[ody4242]

The comment was about thyroid diseases, not birth defects. Thyroid carcinoma is linked to radiation exposure.

There are also studies related to increased birth defect rates, but it's harder to conclude anything there, as birth defects can be caused by alcohol consumption, malnutrition, vitamin deficiencies.

[dr_faustus]

An increase in thyroid cancer is the main single cause of fatalities (of people not involved in the cleanup) in the Chernobyl Forum report and don't get me wrong: The last thing I wish on anyone is to experience to go through cancer or have a child diagnosed with cancer, even if it is one with 99% survival rate. As I said: nuclear power is dangerous, its just by far not as dangerous as its made out to be. And the hysteria itself can have dire consequences. In Western Europe there were an estimated 100 - 200 thousand excess abortions due to fear of birth defects in the aftermath of Chernobyl. That's by orders of magnituds more than the fatalities actually caused by the incident (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1248180/?page=1).

[ody4242]

Hindsight is 20/20. There was conflicting data and false rumours all around, I suspect that in May 1986 a lot of doctors were not so confident either about the consequences.

[DennisP]

The UN says 4000 cases of childhood thyroid cancer, out of which nine died. They also estimate 4000 eventual cancer deaths among the most-exposed population, an increase of 3%.

https://www.un.org/press/en/2005/dev2539.doc.htm

Chernobyl was an exceptionally unsafe reactor, and didn't have a containment dome. Fukushima did have decent containment and didn't release nearly as much radiation.

[hef19898]

Chernobyl was also unique in producing a shit load of dirty, radioactive fall out. This is still lingering in our soil, e.g. in Bavaria wild boar has to be checked for radiation. They are eating enough mushrooms to accumulate radiation levels basically turning them into radioactive, hazardous waste. Other regions are not at all affected by this.

[ody4242]

I did not claim, that it's causing a lot of deaths, I said that it's been linked to the radiation. Thyroid cancer is not fun, even if you survive it. The treatment and followup is a financial burden (on the person or the society, if there is public healthcare), not to mention the big scar that you will have on your throat.