Radiation poisoning is a rare illness. Most cases have resulted from nuclear attacks and other accidents. A world-wide registry of radiation accidents between 1944 and 1999 includes a total of 403 events that lead to 120 deaths. The atomic bombings in Japan in 1945 caused approximately 110,000 deaths. The majority of these were likely due to the physical effects of the bombings rather than to radiation poisoning. The nuclear fall-out from Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania was not high enough to cause radiation poisoning. According to a report by the United Nations, the accident at Chernobyl in 1986 triggered 134 cases of radiation poisoning. Twenty-eight of those with radiation poisoning died.
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