CHILDREN EXPOSED TO FALLOUT DISPLAY HIGHER CANCER RATE.

Byline: Associated Press 

For the first time, researchers have detected elevated leukemia rates among children exposed in the womb to fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, raising disturbing questions about the effects of everyday, low-level radiation on early pregnancy.

Infant leukemia rates more than doubled among Greek children who were exposed to the nuclear power plant's fallout while in the early stages of pregnancy, according to a study released Wednesday.

The radiation exposure in Greece was only up to five times higher than what Greeks normally would have received in the year after the accident.

That suggested to the researchers that even the low levels of radiation people are exposed to every day - much of it naturally occurring in food, water and the air - also could contribute to cancer. There are trace amounts of radioactive elements everywhere.

``This is going to create a lot of objections from people who think there is an overanxiety over low levels of exposure,'' said one of the authors, Dimitrios Trichopoulos of the Harvard Center for Cancer Prevention in Boston.

The study, published in the journal Nature, is the first indication that leukemia rates might have increased in areas affected by the Chernobyl fallout. Other studies have found elevated rates of thyroid cancer among children.

The researchers collected information on 1.3 million children born in Greece during the 1980s. Among those born in the months after Chernobyl, the researchers found, children in parts of Greece exposed to the fallout were 2.6 times more likely to suffer from leukemia than their unexposed counterparts.