CHERNOBYL could still be 'killing us' according to a new book which suggests the disaster may be responsible for the global rise in cancers and diseases.

MIT historian Kate Brown has been investigating the impact of radiation from the worst nuclear disaster in human history and thinks the real death toll has been covered up.

5 The nuclear power plant exploded in 1986 Credit: Getty - Contributor

Brown alleges in her book that scientists and representatives of the United Nations, the Red Cross, and the World Health Organization hid evidence of hundreds of thousands of people who have died as a result of the 1986 nuclear explosion.

We have reached out to these institutions for comment and will update this story with any response.

At the time, it was widely agreed and underestimated by scientists that the accident would result in a total of 200 deaths over an 80 year time period.

Brown disputes this in her book when she writes: "International scientists suppressed evidence of a cancer epidemic among children."

According to Cancer Research UK, cancer rates and cancer risk overall are rising, but this is largely blamed on people living longer – as well as a move towards diets high in red and processed meats, increasing obesity in the west, and a culture of sunbathing and sunbeds.

This has led to the calculation that one in three people will get cancer recently being amended to "one in two people" being likely to develop the disease.

But Brown believes an increase in cancer rates may be linked to Chernobyl, and that governments and senior officials in the nuclear industry did not want to take responsibility or be investigated for other radiation incidents.

5 Chernobyl is now a ghost town as it is illegal to live in the 30km exclusion zone around the site Credit: Getty - Contributor

She also theorises that academics who were not willing to cover up the facts were 'sidelined' because many influential scientists "had much larger radioactive skeletons in the closet from nuclear bomb tests".

She added: "Minimising both the number of deaths so far and the on-going health consequences of the Chernobyl disaster provided cover for nuclear powers to dodge lawsuits and uncomfortable investigations in the 1990s."

5 Local residents were evacuated from their homes and could never return Credit: AP:Associated Press

Brown has criticised a lot of senior figures, both past and present, for not admitting that nuclear radiation is really poisonous and therefore not providing adequate protection or support for people who may still be affected.

What is the Chernobyl disaster? Here's what you need to know about the world's worst nuclear accident The Chernobyl nuclear power plant is situated near the now-abandoned town of Pripyat in Ukraine

The power plant exploded in April 1986 when its poorly designed fourth reactor suffered a huge power surge

The explosion and subsequent fires released a lot of nuclear radaition into the astmosphere

The intial explosion killed two people but radiation sickness quickly began to kill more plant workers and emergency services employees who were responding to the inicdent

Authorities were slow to release information about the extent of the disaster to the outside world until radiation alarms began to go off at a nuclear plant in Sweden

Trees surrounding the area absorded so much radition they died and turned red resulting in an area known as the 'Red Forest'

116 000 people were evacuated from the surrounding area in 1986 and there is now a 30km exlcusion zone where it is illegal to live

Tourists who visit Ukraine can book a short tour of Chernobyl because a short time spent in the radiation is not thought to be harmful

The New Safe Confinement is the name of the shelter which now surrounds the exploded reactor and is intened to confine any radition that it stills gives off

This confinement was not compelted until 2018

Experts believe that the area won't be safe for humans to live in for another 20,000 years

The book details how the threshold for the amount of radiation legally allowed in produce exported for consumption in the US is surprisingly high and could be dangerous.

It also vividly describes what the nuclear plant workers and local residents saw and experience when the explosion occurred.

One part reveals how workers who were told to clean up the nuclear waste were advised by Soviet doctors to drink vodka throughout the day because they claimed it would stimulate the liver and cleanse the body of radiation.

5 The death toll is allegedly much higher than previously thought Credit: AFP or licensors

Brown conducted her research over four years and relied on 27 archives of information from Europe, the US and the former Soviet Union.

She estimates that the actual death told could be as high as 150,000 for Ukraine alone over the past three decades.

5 Today Chernobyl is surrounded by a giant shelter which stops anymore radiation being released Credit: Alamy

The book ends with Brown calling for the impact of nuclear radiation on human health and the facts and figures surrounding to Chernobyl to be reassessed.

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