, perform rescue and emergency operations suffered from acute radiation syndrome after receiving high radiation dose in the accident, resulting in death and severe health impairment. It should be noted that no member of the public had this kind of health effects;
2. Late health effects - in recent years there was a significant increase of thyroid cancer among the infants and children in the contaminated areas when the accident happened. There were several children deaths and this was attributed to the radioactive fallout. This increase of thyroid cancer is expected to continue for some time in these areas. On the other hand, there is no evidence that the accident has caused any significant increase in other kinds of cancer, leukaemia, congenital abnormalities, abnormal pregnancy symptoms or other radiation-induced diseases to the affected population; and
3. Social/psychological effects - the accident caused a long-term psychological impact on the affected population, with symptoms such as panic, anxious, headache, feeling of helplessness and some irrational emotions. This kind of mental trauma was in the early stage due to their fear of radiation, and worry of life and health but in the later stage, manifested itself as distrust towards public authorities and official experts and the change in the ways of life.