A study published in the September issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology shows that the 1986 Chernobyl disaster did not adversely affect the cognitive functioning of children exposed to radioactive substances.

The study, conducted by researchers at the Carmel Medical Center in Haifa between 1998 and 2001, on a group of 1,629 children who emigrated to Israel from the former USSR (neighbourhoods differentiated by radiation exposure: Gomel, Mogilevo, Kiev, Moscow and St Petersburg). At the time of the catastrophe, the oldest of the children examined were 4 years old.