Effects of the Chernobyl disaster of caesium-137 in Europe) While the IAEA/WHO and UNSCEAR considered areas with exposure greater than 40,000 Bq/m, the TORCH report also included areas contaminated with more than 4,000 Bq/m of Cs-137. The TORCH 2006 report "estimated that more than half the iodine-131 from Chernobyl [which increases the risk of thyroid cancer] was deposited outside the former Soviet Union. Possible increases in thyroid cancer have been reported in the Czech Republic and the UK, but more research is needed to evaluate thyroid cancer incidences in Western Europe". It predicted about 30,000 to 60,000 excess cancer deaths, 7 to 15 Times greater
Effects of the Chernobyl disaster advances in these countries' ability to carry out epidemiological studies of all kinds. Immediately after the disaster, the main health concern involved radioactive iodine, with a half-life of eight days. Today, there is concern about contamination of the soil with strontium-90 and caesium-137, which have half-lives of about 30 years. The highest levels of caesium-137 are found in the surface layers of the soil where they are absorbed by plants, insects and mushrooms, entering the local food supply. Some scientists fear that radioactivity will affect the local population for the next several generations. Note that caesium is not mobile in