Chernobyl / Radiation / Health
Posted: 17th February 2026
Daily Mail 16th Feb 2026
On Tue, Feb 17, 2026 at 2:05 PM Rachel Western <[email protected]> wrote:
The DNA damage from ionizing radiation (IR) erupting from the Chernobyl
nuclear disaster of 1986 is showing up in the children of those originally
exposed, researchers have found – the first time such a transgenerational
link has been clearly established. Previous studies have been inconclusive
about whether this genetic damage could be passed from parent to child, but
here the researchers – led by a team from the University of Bonn in
Germany – looked for something slightly different. Rather than picking
out new DNA mutations in the next generation, they looked for what are
known as clustered de novo mutations (cDNMs): two or more mutations in
close proximity, found in the children but not the parents. These would be
mutations resulting from breaks in the parental DNA caused by radiation
exposure. “We found a significant increase in the cDNM count in offspring
of irradiated parents, and a potential association between the dose
estimations and the number of cDNMs in the respective offspring,” write the
researchers in their published paper.
Science Alert 15th Feb 2026
https://www.sciencealert.com/dna-mutations-discovered-in-the-children-of-chernobyl-workers