Chromosome analysis in a population living in an area of Germany with the highest fallout deposition from the Chernobyl accident.

Chromosome analyses were carried out in 1989 in peripheral lymphocytes of 30 persons from the region in southeast Bavaria (Berchtesgaden) that received the highest radiocesium deposition (> 42 kBq/m2) in Germany. These persons belonged to a group for whom body burdens of radiocesium had been surveyed in 1987. Chromosome analyses had been performed by Stephan and Oestreicher for members of the same group in the period 1987-1990, and these authors have reported elevated rates of chromosome aberrations. Pohl-Rüling et al. (1991) have, likewise, concluded that there have been increased rates of chromosome aberrations in the population of the nearby Salzburg region in 1987. In the study reported here we do not see any elevations compared to our large pre-Chernobyl control group. The difference between our findings and the report of earlier increases cannot be fully explained in terms of the known temporal decrease of the rate of dicentrics and ring chromosomes.