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Chernobyl Disaster Sequelae in Recent Immigrants to the United States from the former Soviet Union (FSU)

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Abstract

Long-term mental health sequelae of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster have been documented for exposed populations who remained in the former Soviet Union (FSU) (Havenaar et al., 1997), and in a cohort migrated to Israel (Cwikel et al., 1997). This paper reports on Chernobyl disaster sequelae in émigrés (n = 321) to the United States. Demographic characteristics, migration factors, and self-reported physical health were considered. Both geographical proximity to the 1986 disaster, and perception of radiation risk stood as long-term indicators of current psychological distress. Proximity was related to poor self-perceived physical health, as well as current symptoms of depression (p<.05), anxiety (p<.01), and Chernobyl-related trauma distress (p<.001) on standardized measures. Environmental contamination as a reason for migration was also associated with greater mental health symptomatology.

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Notes

  1. In an ironic turn of events, data from approximately 50 participant files that were in the process of analysis at NDRI, New York World Trade Center, were destroyed in the September 11, 2001 disaster. The current analysis is on full data sets for 321 participants.

  2. The “estimated cumulative external radiation exposure” index (Perez Foster & Yaffee, 2006) yields an approximated level of external radiation exposure for each subject, integrating: cumulative external radiation exposures from residence(s) in multiple FSU areas prior to migration, density of specific radionuclide contaminants in those areas (e.g. cesium-137 and strontium-90), and decay rates for these radionuclides across time.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by grants from the Glass Foundation, New York, NY, USA. The authors wish to thank Edwin Renaud for data management and the other Glass Research Fellows for their assistance in this project: Lana Grintsvayg, Sofya Kizhner, Zoya Khomich, Natalia Litvinova and Olga Poznansky.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Work, Glass Center for Mental Health Research, New York University, One Washington Square North, New York, NY, 10003, USA

    RoseMarie Perez Foster

  2. National Development and Research Institute (NDRI), New York, NY, USA

    Marjorie F. Goldstein

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  1. RoseMarie Perez Foster
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  2. Marjorie F. Goldstein
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Correspondence to RoseMarie Perez Foster.

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Foster, R.P., Goldstein, M.F. Chernobyl Disaster Sequelae in Recent Immigrants to the United States from the former Soviet Union (FSU). J Immigrant Health 9, 115–124 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-006-9024-8

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