Incidence of pediatric thyroid cancer rose 200-fold in Belarus by 1994 from 1985 because of the radiation release following the explosion and fire at the nuclear plant. In some parts of the country, the cancer rate rose 2,000-fold. Prior to the Chernobyl catastrophe, one in 2 million children was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, the same as in Great Britain. That statistics increased to 1 in 10,000 children by 1994, according to WHO. However, in some parts of Belarus the rate was even higher, at 1 in 1,000 children. In northern regions of Ukraine that neighbor Chernobyl pediatric thyroid cancer rates increased 100-fold by 1994 from 1985.
