Congenital Defects, Chernobyl's Uncertain Legacy

GLUSK, BELARUS - APRIL 03: Severely-handicapped children sit in their wheelchairs at the Vesnova Home for Invalid Children on April 3, 2016 in Vesnova village near Glusk, Belarus. Approximately 170 handicapped children and teenagers, many of whom were born with severe birth defects, receive care at the facility located in southen Belarus, not far from zones contaminated by radiation from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident. Scientific debate is open over whether congenital birth defects can be attributed to Chernobyl radiation, though physicians in the region report a significant rise in congenital conditions since 1986. Also, a 2010 study led by U.S. researcher Wladimir Wertelecki in three contaminated counties in northern Ukraine found a correlation between dramatically high rates of certain congenital birth defects and the presence of hazardous levels of strontium-90 in 48% of 20,000 women tested. Children once lived in deplorable conditions at Vesnova, tough today the facility is among the best of its kind in Belarus thanks to long-term efforts by the Irish charity Chernobyl Children International. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)