Three-Generation Study of Population Living in the Vicinity of the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test-Site (original) (raw)
Related papers
2002
During the period between 1949 and 1989 nuclear weapons testing carried out at the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site (STS) in Kazakhstan resulted in local fallout affecting the residents living in the vicinity of the STS. The STS has been the site for more than 450 nuclear tests and more than 1,5 million people were repeatedly exposed to ionizing radiation. In order to gain information on the magnitude of radiation exposure and genetic risk caused by protracted exposure to ionising radiation, a cohort of people exposed to the nuclear test fallout was studied. The villages included in the study are situated along the trail from the first Soviet surface nuclear test in August 1949 and another three surface explosions, which together contributed up to 85% of the collective effective dose to population. Members of 40 three-generation families, comprising 361 individuals, were selected according to preset criteria, interviewed and sampled. A matched control group of 250 persons from a noncontaminated district in South Kazakhstan was also studied. Here we describe the collection of the samples for a bio-sample database with an accompanying registry of background information on the study subjects and present the comparison of demographic data for the exposed and control population.
International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, 2009
We have reported previously that a population near the Semipalatinsk nuclear explosion test site had significantly increased minisatellite mutations (MM), suggesting increased germ-line mutation rates from the exposure in 3 generations. We hypothesize that the MM can be used as a surrogate biomarker for functional genetic alterations, e.g. gene mutations and chromosome aberrations. Therefore, we have investigated the influence of polymorphisms in genes on the expression of MM in the same two populations (247 and 172 individuals, for exposed and control, respectively, in 3 generations), and their relationships with radiation exposure. We have chosen the analyses of three polymorphic DNA-repair genes (XRCC1, XRCC1 and XRCC3) and two xenobiotic detoxification genes (GSTT1 and GSTM1). Among the exposed and in comparison with the wild-type gene, the functionally active XRCC1 Arg194Trp was significantly associated with low MM and over-represented in the exposed compared with the control populations. In a similar analysis, the functionally deficient XRCC1 Arg399Glu and XRCC3 Trp241Met were associated with increased and significantly reduced MM, respectively, but these variant genes were under-represented in the exposed population. Both GSTT1 and GSTM1 nulls were significantly associated with increased MM. The former was under-represented but the latter was significantly over-represented in the exposed compared with the control populations. In summary, the data indicate that the expected enzymatic functions of the polymorphic genes are consistent with the MM expression, except the XRCC1 Arg399Glu variant gene. In addition, the variant genes were retained in the three generations in association with their useful function, except for the GSTM1 null. However, the MM frequencies in the exposed were not consistently and significantly higher than those in the control populations, radiation exposure may therefore not have been the only cause for the high MM frequency among the exposed individuals. Since we studied three generations of citizens, the over-and under-representations of variant genes in the exposed population indicate their persistence and elimination, respectively, from the exposed individuals, suggesting their functional influence on survivability. The latter observation also indicates the complexity of gene and environmental interactions, e.g. the GSTM1 null was significantly over-represented in the exposed population.
American Journal of Epidemiology, 2020
Although transgenerational effects of exposure to ionizing radiation have long been a concern, human research to date has been confined to studies of disease phenotypes in groups exposed to high doses and high dose rates, such as the Japanese atomic bomb survivors. Transgenerational effects of parental irradiation can be addressed using powerful new genomic technologies. In collaboration with the Ukrainian National Research Center for Radiation Medicine, the US National Cancer Institute, in 2014–2018, initiated a genomic alterations study among children born in selected regions of Ukraine to cleanup workers and/or evacuees exposed to low–dose-rate radiation after the 1986 Chornobyl (Chernobyl) nuclear accident. To investigate whether parental radiation exposure is associated with germline mutations and genomic alterations in the offspring, we are collecting biospecimens from father-mother-offspring constellations to study de novo mutations, minisatellite mutations, copy-number chang...
Relevance of the Chernobyl Research for the Evaluation of Genetic Radiation Risks in Humans
Genetics, Evolution and Radiation, 2016
The committee of the United Nations for the evaluation of radiation effects UNSCEAR up to now has derived a very low risk for hereditary diseases from experiments in mice. They claim that there are no human data to refer on, and missing effects in the Japanese A-bomb survivors are erroneously generalized for cases of chronic exposures. Vladimir A. Shevchenko criticized their estimates already soon after the Chernobyl accident. He stated that the main contribution of possible effects as many congenital malformations and all polygenic diseases were left out. He also demanded that the estimates must include the following generations until equilibrium of heritable defects is reached, while the committee considers only the first generation. Shevchenko referred to the rising rates in the Belarussian central registry for congenital anomalies after 1986 and emphasized the importance of biological dosimetry by cytogenetic analysis in order to receive realistic information about the population exposure. We made a compilation of findings about early deaths, congenital malformations, Down´s syndrome, cancer and other effects, which were observed in humans after exposure of parents. Few of them are available from occupationally exposed collectives, much information can be drawn from studies in populations exposed by Chernobyl fallout and from the descendants of liquidators. Nearly all types of hereditary defects were found, which are to be expected according to our general knowledge about it. It can clearly be shown that the official risk estimates are much too low.
Journal of Radiation Research, 2006
A short analysis of all 111 atmospheric events conducted at the Semipalatinsk Test Site (STS) in 1949-1962 with regard to significant off-site exposure (more than 5 mSv of the effective dose during the first year after the explosion) has been made. The analytical method used to assess external exposure to the residents living in settlements near the STS is described. This method makes use of the archival data on the radiological conditions, including the measurements of exposure rate. Special attention was given to the residents of Dolon and Kanonerka villages exposed mainly as a result of the first test, detonated on August 29, 1949. For the residents of those settlements born in 1935, the dose estimates calculated according to the analytical method, are compared to those derived from the thermoluminescence measurements in bricks and electron paramagnetic resonance measurements in teeth. The methods described in this paper were used for external dose assessment for the cohort members at an initial stage of an ongoing epidemiological study conducted by the U.S. National Cancer Institute in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Recently revised methods and estimates of external exposure for that cohort are given in another paper (Simon et al.) in this conference.
Radiation and environmental biophysics, 2017
More than 400 nuclear explosion tests were conducted at the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site (SNTS) and significant radioactive substances were released. The long-term consequences of the activities at the SNTS and the appearance of any hereditary effects remain insufficiently studied about 25 years after the test site was closed. The population living in villages near the SNTS are considered to have been heavily exposed to external and internal radiation. This study aims to perform an assessment and comprehensive cytogenetic analysis of the inhabitants living near the SNTS, and their first-(F1) and second-(F2) generation children. Residents of the East Kazakhstan region living in the area covered by the former SNTS were included in the study. To evaluate the hereditary effects of nuclear testing, comprehensive chromosome analyses were performed in lymphocytes using conventional Giemsa and fluorescent in situ hybridization methods in 115 F1 and F2 descendants in the villages of Dolon...
Journal of the HIstory of Biology, 2015
This article traces disagreements about the genetic effects of low-dose radiation exposure as waged by James Neel (1915–2000), a central figure in radiation studies of Japanese populations after World War II, and Yuri Dubrova (1955–), who analyzed the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident. In a 1996 article in Nature, Dubrova reported a statistically significant increase in the minisatellite (junk) DNA mutation rate in the children of parents who received a high dose of radiation from the Chernobyl accident, contradicting studies that found no significant inherited genetic effects among offspring of Japanese A-bomb survivors. Neel’s subsequent defense of his large-scale longitudinal studies of the genetic effects of ionizing radiation consolidated current scientific understandings of low-dose ionizing radiation. The article seeks to explain how the Hiroshima/Nagasaki data remain hegemonic in radiation studies, contextualizing the debate with attention to the perceived inferiority of Soviet genetic science during the Cold War.
Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention : APJCP, 2011
Evaluation of genetic alterations in inhabitants of an area of Tamil Nadu, India, chronically exposed to high background radiation (HBRA), was the major purpose of the present study. A total of 216 samples (exposed inhabitants, 108; control subjects, 108) were selected based on the confirmation of radiation dose level using thermoluminescence dosimetry (TLD). After signing a consent form, volunteers provided blood samples (5 ml each) to establish cell cultures at 52 h. One hundred complete metaphase cells from each subject were evaluated for karyotyping. The frequencies of chromosomal alterations (CA) were found to be higher in the exposed groups and the aberrations predominately observed were of chromatid-type. Smoking was found to have considerable effect on the frequency of CA in exposed subjects. With the comet assay for DNA damage, a significant increase in comet tail frequency was also observed in exposed subjects compared to controls. At present there are no radioepidemiologi...