Cancer monitoring in persons exposed to radiation following the Chernobyl accident

A postal survey of 14347 liquidators who are included into the Ukrainian State Registry (SR) and have official dose records was undertaken. The purpose of the survey was to collect the data on affiliation of liquidators, places and types of performed work as well as methods of dosimetry which were used during the clean-up activity. In return, 5263 completed questionnaires were received. According to results of the survey, the majority of liquidators (86%) belongs to the category of military reservists. The group-commitment method of dosimetry was prevalent for this group (41%). Personal dosimeters were used by 19% of respondents only. 60% of the interviewed liquidators participated in the decontamination work and 62% performed their task on the industrial site of the ChNPP. The doses indicated by the liquidators in the questionnaire, as a rule, agreed with the values contained in the SR, which suggests that survey can further be used for filling in the gap in dosimetric information of the Registry (as is known, only about 50% of liquidators registered in SR have the dose record).