。对于一般人口而言，所观察到的主要不良健康后果是1986 年作为儿童接受高剂量甲状腺制剂的人群中甲状腺癌发生率急剧增加。委员会发现，公众和媒体往往难以理解的是，虽然辐射风险对于某些受辐射人群来说非常严重，但从放射学健康的角度来看，这些风险对于一般人口来说并不像通常所说的那样大。关于该事故辐射照射所致预计死亡数字的盲目猜测报道，特别是 2006 年 4 月该事故发生二十周年前后的报道，在公众当中引起了混乱。除了临床上归因于急性辐射综合症的应急工作人员的过早死亡，以及一小部分可以致命的甲状腺癌（从流行病学角度可归因于辐射）病例外，不可能将任何特定死亡归结为由于事故而受到的辐射照射的晚期效应。委员会表示打算进一步阐明就长期低量辐射对大量人口造成的潜在危害所作的评估，以及健康受到影响的原因。委员会还认识到，有些未决细节值得进一步详细审查，并且需要继续开展工作，为促进更好地理解与辐射有关的死亡和切尔诺贝利事故造成的环境影响而提供科学依据。但是，由于参加了切尔诺贝利论坛，委员会现
For the general population, the main adverse health consequences that had been observed was the dramatic increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer among people who had received high thyroid doses as children in 1986. The Committee recognized that it was often difficult for the public and the media to appreciate that the radiation risks, while serious for some exposed groups, were for the general population not as significant from a radiological health point of view as they were often represented to be. Uninformed reporting of postulated numbers of projected exposure-related deaths as a result of the accident, especially reporting before and at the time of the twentieth anniversary of the accident in April 2006, had created confusion among the public. With the exception of the early deaths among emergency workers that were clinically attributable to acute radiation syndrome and the small proportion of cases of thyroid cancer (which could be attributed on epidemiological grounds to radiation exposure) that were fatal, it was not possible to attribute any specific death to late effects of exposure to radiation as a result of the accident. The Committee expressed its intention to clarify further the assessment of potential harm owing to chronic low-level exposures among large populations and also the attributability of health effects. It also recognized that some outstanding details merited further scrutiny and that its work to provide the scientific basis for a better understanding of the radiation-related health and environmental effects of the Chernobyl accident needed to continue. However, owing to its participation in the