Low levels of radiation, typical for the vicinity of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant today, negatively affect the life of individual animals.
Long-term exposure to small doses of radiation on the body of wild animals in the "exclusion zone" around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant often leads to the development of cataracts and other eye problems leading to complete or partial blindness, according to Finnish radiologists, who published an article in Scientific Reports, RIA Novosti reports.
The accidents at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan led to the release of a huge amount of radionuclides into the atmosphere, a significant part of which got into the soil and groundwater, thereby having a direct impact on the life of animals. As the latest observation data on the life of animals in the "exclusion zone" show, their radiation, after the initial sharp drop in numbers, practically did not affect the health of all populations as a whole. Philip Lehmann from the University of Jyväskula (Finland) and his colleagues tested how stable, but low doses of radiation, characteristic of the “exclusion zone” around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, affect the life of animals at the individual level.
Lehmann's group made several expeditions in the vicinity of Chernobyl and Pripyat, where scientists observed the life of bank voles - small rodents living in the forests of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. As these animals age, they often go blind or almost completely lose their sight as a result of the development of cataracts and other disturbances in the functioning of the eyes.
The authors tested whether radiation affects the development of these vision problems by comparing how often cataracts appeared on the lens of the eye in voles living in areas with high background radiation, and in rodents living in relatively "clean" areas of the "exclusion zone" …
As it turned out, a low but noticeable level of background radiation really negatively affected the eyes of voles, accelerating the development of cataracts, but a similar effect was manifested only among females, but not males. Interestingly, this effect is related to how well the voles give offspring - females who developed cataracts, on average, produced fewer offspring than their healthy relatives. While scientists do not know why only the fairer sex is subject to this. The existence of such a risk, according to Lehmann and his colleagues, speaks of the higher risks posed by populations of wild animals living in areas contaminated with radionuclides than scientists today believe.