Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumChernobyl radiation damage "not passed to children"
This is according to the first study to screen the genes of children whose parents were enlisted to help in the clean-up after the nuclear accident.
Participants, all conceived after the disaster and born between 1987 and 2002, had their whole genomes screened.
The study found no mutations that were associated with a parent's exposure.
--more--
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56846728
Link to source:
Effects of radiation exposure from the Chernobyl nuclear accident remain a topic of interest. We investigated whether children born to parents employed as cleanup workers or exposed to occupational and environmental ionizing radiation post-accident were born with more germline de novo mutations (DNMs). Whole-genome sequencing of 130 children (born 1987-2002) and their parents did not reveal an increase in the rates, distributions, or types of DNMs versus previous studies. We find no elevation in total DNMs regardless of cumulative preconception gonadal paternal (mean = 365 mGy, range = 0-4,080 mGy) or maternal (mean = 19 mGy, range = 0-550 mGy) exposure to ionizing radiation and conclude over this exposure range, evidence is lacking for a substantial effect on germline DNMs in humans, suggesting minimal impact on health of subsequent generations.
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2021/04/21/science.abg2365
I'll speculate that the impact on many other sexually reproducing species is similarly "minimal."
Nevertheless we should strive to avoid these sorts of accidents.
mountain grammy
(26,571 posts)as did most of the cleanup workers. This documentary is excellent..
hunter
(38,264 posts)But one reason sexual reproduction is so successful, beyond the reshuffling of genetic traits, is that damaged ova, sperm, zygotes, and early embryos simply don't develop and are discarded, usually within hours or days. These mutations never make it into the gene pool.
The natural error correcting mechanisms of sexual reproduction are powerful. Even before man-made mutagens polluted our environment, throughout the history of multi-cellular life on earth, the environment has always contained powerful mutagens, everything from viruses to mycotoxins to natural background radiation.
The consequences of the Chernobyl accident will be similar to those of any other industrial accident that spills carcinogenic or mutagenic chemicals. As these toxins decay or are sequestered by natural processes the environmental impacts will be much reduced. There's nothing "special" about radioactive pollution. Pollution is pollution.
The thing I find most disturbing about the accident at Chernobyl is how it demonstrated that people going about their ordinary lives do more damage to the natural environment than nuclear fallout.
After the Fukushima accident I started joking that I'd rather be a slightly radioactive fish living in the ocean than a non-radioactive fish on some human's dinner table.