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Comment by gus_massa | Hacker News Reader

> Staff at the site have previously described the invading troops as having been sent on a ‘suicide’ mission, saying their vehicles and equipment had no anti-radiation protection.

Color me skeptical. I've seen a few videos in YouTube of idiots visiting Chernóbil to take photos, and other about going to Chernobyl with a Geiger detector to find a radioactive speck. I guess you need some dust mask to dig trenches, but I don't think you need a special vehicle to move around. [Anyway, I prefer to be far away, just in case.]

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Article also says:

> one worker on duty when the Russians seized control of the area said the convoy had kicked up clouds of radioactive dust while driving through the highly toxic ‘Red Forest’

From what I know when you go with a tour guide in Chernobyl they don't drive through the 'Red Forest', and they say to not pickup anything and bring your own food and water. The problem with driving in the 'Red Forest' is that the movement of vehicles creates clouds of dust, that go on the vehicle itself and especially on the vehicle behind, and I believe that inhaling radioactive dust is terrible for your health

Side note, the Chernobyl disaster:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster

happened in 1986, roughly 35 years ago, if it is not taught in schools in Russia (or talked about much), soldiers (and young people in general) may well have no knowledge of it, nor of the risks connected to the "Red Forest" outside specific (if any) directives from the military command.

> inhaling radioactive dust is terrible for your health

Yes, but the dose makes the poison.

Also, the dose to increase the cancer rate in the next 10 years is much lower than the dose to make you sick in one months. See for example https://xkcd.com/radiation/ It's strange that they inhaled enough stuff to make them ill now like the title claims.

Many of the death reported in Wikipedia are caused by damage to the thyroid by radioactive iodide, but it has a half life of only 8 days. There are other nasty things like radioactive strontium that accumulate in your bones, but the effect is slower. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster#Cancer_asse...

Unprotected Russian soldiers disturbed radioactive dust in Chernobyl's 'Red Forest', workers say

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/unprotected-russian-sol...

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