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
Caesium-137 populates the ground state of barium-137, which is stable. Ba-137m has a half-life of about 153 seconds, and is responsible for all of the emissions of gamma rays in samples of caesium-137. 85.1% of metastable barium then decays to ground state by emission of gamma rays having energy 0.6617 MeV. One gram of caesium-137 has an activity of 3.215 terabecquerel (TBq). The main photon peak of Ba-137m is 662 keV. Caesium-137 has a number of practical uses. In small amounts, it is used to calibrate radiation-detection equipment. In medicine, it is used in radiation therapy. In industry, it is used