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"CHERNOBYL THE BIGGEST BLUFF of the XXth CENTURY" Part 2 |
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by Marcin Rotkiewicz in collaboration with Henryk Suchar and Ryszard Kami�ski Polish weekly WPROST, no 2 (14 January) 2001 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Chernobyl, the real story The explosion in nuclear reactor in Chernobyl does not belong to the worst tragedies of 20th century. The explosion did not kill thousands of people, nor did it heavily contaminate for hundreds of years enormous areas of land. Twenty three minutes after 1 A.M. on 26 April 1986 a violent explosion has occurred in the fourth unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Large quantities of radioactive material have been ejected into the atmosphere. The world panicked - the more so because of the lack of reliable information blocked by the Soviet Union censorship. The headlines in the Western press shouted: "Chernobyl hecatomb" "Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Chernobyl" "Death from Chernobyl." Respectable newspapers and weeklies announced: "Thousands of bodies are being buried in Chernobyl." The atmosphere of fear, which then started to develop, paralyses the public opinion to this very day. Whereas, in fact, the accident in Chernobyl nuclear reactor does not represent one of the largest 20th century tragedies, the explosion did not kill thousands of people, nor did it heavily contaminate for hundreds of years enormous areas of land. Moreover, radiation doses to which the populations in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus have been exposed, had nearly no impact on their health - these people do not suffer more frequently from leukemia, nor do they give birth to more children with genetic defects. Those are the conclusions from the recent UNSCEAR (United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation) report, which has been prepared by 142 most prominent experts from 21 countries. But after 15 years since the accident, it is clear that this event has been put to a very good use - mainly by environmental and anti-nuclear organizations. "Thanks to" the "Chernobyl disaster" the nuclear power program development has been delayed by several decades.
Death from fear, or how many people really were injured by the Chernobyl explosion
According to the UNSCEAR report authors, only 134 people from nuclear power plant staff and
emergency teams members have been exposed to very high ionizing radiation doses and
subsequently suffered from acute radiation sickness. Twenty eight of them died from
irradiation and two from scalding. Those were the only fatalities.
About 381 000 people, who have been engaged in the elimination of accident consequences,
have been exposed to radiation doses slightly above 100 mSv (milliSievert). It is presumed
that a single dose of 2 000 mSv poses a risk to life. - The examinations of people engaged
in elimination of accident consequences indicate that those people are even healthier than
the non-exposed individuals - says Professor Zbigniew Jaworowski from Central Laboratory for
Radiological Protection, one of the report co-authors, who since 1973 is representing Poland
in UNSCEAR.
As stated in UNSCEAR report: "Fourteen years after the Chernobyl accident there is no
scientific evidence of increased cancer incidence, increased mortality or the occurrence
of other diseases attributable to radiation." On the other hand, a significant increase
in the incidence of psychosomatic disorders - concerning the respiratory, digestive and nervous
systems - has been observed. But these disorders are caused not by radiation but by fear.
People are afraid that they have been exposed to radiation or that they live on contaminated
land and that any day they will develop cancer.
The scientists have never published such rubbish as the trash served by media on the
consequences of Chernobyl accident - says Professor Leonid Andreyevich Ilyin from the
Biophysics Institute of the Russia�s Ministry of Health, who participated in the program of
elimination of the disaster�s consequences and represents Russia in UNSCEAR. According to
Professor Ilyin: - The media exaggerated this tragedy, now and again giving ear to various
"experts." For example, quite recently a Russian bi-weekly "Planet�s Echo" claimed that the
Chernobyl has been the worst disaster of the second half of 20th century. In the article
published there one finds some entirely fabricated estimates of the consequences of this
accident, because how are we to rate the information that 300 000 people were killed? In fact,
the most dangerous consequences are those of psychological kind, which have been caused by
fear and relocation from the areas deemed (often rashly) at risk
Chernobyl, or a creeping paranoia
Similar conclusions have been formulated earlier. In March 1996 weekly magazine The Economist
has published an article under a meaningful title "Chernobyl, cancer and creeping paranoia"
indicating that the direct health impact of the radiation was quite small. "Much worse are the
consequences of fear and ignorance - people did not know, and still do not know, what was the
real danger - and this is the largest health related problem caused by the Chernobyl disaster"
- writes The Economist.
Immediately after the disaster, thousands of Ukrainian and Belarusian pregnant women decided,
or were persuaded by the physicians, to undergo abortion. The number of abortions in those two
Soviet republics during 1986-1987 was equal to one third of the number of children born in
Eastern Europe as a whole. In some regions the number of natural miscarriages jumped up by
25%. Why? Women were afraid that they will give birth to mutants. Meanwhile, after the
disaster, the number of children born with serious defects in Ukraine has not risen -
maintains Dr. Herwig Paretzke from the Institute of Radiation Protection in Munich.
20th CENTURY, A CENTURY OF DISASTERS
Besides, the growth in the number of children born with genetic defects has been simply
impossible - assert UNSCEAR experts. Even after the highest radiation doses incurred by
people because of the atomic bomb explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki (hundreds of times
higher than the Chernobyl doses and absorbed within a fraction of a second), no genetic
disorders have been observed in the offspring of the Japanese nuclear attacks survivors.
The sole health impact of the atmospheric radioactive material release may be the 1800 cases
of thyroid cancer in children, registered in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. This evidence,
however, is somewhat doubtful. Radiation induced thyroid cancer develops unrevealed for
6-9 years. Meanwhile the increased number of cases has been noted already after a year from
the accident. No correlation was found between the children's exposure to various radiation
doses and the thyroid cancer incidence. UNSCEAR experts think that this increase in cancer
incidence may be caused by something else than radiation - e.g. by so called mute cancers.
Such cancers give no clinical symptoms through the patient's lifetime. Until the explosion
in Chernobyl no examinations of this type were performed in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia,
thus medical teams from all over the world discovered only something that existed
independently of the disaster.
Also among Poles inhabiting the country's eastern region, no increase in the thyroid cancer
incidence was observed which could be induced by radiation. - "During the night 28/29 April
1986 I was summoned to the Central Committee of the Polish Worker's Party, as an expert on
radiological contamination issues" - recalls Professor Zbigniew Jaworowski. - "Secret
consultations were carried on, but even party notables did not know what was happening in
Chernobyl. Soviet Union imposed total information blockade. Thus, basing on the knowledge
gained from our measurements, I presented some possible scenarios. I also proposed that
Lugol liquid (a solution of stable iodine compounds, logistically more handy than potassium
iodide tablets) should be administered to children, to protect the thyroid gland against
radioactive iodine absorption. The Americans praise us for the effective execution of this
action, but today I am convinced that this action was unnecessary. But then, in 1986, it
was a right decision, in the light of the data being in our possession and because of
increasing waves of contaminated air flowing over Poland. But our current knowledge of the
contamination of Polish population indicates that the risk was much smaller than we
thought."
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