Effects of the Chernobyl disaster of radiation exposure after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, but prior to the disaster the number of children affected by thyroid cancer was relatively low globally. Every year about, “0.1–2.2 individuals per million of all aged under 15 years old world wide” were affected by thyroid cancer. Research has shown after the Chernobyl disaster the level of thyroid cancer, particularly in children near the radiation exposure, has abnormally increased. Although iodine-131 has a relatively short half-life compared to other radioactive isotopes, iodine-131 made its way through the food chain through a milk-to-consumer pathway. 95% of iodine-131 was ingested through milk
Effects of the Chernobyl disaster tended to be longer-lived than those released by the detonation of atomic bombs. According to a 2009 United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), the Chernobyl accident had by 2005 caused 61,200 man-Sv of radiation exposure to recovery workers and evacuees, 125,000 man-Sv to the populace of the Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia, and a dose to most of the more distant European countries amounting to 115,000 man-Sv. The same report estimated a further 25% more exposure would be received from residual radiosotopes after 2005. The total global collective dose from Chernobyl was earlier estimated by UNSCEAR