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 survival rates of barn swallows are much lower in the Exclusion Zone; 28% of barn swallows inhabiting Chernobyl return each year, while at a control area at Kanev, 250 km to the southeast, the return rate is around 40%. A later study by Møller "et al." (2007) furthermore claimed an elevated frequency of eleven categories of subtle physical abnormalities in barn swallows, such as bent tail feathers, deformed air sacs, deformed beaks, and isolated albinistic feathers. Smith et al. (2007) have disputed Møller's findings and instead proposed that a lack of human influence in the Exclusion Zone locally reduced the