Sorry for my rambling and nothing to back myself up with.
404 is a good source for the actual number of directly related deaths of the event which it says 50. The quote from the source describes my views of Chernobyl
This was a very serious accident with major health consequences, especially for thousands of workers exposed in the early days who received very high radiation doses, and for the thousands more stricken with thyroid cancer. By and large, however, we have not found profound negative health impacts to the rest of the population in surrounding areas, nor have we found widespread contamination that would continue to pose a substantial threat to human health, within a few exceptional, restricted areas.
With that I conclude that radiation is not a big threat to human life.