One of the terrible signs of that time — people with a “nuclear tan”. Those unlucky enough to grab a large dose of radiation wondered why the skin suddenly turned brown, even under the clothes. The body has already been damaged by intense radiation. Not everyone knew about the danger: on the day of the accident, many even sunbathed on the rooftops and on the river near the nuclear power plant, and the sun intensified the effect of radiation.
From the story of an eyewitness: “Our neighbor, Metelev, at about eleven o’clock climbed onto the roof and lay down there in swimming trunks to sunbathe. Then one time I went down to drink, says the tan sticks perfectly today! Moreover, from the roof one can clearly see how the reactor is burning there … And in the air at that time it was already up to a thousand millirems per hour. But we didn’t know that then! In the evening, a neighbor who was sunbathing on the roof began to vomit violently, and he was taken to the medical unit, then further to Kiev. And still no one was worried: the man must have overheated. Such things happen…”