The Radioactive Fallout Caused Thousands Of Cancer Deaths

Cancer cases among children in Ukraine soared by more than 90% in the first five years after the Chernobyl disaster. Around 5,000 cases of thyroid cancer had been reported in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus among those who were under the age of 18 at the time of the explosion after 25 years had passed. The Chernobyl disaster is thought to have caused 5,000 cancer deaths, according to the World Health Organization. Others, on the other hand, question this statistic.

In 2005, the United Nations estimated that 4,000 individuals died of cancer as a result of the Chernobyl disaster, out of a population of 5 million people living in the polluted areas. The final death toll as a result of the accident, however, could be substantially higher. According to Greenpeace International, about 90,000 people may have died as a result of the Chernobyl disaster.

When the Chernobyl nuclear reactor erupted in 1986, experts anticipated that the radiation spilled upon areas of what was then the Soviet Union would result in up to 40,000 more cancer deaths. Because 40,000 cancer deaths is less than 1% of the cancer mortality projected in the afflicted population, the answer is uncertain. The fatalities are statistically undetected. Even if they weren't, scientists can't always establish that radiation caused a particular cancer rather than something else.