Specific complex of non-radiation risk factors for socially significant pathologies could affect the liquidators of Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident

The review considers the complex of non-radiation factors that could affect the liquidators of the Chernobyl accident: the demographic, social and professional group heterogeneity to warrant differentiation of risk, the effects of heavy metals, 'hot particles', chemicals, psychogenic stress, social dislocation in the post-perestroika period, alcohol abuse, smoking, and the effect of screening. All these factors tend to have a significant intensity, unlike the radiation exposure for the majority of subjects. It is concluded that the increased frequency and severity of some large socially significant pathologies in contingent liquidators may be due to a unique set of predominantly non-radiation factors associated, however, with a particular radiation accident.