Did people on the Bridge of Death in Pripyat actually die?
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The BBC's More or Less podcast discussed this, and interviewed Professor Jim Smith of Portsmouth University. He pointed out that Pripyat was fortunately not directly downwind of the disaster, and that the dose of radiation its residents were exposed to was:
equivalent to about three CT scans
Although the exact impact to their health is hard to measure, there appears to be little evidence that large numbers of residents died in the short term, with the only immediate deaths being those involved in the immediate disaster and subsequent cleanup operation.
As in the TruthOrFiction article linked in the question, the figure of around 15000 total early deaths is mentioned, but it should be stressed that these are deaths across the whole of Europe, as a result of the long-term effects of varying levels of radiation originating from the disaster. The problem with measuring such long-term effects, even amongst those clearly affected like the residents of Pripyat, is distinguishing them from other causes - radiation increases the risk of various cancers, but so do many other factors.
It's also worth stressing that "they didn't die" doesn't mean "they weren't affected by the radiation". Increased rates of thyroid cancer from contaminated water are well documented, for instance, but fortunately rarely fatal.
Unless we miraculously unearth meticulously kept medical records for every resident of Pripyat, along with testimony of which of them stood on the bridge, I don't think you're going to get better information than that.
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