The dangers of nuclear fallout do not stop at increased risks of cancer and radiation sickness, but also include the presence of radionucleides in human organs from food. A fallout event would leave fission particles in the soil for animals to consume, followed by humans.

Fallout is the radioactive particles that fall to earth as a result of a nuclear explosion. It consists of weapon debris, fission products, and, in the case of a ground burst, radiated soil.

All people who were born since 1951 have received some exposure to radiation from weapons testing-related fallout. Other radioactive materials in fallout, such as strontium-90, can affect a person’s bone marrow and lead to an increased risk for leukemia. However all studies have shown the risk to be very small.

Research has found evidence for recent contamination of Lake Como, northern Italy, with chemicals banned in the EU since the 1970s. The results suggest glacial meltwater as a source for renewed DDT contamination and show recent contamination of fish above safe levels.

Alexievich’s book about Chernobyl was published in Russian in 1997, more than ten years after one of the reactors at the Chernobyl power plant exploded, in what was probably the worst nuclear accident in history.

On April 28, just two days after the RBMK reactor 4 exploded, the winds carried the radioactive particles all the way to Sweden. Sweden is far from Ukraine, all the way up in the north of Europe, 683 miles (1100 km) away.

In the aftermath, tens of thousands of people were evacuated from the Ukrainian city of Pripyat. They were told to leave their pets behind. (Read more about the long-term toll of the Chernobyl disaster. Soviet soldiers shot many of the abandoned animals in an effort to prevent the spread of contamination.