It’s hard to definitely connect a disease to an exposure to a
toxin. There are various estimates of how many children got
thyroid cancer after Chernobyl, the International Atomic Energy
Agency, in a strangely upbeat post , says four thousand. The
World Health Organization says five thousand, with a little more
consideration of the implications. Other cancers also were
increased after the disaster. Yan Leyfman suffered painful,
relentless and unexplained illnesses all during his early
childhood. Now a student in the US, he is researching cancer as
his mother survives cancer treatment. They believe they are
victims of radiation exposure. STONY BROOK, N.Y. — Yan Leyfman
was born in Belarus in 1989, three years after the Chernobyl
nuclear disaster. His family lived only about 75 miles from the
nuclear plant, and as a toddler, Mr. Leyfman had a constellation
of mysterious symptoms: cysts that covered his entire body,
fingernails that fell out, limbs that were swollen and skin that
itched torturously. Though he rec