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THE DIFFICULT TRUTH ABOUT THE CHERNOBYL CATASTROPHE:
THE WORST EFFECTS ARE STILL TO COME
foreword to the 2006 Greenpeace Report by Prof., Dr. biol. Alexey Yablokov,
recipient of the 2002 Nuclear-Free Future Lifetime Achievement Award,
and Member of the European Committee on Radiation Risk
For millions of inhabitants of the planet the explosion of the fourth block
of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on the 26th of April 1986 divided their
life into two parts: pre and post Chernobyl. All mixed into the word
"Chernobyl" are technocratic adventurism and the
heroism of liquidators, human solidarity and the cowardice of leaders
(frightened to warn their citizens about the terrible outcomes and, by that,
strongly increasing the number of innocent victims), the sufferings of
many and the self-interest of others. Chernobyl brought into our lives new
terminology, such as "liquidators", the "children of Chernobyl" and
"Chernobyl AIDS".
In the past twenty years it has become clear, that
nuclear energy conceals dangers, in some aspects, even greater than atomic
weapons: the ejecta from this one reactor exceeded the radioactive
contamination caused by the nuclear weapons used at Hiroshima and Nagasaki by
one hundred times. It has become clear that one nuclear reactor can
contaminate half of the Earth and that no longer, not in one single country, could
citizens be assured that the state will have the forethought and wisdom to
protect them from nuclear misfortunes. The fate of thousands of
soldier-liquidators was sealed by the phrase in one of the documents of the former USSR
Ministry of Defence dated 9th July 1987. "... the fact of the proximity of
work performed on the core [on liquidation] should not be reflected, nor the
total radiation dose, if they [liquidators] did not reach the degree of
radiation sickness…".
The "Chernobyl' Forum" – a group of specialists,
including the representatives of the IAEA, the UN Scientific
committee on the influence of atomic radiation, the WHO, other UN programs, as
well as the World Bank and the staff of some of the state organizations of
Belarus, Russia and Ukraine presented a report, "Health Effects of the
Chernobyl Accident and Special Health Care Programs" on the threshold of the
Chernobyl anniversary, in September 2005. The basic conclusions of the
medical portion of the report of the "Chernobyl Forum" are that 4,000-9,000
people died, or will die, from radiogenic cancer (which against the background of
spontaneous cancers "will be difficult to identify"). That report indicates
that 4,000 cases of childhood radiogenic cancers of the thyroid gland
were resolved via medical operations. That report acknowledges that certain
increases in the cataracts of liquidators and children from the contaminated
regions have been discovered. The report concludes, generally, that
the consequences of the catastrophe "for the people’s health proved to be
not so significant, as they were first considered to be".
A more objective point of view was well-expressed by the UN General Secretary, Kofi Annan: "…the exact number of
victims may never be known, but 3 million children require treatment and... many will
die prematurely... Not until 2016, at the earliest, will be known the full
number of those likely to develop serious medical conditions... because of delayed reactions to radiation exposure... many will die prematurely... ".
Radioactive fall-outs from Chernobyl clouds touched many territories, where
more than three billion people live. More than 50% of these territories
across 13 European countries were dangerously contaminated by radionuclides
from Chernobyl (and in 8 further countries - more than 30% of their
territories). It will be the fate of many future generations to suffer the
echoes of Chernobyl in these countries according to inexorable statistical
and biological laws.
In reality, the number of childhood thyroid cancers caused by Chernobyl in
Belarus, Ukraine and Russia is much greater than is indicated by the IAEA
and/or the WHO. It is also impossible to consider those having undergone
medical operations as having been "cured" - for in
reality they will have had their health compromised by disruptions of
their hormonal and immune systems and by living on medication. Thyroid
cancer is only one of many pathologic changes in this organ under the effect
of the radiation. For each case of cancer there are many tens of cases of
other diseases of this important endocrine gland. Disturbances of health,
connected with radiogenic changes in the thyroid gland, already touched not
several, but many tens of thousands of individuals. In the following 30-50
years they will touch many thousands more.
The worsening of health related to radiation exposure from the Chernobyl
accident (especially – in children’s health), in the "Chernobyl" territories
of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia is without scientific doubt. Dozens of
diseases are explicable neither by the effect of the screening
methodologies, nor by social and economic factors.
I will not repeat here the content of the following report, but I will
highlight some of the reasons for such serious differences in the estimation
of the consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe between the side of the
atomic energy industry and from the side of many independent experts. Some
former Soviet officials have not only forbidden doctors to connect current
diseases with the Chernobyl irradiation, but have also classified some
Chernobyl-related materials, making these materials difficult, and at times
impossible, to obtain. In order to overcome these political manipulations, a
rigorous scientific approach has been applied in the assessment and
selection of material provided in this report. Statistically significant
variances of the health of the population in the affected territories, with
identical ethnic, psychological, geographical, social and economic
characteristics (which are differentiated only by the exposure to the
Chernobyl irradiation) are explained via the consequences of the Chernobyl
catastrophe.
The following report, in its concentrated form, presents to the English
speaking reader material that was previously difficult to access (published
in Belarus, Russian and Ukrainian literature). There are many scientific
studies on the consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe on health,
published in these three countries but to date, little of this information
has been available via Western journals. It should be noted that since 1959
there has been an understanding between the IAEA and the WHO, that the WHO
will "coordinate" its position with the IAEA on atomic-related health
issues. With the valuable assistance of many independent specialists from
Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and many other countries, I hope that this report
will be among many further objective examinations of the true scale of the
Chernobyl catastrophe to be published in the near future.
2006 Greenpeace Report: The Chernobyl Catastrophe
Consequences on Human Health
See also:
NFFAward advisor Dr. Rosalie Bertell comments on the WHO/IAEA/UNDP press release, "Chernobyl: the true scale of the accident"
The Other Report on Chernobyl (TORCH)
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