Assessment of the potential impacts of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster on maternal and fetal health in Hungary

Abstract

Objective: Radiation exposure is known to be mutagenic and teratogenic. The aim of this study was to analyze the effects of the increased ionizing radiation emitted by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster on maternal and fetal outcomes in Hungary.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of abortion, stillbirth, and congenital anomaly data for pregnancies in Hungary between 1 January 1981 and 31 December 1991 was conducted.

Results: Trend analysis revealed increasing trends in spontaneous and voluntary abortion rates in Hungary during the study time period, while late pregnancy losses showed a decreasing trend. Overall, there were generally decreasing incidence rates for birth defects throughout the 1980s. Increased voluntary abortions over the study period might reflect, at least in part, maternal anxiety in the post-Chernobyl years. Decreased late pregnancy loss over the same period may be attributable to improvements in prenatal diagnostics. A notable weakness of this study is that missing data could not be complemented due to the decades that have passed since the incident.

Conclusions: In conclusion, the present data suggest that the nuclear catastrophe in 1986 did not cause a significant increase in pregnancy loss or congenital malformations in Hungary.

BRIEF SUMMARY

Radiation exposure in Hungary caused by the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster did not results in increases in fetal death or congenital anomaly rates.

Keywords:

• Chernobyl
• ionizing radiation
• teratogen effect
• spontaneous abortion
• nuclear catastrophe

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflict of interest.

KK and BF have multiple affiliations and receive funding from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The remaining authors have no conflicts of interest with this study to report.

S Szalai: project development, data collection, manuscript writing.

N Farkas: statistical analysis.

B Veszpremi: data collection.

J Bodis: data collection.

K Kovacs: manuscript editing.

B Farkas: project development, data analysis, and manuscript editing.

Additional information

Funding

The research was financed by the Thematic Excellence Program 2020 (Institutional Excellence Subprogram of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology) in Hungary, within the framework of the second thematic program of the University of Pécs and ELKH-PTE Human Reproduction Scientific Research Group, Pécs, Hungary and National Laboratory for Human Reproduction as part of the “Establishment of National Laboratories 2020” program. The publication and the scientific results presented in this study were prepared with the support of the Richter Gedeon Talentum Foundation established by Richter Gedeon Plc. (headquarters: 1103 Budapest, Gyömrői út 19-21.) in concordance with the framework of the Richter Gedeon PhD Scholarship.