Radiation Induces Inherited Mutations in Humans

...These days, he [Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys] and his team are studying the effects of chronic irradation such as that which has followed the meltdown of the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in the Ukraine 12 years ago.

They've found a systematic increase in the mutation rate in Belarus families affected by Chernobyl -- the first direct evidence that radiation induces inherited mutations in humans.

published in The Canberra Times Panorama, page 6, 2 May 1998


Last Modified: 2 May 1998
Bruce A. Peterson peterson@mso.anu.edu.au