“This issue is important because the indicated increased risk may
come to influence the prevailing exposure limits for the population.
Enhanced knowledge of the risks entailed by radioactive radiation is
key to work for radiation safety and makes it possible to prevent
diseases,” says Martin Tondel, a physician and researcher in
environmental medicine who will soon be defending his doctoral
dissertation Malignancies in Sweden after the Chernobyl Accident in
1986.

In two studies using different methods, Martin Tondel has shown a
small but statistically significant increase in the incidence of cancer
in northern Sweden, where the fallout of radioactive cesium 137 was at
its most intense.

The cancer risk increased with rising fallout intensity: up to a
20-percent increase in the highest of six categories. This means that
3.8 percent of the cancer cases up to 1999 can be ascribed to the
fallout. This increased risk, in turn, is 26 times higher than the
latest risk estimate for the survivors of the atom bombs in Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, whose exposure was many times higher.

The increase in Tondel’s studies came a remarkably short time after
the disaster, since it is usually assumed that it takes decades for
cancer to develop. The dissertation discusses the interpretation of the
research findings from the perspective of the theory of science.

The conclusion is that there is scientific support for a connection
between the radioactive fallout and the increase in the number of
cancer cases.

Source: Linköping University