Children of chernobyl cleanup workers do not show elevated rates of mutations in minisatellite alleles.

The disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in April 1986 was accompanied by the release of large amounts of radioisotopes, resulting in the contamination of extensive regions of the Ukraine, Byelorus and the Russian Federation. Cleanup workers (liquidators) and people living on land contaminated with radioactive materials were most exposed. To assess the genetic effects of exposure to ionizing radiation after the Chernobyl accident, we have measured the frequency of inherited mutant alleles at seven hypermutable minisatellite loci in 183 children born to Chernobyl cleanup workers (liquidators) and 163 children born to control families living in nonirradiated areas of the Ukraine. There was no significant difference in the frequency of inherited mutant alleles between the exposed and control groups. The exposed group was then divided into two subgroups according to the time at which the children were conceived with respect to the fathers' work at the power plant. Eighty-eight children were conceived either while their fathers were working at the facility or up to 2 months later (Subgroup 1). The other 95 children were conceived at least 4 months after their fathers had stopped working at the Chernobyl site (Subgroup 2). The frequencies of mutant alleles were higher for the majority of loci (i.e. 1.44 times higher for CEB1) in Subgroup 1 than in Subgroup 2. This result, if confirmed, would reconcile the apparently conflicting results obtained in the chronically exposed Byelorus population and the Hiroshima-Nagasaki A-bomb survivors.

Organochlorines in breast milk from two cities in Ukraine.

Reports of environmental problems in the former Soviet Union, including excess use of pesticides, have led to concerns about high levels of contamination in humans, but little information is available to assess whether these concerns are warranted. Samples of breast milk from 197 women from two cities in Ukraine were analyzed for p,p'-DDT, p,p'-DDE, endrin, dieldrin, heptachlor epoxide, trans-nonachlor, oxychlordane, hexachlorobenzene, ss-hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH), and 18 polychlorinated biphenyl congeners, and results were compared to previous reports from Europe. The median ss-HCH concentration was 731 ng/g milk fat, which is higher than other reports from Europe but lower than reports from other parts of the world. The median DDE concentration was 2,457 ng/g milk fat, which is higher than most but not all other reports from Europe. Concentrations of other chemicals were comparable to or lower than other reports from Europe. Concentrations from the city of Kyiv were generally lower than those from Dniprodzerzhinsk, but the magnitudes of these differences were modest.