Dosimetry for the TRIO (parents + child) Study

Genetic Effects of Chernobyl Radiation

No evidence that exposure to parents resulted in new genetic changes being passed from parent to child.

In Ukraine and Belarus, which were affected by the Chernobyl accident, excess mini-satellite mutations have been reported, by some but not all studies, in children born after the accident. To further pursue this observation and to generate new data on the heritable effects of parental radiation exposure, DCEG investigators are carrying out a study of up to 450 trios of parents with preconception doses and their unexposed offspring. The aim is to investigate the heritable and de novo mutation rates of the spectrum of genetic variants in trios looking at effects in children and mapping them to possible parental origin of the chromosome. Read more details about the TRIO study. DCEG dosimetrists are estimating radiation doses to the gonads from the time of the accident to the time of conception for all parents.

Radiation gonadal dose for the subjects of the TRIO study includes three components:

Dose from external irradiation during the cleanup mission at the Chernobyl site;
Dose from external irradiation during residence in the town of Pripyat between the time of the accident and evacuation; and
Dose from external irradiation and ingestion of long-lived cesium isotopes (¹³⁴Cs and ¹³⁷Cs) in local food during residence at contaminated locations after completion of the cleanup mission and/or evacuation from the town of Pripyat.

The preliminary parental gonadal dose from all exposure pathways among the first 50 trios averaged around 300 mGy, ranging from essentially zero to 4,300 mGy. For the majority of families, parental exposure mainly occurred during the cleanup mission at the Chernobyl site.

For more information, contact Dr. Vladimir Drozdovitch.