Health consequences of Chernobyl disaster in Europe in general and in Norway in particular. Literature review and ecological study.

Abstract

Health costs of Chernobyl disaster are still not clear.Main goal of this paper therefore is to investigate health consequences of Chernobyl disaster in Europe (outside the former Soviet Union) as a whole and in Norway in particular as one of the second high contaminated areas after those in the immediate vicinity of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. To do that literature review and ecological study with the Incidence rate ratios analysis are conducted. As a result hypothesis about increased cancer incidence due to Chernobyl fallout among people living in Nord-Trøndelag can be generated. This is a tenitative analysis that can help starting deeper investigation of this issue in the future.Limitations of the study include small size of population analyzed and no adjustment for possible confounders or migration processes.