Quantifying annual internal effective Cesium dose utilizing direct body-burden measurement and ecological dose modeling.

The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (CNPP) accident represents one of the most significant civilian releases of Cesium (Cs, radiocesium) in human history. In the Chernobyl-affected region, radiocesium is considered to be the greatest on-going environmental hazard to human health by radiobiologists and public health scientists. The goal of this study was to characterize dosimetric patterns and predictive factors for whole-body count (WBC)-derived radiocesium internal dose estimations in a CNPP-affected children's cohort, and cross-validate these estimations with a soil-based ecological dose estimation model.