Dit jaar is het tien jaar geleden dat de grootste ramp
uit de geschiedenis van de kernenergie plaatsvond.
De ontplofte kerncentrale in Tsjernobyl legde een deken
van giftige, radioactieve stoffen over grote delen van Europa.
Vooral de bevolking van de Oekraïne en Wit-Rusland zal nog
tot in lengte van dagen te maken hebben met de stoffen
die destijds zijn vrijgekomen. De gemiddelde levensverwachting
is er in de afgelopen tien jaar schrikbarend gedaald.
Tijd voor een evaluatie van de gevolgen van straling op de
gezondheid.                    lees verder

EEN LANDMIJN IN JE LONG Chernobyl for 14 years Radioactieve tanden Hoofdpagina Valse statistieken + commentaar Belarus 1 mei 2001 1,3 miljard slachtoffers tot nu Chernobyl radiation 13/11/2004 Mothersalert Email

BESCHERMING DOOR VOEDINGSSTOFFEN: zeolieten ginkgo biloba beta caroteen Seleniumhoudende aminozuren ferroferricyanide Super Oxyde Dismutase glutathion

VERARMD URANIUM IN BIJLMER EN GOLF

Atoomproeven in de atmosfeer, nucleaire ongevallen, waar Tsjernobyl het
trieste dieptepunt van was, en de talloze radioactieve lekkages van verschil-
lende soorten installaties in de bodem en in het water hebben allerlei radioac-
tieve stoffen in ons leefmilieu gebracht.
Nederland heeft enkele jaren geleden zijn eigen, tot nu toe verzwegen,
radioactief incident gehad. Na het neerstorten van de EI-Al Boeing op de
Bijlmermeer bleken enkele terreinen besmet met het verbrande verarmde
uranium uit de balansgewichten van de staart en de vleugels.
Bewoners, omstanders en reddingswerkers hebben daar uraniumdamp ingeademd. l
Verarmd uranium is dat wat overblijft wanneer uranium wordt verrijkt voor
civiele en militaire doeleinden. Tot nu toe werd dat als afval beschouwd,
totdat het vanwege het hoge soortelijk gewicht en pyrofore eigenschappen
werd toegepast in onder meer de bepantsering van tanks en in anti-tankwapens.
Iemand die in een dergelijk bepantserde tank zit, krijgt binnen een week de
stralingsdosis die een gemiddeld persoon in een jaar zou oplopen.
Na verbranding van verarmd uranium in de vorm
van projectielen of balansgewichten blijft een 'damp' van microscopische
hoogradioactieve deeltjes over die na inademing lokaal in de longen een
alfa-, bèta- en gammastraling uitzenden die vele malen hoger is dan de
z.g. door de ICRP 'maximaal toegestane dosis'.
Tijdens de zogenaamde 'tweede Golfoorlog', de operatie 'Desert Storm' zijn
in Zuid-Irak en Koeweit hele gebieden besmet geraakt met geheel of gedeel-
telijk verbrand verarmd uranium. Het 'Golfoorlogsyndroom' bij de soldaten
die daar zijn geweest is mede veroorzaakt door ingeademde uraniumrook.
In de buurt van Basra is het aantal genetische misvormingen, leukemie en
andere vormen van kanker bij kinderen en volwassenen schrikbarend
gestegen. (600% tot nu toe)
 

RADIOACTIVITEIT IS OVERAL

Maar ook van nature worden we voortdurend blootgesteld aan lage niveaus
radioactieve straling. Tijdens de miljarden jaren dat de aarde bestaat is het
oorspronkelijk hoge radioactieve stralingsniveau afgenomen tot een relatief
lage 'achtergrond'-waarde. Zonder deze afname zou op de aarde nooit leven
mogelijk zijn geworden.
De laatste officiele schatting van de achtergrondstraling in Nederland be-
draagt 170 millirem per jaar.2 Tot deze 'achtergrondstraling' dragen bij: de
straling van de zon en die uit het heelal en de straling van de langlevende ra-
dioactieve stoffen in de aardkorst en in de organismen zelf. In de aardkorst is
van nature een geringe hoeveelheid vervalprodukten van uranium en tho-
rium aanwezig. De hoeveelheid varieert per gebied. In sommige streken van
de wereld is deze hoeveelheid extreem hoog, bijvoorbeeld in Zuid-India
(Kerala), waar het aantal geboorteafwijkingen en straling gerelateerde ziekten
significant verhoogd is door het hoge thoriumgehalte van de grond.3
Als gevolg van de activiteiten van de mens in de afgelopen decennia wordt
die lage achtergrondstraling van 170 millirem per jaar stapsgewijs verhoogd.
De grond en het oppervlakte water worden 'verrijkt' met nieuwe radioactieve
elementen die uiteenlopende chemische en radiologische eigenschappen
bezitten. Deze stoffen zijn de splijtings- en vervalprodukten van uranium en
plutonium. In officiële publikaties worden deze stoffen vaak op één hoop
gegooid onder de noemer 'straling' die dan gemeten wordt met zoveel Rem,
Becquerel, Sieverts per jaar, dag of uur, terwijl het in werkelijkheid om een
reeks met soms zeer uitéénlopende eigenschappen gaat, die via het voedsel,
het drinkwater en de lucht in het lichaam kunnen komen.4
 

TSJERNOBYL EN DE BEVOLKING

Tientallen miljoenen mensen in de Oekraïne, in Wit-Rusland en in Rusland
zijn sinds april 1986 besmet door de radioactieve stoffen uit de ontplofte
kernreactor in Tsjernobyl.5,6 De snelle expressie van allerlei soorten kanker
in de ernstigst besmette gebieden, waaronder schildklierkanker bij kinderen,
wijst op een veel hogere uitstoot van radioactieve stoffen dan officieel wordt
toegegeven.6,7
De gevolgen van deze ramp zijn onvergelijkbaar veel ernstiger voor de Oek-
ra‹ene en Wit-Rusland dan voor Nederland. Volgens sommige berichten is
het totale aantal doden als gevolg van de radioactieve straling van Tsjernobyl
in Rusland, Wit-Rusland, de Oekraïene en bij de schoonmakers,
'liquidatoren' genoemd, opgelopen tot 125.000. Drie en een half miljoen
kinderen is of wordt klinisch aantoonbaar ziek 8: de gevolgen
variëren van schildklierkanker en leukemie tot een sterk verhoogde infec-
tiegevoeligheid (Tsjernobyl-AIDS) .6,8
De geheimhoudingspolitiek van de voormalige USSR en de tegenwoordige
Oekraïene maakt deze berichten moeilijk te bewijzen.
Volgens de Oekraïense biologe Prebrastsjenskaja en het parlementslid
Vladimir Oesatenko is momenteel 98% van alle officiële informatie gelogen
'als gevolg van de macht van de atoommafia'.8 De regering van Wit-Rusland
(Belarus) trekt echter wel 25% van haar totale begroting uit voor de bestrij-
ding van de catastrofe.
 

DE GEVOLGEN VOOR NEDERLAND

In praktisch geheel Europa is de radioactiviteit gestegen na 1986. Ook in
Nederland is de radioactiviteit als gevolg van de toename van langlevende
radionucle‹den zoals cesium en strontium toegenomen.9 Voedsel wordt
bovendien door heel Europa verhandeld en een exacte analyse van elke partij
is niet mogelijk. Zwendel is al frequent aangetoond.10 Niemand kan garande-
ren dat melkpoeder uit de Oekraiene niet via 'derde landen' in ons ijsje
belandt. Als de handelaren en fabrikanten controle vrezen: na 'verdunning' ,
ofwel mengen met minder radioactief voedsel' voldoet men weer aan de op 1
april 1987 aan de EG 'aangepaste', soms met een factor 60 verhoogde,
stralingsnorm.11 Die norm is eind maart 1996 opnieuw anderhalf keer ver-
hoogd.12 Dit is ook de gangbare praktijk bij dioxine in melk, dus waarom
niet met radioactieve stoffen? Het in Nederland verbouwde voedsel bevat alle
stoffen uit Tsjernobyl tot plutonium aan toe. Bovendien komen door het
gebruik van kunstmest (natuurlijk fosfaat) natuurlijke radioactieve
stoffen in de grond. Deze stoffen blijven soms vele duizenden jaren circule-
ren in onze voedselketen. Het zou goed zijn als wettelijk verplicht wordt om
op de verpakking van allerlei 'stralingsgevoelige' produkten ook een radioac-
tiviteitsanalyse te vermelden.
 

OPPORTUNISTISCHE STRALINGSNORMEN

In de vijftiger en zestiger jaren van deze eeuw dacht men nog dat het geen
kwaad kon om röntgenfoto's te maken van een zich ontwikkelend kind in de
baarmoeder. Door het werk van Alice M. Steward van de universiteit van
Birmingham in Groot Brittannie is aangetoond dat elke röntgenfoto van een
ongeboren kind het kankerrisico voor het kind verhoogt met ten minste 25%
13 Zo zijn in de loop van enkele tientallen jaren de maximaal toegestane
stralingsdoses soms een factor 100 verminderd. Na het ongeval met de
kerncentrale van Tsjernobyl is die lage stralingsnorm weer verhoogd door de
Nederlandse overheid in EG verband. Deze verhoging is niet gebaseerd op
wetenschappelijke feiten, maar komt puur voort uit opportunisme: er kon niet
meer worden voldaan aan de oude normen.11 Een voorbeeld is de norm voor
cesium-137: vóór de ontploffing van Tsjernobyl was de norm maximaal 10
Becquerel per kilogram voedsel, na Tsjernobyl werd die norm in allerijl op-
geschroefd tot 600 Becquerel per kilogram. Een voorstel van Frankrijk om
de EG-norm voor cesium te verhogen tot 4000 Becquerel per kilogram heeft
het niet gehaald.9
 

OPHOPING IN VOEDSELKETEN

Door de menselijke bezigheden met radioactiviteit gaat onontkoombaar de
'achtergrondstraling' omhoog en wordt onze gezondheid en onze genetische
integriteit aangetast. Onderzoek wijst uit dat die 'lage stralingsdoses' veel
gevaarlijker blijken te zijn dan oorspronkelijk werd gedacht. 16 Dit
laatste is onder andere het geval omdat biosystemen in staat zijn radioactieve
stoffen op te hopen.
Een duidelijk voorbeeld is zink-65 dat zich concentreert in algen in rivieren.
Water-insekten hopen dit element nog meer op en de vogels die de insekten
eten bevatten uiteindelijk wel tot 500.000 maal de normale concentratie
zink-65 in het rivierwater. Zink is een belangrijk spoorelement voor de pro-
duktie van enzymen. 17
 

RADIOACTIVITEIT IN HET LICHAAM

Radioactiviteit belast mensen op verschillende manieren.
a. Het lichaam kan uitwendig worden bestraald door aanwezigheid van
radioactieve stoffen in de lucht (alfa-, beta- en gammastraling) of in de
bodem (voornamelijk gammastraling).
b. Veel sterker wordt het lichaam echter belast door het binnenkrijgen van
radionucleiden. Dit kan zijn door inademen, waardoor de longen worden
belast, of via het voedsel. Wanneer genoemde stoffen dan ook nog in de
bloedsomloop worden opgenomen, worden alle lichaamsdelen bestraald
(alfa-, -beta- en gammastraling).

Vaak lijken splijtingsprodukten en radionucle‹den chemisch en fysisch op de
stoffen die nodig zijn voor de opbouw van het lichaam: tritium is bijvoor-
beeld door het lichaam niet te onderscheiden van waterstof. Het betekent dat
deze stoffen gewoon in de lichaamscellen worden opgenomen en ingebouwd,
en daar plaatselijk alfa- beta- en gammastraling uitzenden. Als de immuniteit
van het lichaam door onder andere deze radioactieve stoffen ernstig is
aangetast kan kanker (o.a. leukemie) ontstaan, omdat het lichaam de over-
maat aan beschadigde en gemuteerde cellen niet kan verwijderen en vervan-
gen. Veel radioactieve stoffen hebben bovendien een cumulatief effect: dat
betekent dat zij zich ophopen in bepaalde organen of weefsels.
 

VRIJE RADICAALBELASTING

Radioactieve belasting van het lichaam geeft een voortdurende belasting met
vrije radicalen, die in een kettingreactie andere vrije radicalen blijven aan-
maken, totdat ze worden weggevangen door anti-oxydanten. Het grootste deel
van het lichaam bestaat uit water, waaruit het zeer schadelijke hydroxyl-
radicaal kan ontstaan, maar in principe kunnen alle moleculen in het li-
chaam getroffen en veranderd worden. Een belangrijk onderzoek uit 1972
met radioactief natrium toont aan dat lipoproteïnemembranen (de celwanden
van zoogdiercellen) buitengewoon gevoelig zijn voor minieme stralingdoses.
De celmembraan bezwijkt snel onder de door radioactiviteit gevormde vrije
radicalen 18. Lipiden die van bestraalde proefdieren afkomstig zijn, blijken
symptomen op te kunnen roepen die overeenkomen met die van de bestraling
zelfl 9. Ook daarom is voedselbestraling zeer dubieus door de vorming van
vrije radicalen in het voedsel 20.
Een grote belasting van het lichaam met vrije radicalen leidt tot vroegtijdige
veroudering en allerlei degeneratieve ziekten als kanker, reuma en hart- en
vaatziekten. Beschadiging van het DNA door vrije radicalen kan leiden tot
kanker en effecten op de ongeboren vrucht. In de vijftiger jaren zijn in de vs
bij wijze van experimentele therapie een aantal mensen ingespoten met
geringe doses langlevende radionucleiden, zoals radium en plutonium 21. Als
gevolg daarvan ontwikkelden zich bij die mensen allerlei bottumoren en
waarschijnlijk ook leucemie. Men gebruikt tegenwoordig nog wel radium-226
als lokale tijdelijke kankertherapie. 22
 

RADIOACTIEVE STOFFEN EN EFFECTEN.

Strontium-90 wordt net als kalk in de botten opgenomen en veroorzaakt
plaatselijk een sterke beta-straling. Strontium-90 splitst zich gedeeltelijk in
Yttrium-90 dat zich ophoopt in de spermakoppen waardoor als gevolg van
beta en gamma-straling mutaties worden veroorzaakt die tot uitdrukking
komen in evt. nageslacht.
]odium-131 komt bij voorkeur terecht in de schildklier en wordt de belang-
rijkste veroorzaker van schildklierkanker genoemd door de lokale beta- en
gammastraling. Jodium-131 kwam in grote hoeveelheden vrij na het reacto-
rongeval in Tsjernobyl.
]odium-129 kwam veel minder vrij maar heeft een halfwaardetijd van 17
milioen jaar.
De grote hoeveelheid cesium-137 (relatief en absoluut) in de fall-out van de
reactor betekent dat de brandstofstaven verbrand zijn, waardoor onontkoom-
baar ook veel plutonium is vrijgekomen. Cesium-137 hoopt zich op in het
spierweefsel, komt via vlees, eieren, vis en via de lucht in de mens terecht.
Het gedraagt zich in het lichaam als kalium en veroorzaakt door de beta-stra-
ling onder andere leukemie. Besmette vleesprodukten bevatten vrijwel altijd
cesium-137.
Uranium-238 wordt niet vaak genoemd als fall-out-produkt van Tsjernobyl.
Toch kan het niet anders dan dat het ook aanwezig is in de cocktail die op
Nederland is terechtgekomen. Behalve radioactief, gedraagt het zich ook als
een zwaar metaal. Het is alleen moeilijk te detecteren.
Plutonium 239 is ook moeilijk te detecteren doordat het uitsluitend a-stra-
ling afgeeft. Daardoor wordt het in officiële rapporten niet genoemd, terwijl
diverse kranten berichtten dat plutonium is gevonden in Polen, Zweden en
Frankrijk. Als plutonium eenmaal in het lichaam terechtkomt veroorzaakt een
minieme hoeveelheid al kanker door de sterke alfa-straling.23 De half-
waardetijd is 24.000 jaar waardoor het nog lang in de voedselketen aanwezig
zal zijn.
 

JODIUMTABLETTEN

In de tijd waarin men is blootgesteld aan radioactieve
stoffen zou men door inname van grote hoeveelheden van de niet-radioactieve
variant van de stof kunnen proberen de opname van de radioactieve variant te
beperken. De niet- radioactieve stoffen concurreren dan met de radioactieve
voor inbouw in lichaamscellen. Een dergelijk mechanisme is alleen aange-
toond voor jodium, dat snel wordt opgenomen. Ten tijde van nucleaire
rampen worden om die reden dan ook jodiumtabletten uitgedeeld, die zo snel
mogelijk na de blootstelling moeten worden ingenomen.
 

BESCHERMING DOOR VOEDINGSSTOFFEN

GINKGO BILOBA-EXTRACT EFFECTIEF BIJ STRALINGSZIEKTE

Blootstelling aan radioactieve straling geeft afwijkingen in het plasma.
Radiobiologen hanteren het begrip clastogene factoren, CF's, afgeleid van
het Grieks clastos (=breuk) en gennan (=voortbrengen), het veroorzaken van
breuken (in chromosomen) dus. Het aanwezig zijn van CF's in het bloed van
patiënten met stralingsziekten is altijd verbonden met chromosoombeschadi-
ging en een permanente verhoging van vrije radicalen.
In het Institut Biomedical des Cordelliers, Universit‚ de Paris VI, hebben
professor dr I. Emerit en haar medewerkers CF's gevonden in het plasma
van patiënten met chronische ontstekingsziekten. CF's in het plasma van
patiënten met HIV - infectie, Blooms syndroom, Fanconi anemie en met
stralingsziekte, zijn altijd sterk verhoogd en verbonden met verhoogde
oxydatieve stress. De vorming van superoxyde-anion radicalen is altijd boven
normaal. Proeven met ge‹soleerde cellen die werden blootgesteld aan super-
oxyde liet verhoogde vorming van CF's zien. Toevoeging van het enzym
superoxyde-dismutase, SOD, aan de celkweken voorkomt de vorming van
CF's. De onderzoekers bestudeerden een groep reddingswerkers, die tussen
1986 en 1989 actief waren in of rond de geëxplodeerde atoomreactor van
Tsjernobyl. Alle reddingswerkers hadden permanent verhoogde niveaus CF in
het plasma.
Toediening van een SOD-preparaat per injectie werd overwogen als behande-
lingsmethode. De te verwachten bijwerkingen deden de onderzoekers uitzien
naar een alternatief. Uit eerder gepubliceerd onderzoek was reeds bekend dat
extract van Ginkgo bilobablad superoxyde-anion radicaal kan inactiveren.
Uitgebreide laboratoriumproeven met het gestandaardiseerde extract EGb761
toonde een anti-clastogeen effect. Daarnaast werd het superoxyde-anion
radicaal geïnactiveerd in monsters plasma afkomstig van de reddingswerkers
uit Tsjernobyl, die aan stralingsziekte leden.
Inmiddels werden hoopgevende resultaten geboekt met een kleine groep
reddingswerkers uit Tsjernobyl. Negen van hen namen dagelijks drie capsules
met 40 milligram droog extract EGb761, gedurende een periode van twee
maanden. In alle gevallen was er sprake van een afname van of totaal
verdwijnen van clastogene factoren in het plasma.
(Bron: Emerit I et al. Radiation induced clastogenic factors: anticlastogenic
effect of ginkgo biloba extract. Free Rad Bloi Med 1995; 18: 985-991)JvD

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2. van Weers AW. Straling: we moeten ermee leren leven. Beknopt overzicht
van de ons omringende stralingsbronnen en van de toepassing ervan. ECN
Energiespectrum. Forum, mei/juni 1986, 5-8.
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Utrecht Vakgroep Natuurkunde Didactiek, RU Utrecht, 1986.
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'Eerst meten dan eten', 1988.
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januari 1987
22. Ephra‹m KH. Nucleaire geneeskunde. Leiden. Wetensch. Uitg. Stafleu,
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Oost-Europa, de Nieuwe Krant, Arnhem 2 oktober 1986.
24. The growing danger of radiation. In: Passwater RA. Selenium as food
and medicine. Keats Publishing, New Canaan, Connecticut, 1980.
25. Müller U. Ober die Behandlung der Epicondylitis mit lokal injitiertern
Orgotein (Doppelblindstudie). z. f. Rheumat 1983; 2. 354.
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Gonarthrose Rheuma 1982; 2. 11
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3l Brekham II. Man and biologically active substances. Pergamon Press,
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Low-Level Radiation" Avery Publishing Group Inc. 1987.
33. Nesterenko is een pleitbezorger van de toepassing van de stof pectine.
Dit is een bekende stof die o.a. in appels voorkomt en als gelatine bij het maken
van jam gebruikt wordt. Het voert versneld zware metalen af uit het lichaam,
en ook radioactief cesium.
Er zijn veel verhalen dat het kinderen echt helpt, maar hoe is niet zo duidelijk.

Dit artikel is verschenen in Ortho nummer 3, juni 1996

Hans de Jonge werktuigbouwkunde, weg- en waterbouwkunde en geneeskunde specialistatie medische gevolgen van lage stralingsdoses, chronische  vergiftiging door zware metalen, radioactieve stoffen en de ontgifting Medewerker van 1993 tot 1999 van het Landelijk Anti Kernenergie Archief (LAKA) en World Information Service on Energy (WISE)

MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE Published Sunday, May 7, 2000 Chernobyl: For 14 years, the industry has downplayed the damage to humans and the planet John M. LaForge With a heavy dose of half-truth, the commercial press works overtime to reduce the results of the April 26, 1986, Chernobyl catastrophe to a "nervous disorder" confined to the former Soviet Union and Europe. Understated anniversary reports of the worldwide radiation disaster help the nuclear industry hold on against overwhelming opposition, in spite of what should have been the final insult from nuclear power. Efforts at psychological "cleanup" often sound like Peter Crane, a lawyer at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), who says that "the explosion . . . sent a radioactive cloud into the atmosphere of Eastern Europe." This is a true statement. It merely neglects to mention the rest of planet Earth. Journalist Michael Specter reports, "The fire, which burned out of control for five days, spewed more than 50 tons of radioactive fallout across Belarus, Ukraine and Western Russia." This loaded sentence is true, in a limited sense. That the fire burned uncontrolled for two weeks after a series of three explosions; that perhaps 190 tons of reactor fuel was catapulted into the atmosphere; or that the radioactive fallout spread worldwide, reaching Minnesota's milk, for example, doesn't make Specter a liar, only a miser with the truth. The Associated Press' Dave Carpenter's description that "deadly reactor fuel shot into the atmosphere, contaminating some 10,000 square miles and reaching as far as Western Europe" is likewise "correct," but Reuters reported on Nov. 28, 1995, that the contaminated areas include about 61,780 square miles. What is it to understate the total of irradiated territory by a factor of six? It isn't the pot calling the kettle black; it's the cesium calling the strontium a cancer agent. Carpenter's AP lullaby was published widely and included the comment that "those living in the shadow of Chernobyl will be living with its deadly health and environmental legacy for years." For years? The word "centuries" would have been more accurate, if conservative, since radiation's health effects are multigenerational and not limited in time. Indeed, some genetic effects appear to be increasing with each successive generation. The AP's Angela Charlson reported that the explosions sent "a radioactive cloud across parts of Europe." Understatement was practiced as well by the New York Times, which said the disaster "spewed radiation across much of Europe" and that "a plume of toxic gases and dust . . . spread across the western Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and Scandinavia." While this uncomfortable fact is nowadays passe, the contamination of the whole world was hinted at when the Times reported that the radiation spread across western Russia "and beyond." 'Irrational fears'? While Chernobyl's long-lived carcinogens -- primarily cesium, plutonium, strontium and iodine -- are well known to be deadly for decades or centuries, Soviet officials, the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and U.S. editors have all ridiculed the common-sense fear of Chernobyl's radioactive fallout. The official Soviet paper Izvestia said in 1988 that doctors in the Ukraine were "spending more time on trying to dispel irrational fears than on treating the effects of radiation." The IAEA, which at first refused to conduct a post-Chernobyl health study, claiming that all the accident's effects were confined within Soviet borders, dared to say in a 1991 study that Chernobyl's health effects were mainly "psychological." The heavily criticized report did not consider the health of the emergency-response workers or of the evacuees from the 18-mile exclusion zone, 8,000 of whom are now known to have died from radiation-related diseases. The IAEA study failed to mention the lengthy latency period for observed cancer incidence. This cavalier whitewash of the disaster's inevitable results came from a nominal nuclear watchdog. "After all, the IAEA is in the business of promoting nuclear energy, not discouraging it. For 10 years the agency has attempted to downplay the consequences of the accident," wrote Alexander R. Sich in a cover story for the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. The IAEA, still downplaying in 1995, said any increase in cancer caused by Chernobyl would be "undetectable." Editors across the country have embraced the IAEA's dismissive attitude, distracting readers with headlines like "Citizens still suffering radiation phobia" and "The legacy of Chernobyl: Fear is the deeper wound." A dread of radiation doesn't appear irrational in view of 1995's report that "A second catastrophic explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine could happen 'at any time,' Western scientists have warned." A short review of Chernobyl's fallout pattern shows how irresponsible the reporting has become. AP, May 15, 1986: "Airborne radioactivity from the Chernobyl nuclear accident is now so widespread that it is likely to fall to the ground wherever it rains in the United States, the EPA said." AP, May 14, 1986: "An invisible cloud of radioactivity spewed over the Soviet Union and Europe, and has worked its way gradually around the world." AP, May 15, 1986: "State authorities in Oregon have warned residents dependent solely on rainwater for drinking that they should arrange other supplies for the time being." Star Tribune, May 17, 1986: "Since radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear accident began floating over Minnesota last week, low levels of radiation have been discovered in . . . the raw milk from a Minnesota dairy." AP, April 4, 1996: "Plutonium and other dangerous particles released in the accident . . . have now found their way to Ukraine's major waterways . . . . 'We have billions of tons of radiated earth that can't be dumped anywhere, and which will pour plutonium, cesium and strontium into Europe for decades,' the chief consultant to the Ukrainian Parliament's Chernobyl commission said." The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, May 1996: "radiation contamination was detectable over the entire Northern Hemisphere." Well beyond "Belarus, Ukraine and Western Russia," and further than "parts of Europe," Chernobyl's contamination doused at least half the world. But with so much disparity among estimates, we may never know the true biological, ecological, psychological and economic dimensions of Chernobyl's radiation bomb. -- John M. LaForge is codirector of Nukewatch, a peace group based in Wisconsin, and editor of its quarterly newsletter, the Pathfinder. © Copyright 2000 Star Tribune. All rights reserved _______________________________ Chernobyl at Ten: Half-lives and Half Truths (Part one of two)   By John M. LaForgeã   With a heavy dose of half-truth, the commercial press worked over-time to reduce the results of the Chernobyl catastrophe to a "nervous disorder" confined to the C.I.S. and Europe. Understated reports on the 10th anniversary of the world-wide radiation disaster help the nuclear reactor industry hold on against overwhelming opposition, in spite of what should have been the final insult from nuclear power. The latest psychological "clean up" often went like this. Peter Crane, a lawyer at the U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), said that "...the explosion... sent a radioactive cloud into the atmosphere of Eastern Europe." (1) This is a true statement. It merely neglects to mention the rest of planet Earth. Reporter Michael Specter wrote that, "The fire which burned out of control for five days, spewed more than 50 tons of radioactive fallout across Belarus, Ukraine and Western Russia." (2) This loaded sentence is also literally true. The fact that the fire burned uncontrolled for two weeks, after a series of three explosions; that perhaps 190 tons of reactor fuel was catapulted into the atmosphere; or that the radioactive fallout spread world-wide ¾ reaching Minnesota's milk for example ¾ doesn't make of Mr. Specter a liar, only a miser with the truth. Associated Press (AP) correspondent Dave Carpenter 's description ¾ that "deadly reactor fuel shot into the atmosphere, contaminating some 10,000 square miles and reaching as far as Western Europe" (3) is likewise "correct," but Reuters News Service reported on 28 Nov. 1995 that the contaminated areas include about 61,780 square miles. Carpenter practiced perfect obfuscation in his dispatch, saying of the reckless nuclearists over there: "In a big lie, Soviet officials. . . first hushed up the disaster then played down its severity." What is it to understate the sum of irradiated territory by a factor of six? It isn't the pot calling the kettle black; it's the cesium calling the strontium a cancer agent. Carpenter's AP lullaby was published widely and included the comment that, ". . .those living in the shadow of Chernobyl will be living with its deadly health and environmental legacy for years." (4) For years? The word centuries would have been more accurate, if conservative, since radiation's health affects are multi-generational and not limited in time. Indeed, some genetic effects appear to be increasing with each successive generation. The AP's Angela Charlson went so far as to say the reactor sent "a radioactive cloud across parts of Europe ..." (5) Understatement of the overwhelming facts was practiced as well by the editors of The New York Times, who said on April 21 that the disaster "spewed radiation across much or Europe" (6) and on the anniversary, that "...a plume of toxic gases & dust...spread across the western Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and Scandinavia." (7) Although the contamination of the rest of the world was hinted at as lately as 6 Oct. 1995, when the Times reported that the radiation spread across western Russia "and beyond," this uncomfortable fact is nowadays passé.   The Disaster's in Your Head While the explosions' long-lived carcinogens ¾ primarily cesium, plutonium, strontium and iodine ¾ are well known to be deadly for decades and even centuries, Soviet officials, the U. N's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and U.S. editors have all ridiculed the common sense fear of Chernobyl's radioactive fallout. The official Soviet paper Izvestia said in 1988 that doctors in the Ukraine were, ". . .spending more time on trying to dispel irrational fears than on treating the effects of radiation." (8) The IAEA which at first refused to conduct a post-Chernobyl health study, claiming that all the accident's effects were confined within Soviet borders (9), dared to say in a 1991 study that Chernobyl's health effects were mainly "psychological." This heavily criticized report didn't even consider the health of the "liquidators," or the evacuees from the 18-mile exclusion zone, 8,000 of whom are now known to have died from radiation related diseases. (10) The IAEA study failed to mention the lengthy latency period for observed cancer incidence. This cavalier white-wash of the disaster's inevitable results came from a nominal nuclear watchdog, which in fact is only the most prestigious booster of nuclear power. "After all the IAEA is in the business of promoting nuclear energy not discouraging it. For ten years the agency has attempted to downplay the consequences of the accident," wrote Dr. Alexander R. Sich in a cover story for the May/June Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. (11) The IAEA, still sticking in its vacuum, said in 1995 that any increase in cancer caused by Chernobyl would be "undetectable." (11.1) Editors across the country have embraced the IAEA' s dismissive attitude, distracting readers with headlines like, "Area Frozen In Fear," "Citizens Still Suffering Radiation Phobia," and "The Legacy of Chernobyl: Fear is the Deeper Wound." A dread of radiation doesn't appear irrational in view of last year's report that "A second catastrophic explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine could happen "at any time," Western scientists have warned." (12)   Reality Officially Forgotten A short review of Chernobyl's fallout pattern shows how irresponsible the late reporting has become. AP, 15 May 1986: "Airborne radioactivity from the Chernobyl nuclear accident is now so widespread that it is likely to fall to the ground wherever it rains in the United States, the EPA said." AP, 14 May 1986: "An invisible cloud of radioactivity spewed over the Soviet Union and Europe, and has worked its way gradually around the world." AP, 15 May 1986: "State authorities in Oregon have warned residents dependent solely on rainwater for drinking that they should arrange other supplies for the time being." Minneapolis Star Tribune, 17 May 1986: "Since radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear accident began floating over Minnesota last week, low levels of radiation have been discovered in... the raw milk from a Minnesota dairy." AP, 4 April 1996: "Plutonium and other dangerous particles released in the accident...have now found their way to Ukraine's major waterways. ... 'We have billions of tons of radiated earth that can't be dumped anywhere, and which will pour plutonium, cesium and strontium into Europe for decades,' [the chief consultant to the Ukrainian parliament's Chernobyl commission] said." Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, May 1996, p. 38: "...radiation contamination was detectable over the entire northern hemisphere." With so much disparity among so many figures, we may never know the true dimensions of Chernobyl's radiation bomb.   Notes: (1) NYT, Op-Ed, 5 April 1996. (2) International Herald Tribune, 2 April 1996. (3) Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, 14 April 1996.   (4) Minneapolis Star Tribune, 21 April 1996. (5) St. Paul Pioneer, 27 April 1996. (6) NYT, 21 April 1996, The Week In Review. (7) NYT, 26 April 1996, signed editorial by Philip Taubman (8) Los Angeles Times, 11 Feb. 1988. (9) In These Times, 22 April 1987. (10) AP, 23 April 1992; WISE News Communiqué, (Amsterdam) No. 449, 10 April 1996. (11) Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, May 1996, p. 38. (11.1) Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, May/June 1996, p. 8. (12) The London Observer, 26 March 1995; Milwaukee Journal, 27 March 1995.   Half Lives and Half Truths: Chernobyl Ten Years On   By John M. LaForge ã (Second of two parts)   The 10th anniversary was no party. "I have seen the beginning of the end of the world," is how Michael Mariotte, editor of The Nuclear Monitor, put it after visiting Chernobyl's doomed landscape, everything dead or dying for miles around. "The end of the world begins in Pripyat, Ukraine, a once-thriving city of 45,000. Now it sits crumbling, abandoned, a mute but overwhelming testament to technological arrogance gone amok."1 Pripyat was the city nearest Chernobyl's Unit 4, the reactor that exploded on April 26, 1986 and burned dangerously until October, spewing tons of cancer-causing isotopes around the world.2 Mr. Mariotte is not known for emotional writing in The Monitor, but anyone who can stand to investigate the unfolding human consequences of the world's worst industrial catastrophe can understand his choice of words. Izvestia called it "the greatest technological catastrophe in world history."3 Cancers and other disease caused by Chernobyl's radioactive poisons are being recorded thousands of kilometers from the reactor site. The ninety million people who lived in the path of the very worst fallout are learning the hard way that damage done by ionizing radiation is unrelenting, cumulative and irreversible. In the first part of this article (Spring 1996 Pathfinder) I compared the recent trivialization of Chernobyl's consequences to news accounts that appeared soon after the explosions and fire. For example, while the commercial press now tell us that the disaster "spread radiation across parts of Europe," the fact is that the federal EPA announced in mid-May 1986 that, "Airborne radioactivity from the Chernobyl nuclear accident is now so widespread that it is likely to fall to the ground wherever it rains in the United States."4 In this part I look at how much radiation Chernobyl evidently dumped added to the "background," at official skewing of the its inevitable long-term effects, and at recent reports of its human health consequences.   Answers are Blowin' in the Wind How much radiation was released? What percentage of which isotopes were thrown into the atmosphere. Was it mostly iodine-131? How much of the total was made up of the far more dangerous cesium-137, strontium-90 and plutonium? Piecing together the truth is a dizzying job of ferreting out bias and vested interest. The pro-nuclear Time magazine reported in 1989 that perhaps "one billion or more" curies were released, rather than the 50 to 80 million estimated by Russian authorities.5 One curie is the amount of radiation equal to the disintegration of 37 billion atoms ¾ 37 billion becquerels ¾ per second. It is a very large amount of radiation. The U.S. government's Argonne Nat. Lab has said that 30 percent of the reactor's total radioactivity ¾ 3 billion of an estimated 9 billion curies ¾ was released.6 And scientists at the U.S. Lawrence Livermore Nat. Lab suggested that one-half of the core's radioactivity was spewed ¾ 4.5 billion curies, according the World Information Service on Energy, quoting Science, 6-13-86. Vladimir Chernousenko, the chief scientific supervisor of the "clean up" team responsible for a 10-kilometer zone around the exploded reactor, says that 80 percent of the reactor's radioactivity escaped, something like seven billion curies.7 At the Union of Concerned Scientists, senior energy analyst Kennedy Maize, concluded that "the core vaporized" ¾ all 190 tons of fuel, and all 9 billion curies.8 Former Chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Joseph Hendrie, concluded likewise, saying "They have dumped the full inventory of volatile fission products from a large power reactor into the environment. You can't do any worse than that."9 The Russians and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) claimed in a 1986 report, that 50 million curies of radioactive debris, plus another 50 million curies of rare and inert gasses were discharged. However, the rocketing incidence of cancers, leukemias and other radiation-induced illnesses, leads scientists to suspect that the higher radioactive fallout estimates are likely. Pandemic numbers of thyroid cancers led even the cautious Dr. Alexander Sich, in his Chernobyl cover story for the May 1996 Bulletin of Atomic Scientists to conclude that the "higher [radiation] release estimates support the conclusions drawn by medical experts." Geneticist Valery N. Soyfer, founder of the former Soviet Union's first molecular biology laboratory, analyzed the 1986 report to the IAEA, which has since been condemned as a cover-up. Dr. Soyfer says that if only 100 million curies were vented, then world "background radiation doubled at once."10 This claim was unsupported by accompanying evidence, but if "background" was doubled by 100 million curies, then it was multiplied 180 times by the release of Chernobyl's "full inventory." Nineteen months after the disaster, in Nov. 1987, the U.S. government officially doubled its estimate of the "background" radiation to which we are exposed every year.11   Thyroid Cancers: More, Sooner, Untreatable Dr. Soyfer further discovered that the Soviets focused on and publicized the fallout's radioactive iodine content, but understated the amounts of other far more dangerous isotopes. While 10 to 15 percent of the fallout was iodine-131, the long-lived radionuclides strontium-90 and cesium-137 made up more than two thirds of the total contamination.12 Furthermore, the Soviet's 1986 estimate of future cancer deaths was based only on the impact of iodine-131, and then only on external doses. As a result, the IAEA misled the world about Chernobyl' s cancer threat. People contaminated with iodine-131 ingested it, first by breathing, then by drinking contaminated milk for six weeks. Thyroid cancer is caused by the iodine-131. Its rates are today ten times higher than the increase any scientist had anticipated. The U. N. has said that the number of thyroid cancers among children in Belarus ¾ where 70 percent of the fallout landed ¾ are 285 times pre-Chernobyl levels.13 The British Medical Journal reported in 1995 that the rate of thyroid cancer in the region north of Chernobyl¾ Ukraine and Belarus¾ is 200 times higher than normal, and the (British) Imperial Cancer Research Fund found a 500 percent increase in thyroid cancers among Ukrainian children between 1986 and 1993.14 Fear is growing among physicians treating the young radiation victims, because the thyroid cancers are appearing sooner than expected and growing quicker than usual. Dr. Andrei Butenko, at Kiev Hospital No. 1 in Ukraine, says of his patients, "Routine chemotherapy seems to have lost its effectiveness; something has changed in the immune system."15   Cesium's Genetic Assault: the 300 Years War Cesium-137 contamination is probably Chernobyl's most devastating and ominous consequence. The body can't distinguish cesium from potassium, so it's taken up by our cells and becomes an internal source of radiation. Cesium-137 is a gamma emitter and its half-life of 30 years means that it stays in the soil, to concentrate in the food chain, for over 300 years. While iodine-131 remains radioactive for six weeks, cesium-137 stays in the body for decades, concentrating in muscle where it irradiates muscle cells and nearby organs.16 Strontium-90 is also long-lived and, because it resembles calcium, is permanently incorporated into bone tissue where it may lead to leukemia. The Soviet's acknowledged in 1986 that the influence of cesium-137 on cancer death rates would be nine times that of iodine-131. They said that the effects of strontium-90 would "perhaps have, along with cesium-137, the most important meaning."17   Early Findings Go from Bad to Worse Exposure to radiation more often results in genetic and reproductive damage than cancer. These hereditary disorders are unlimited in time, since they pass from generation to generation in the sperm and ovum. So, as geneticist Soyfer points out, Chernobyl's enduring biological legacy will be that of inherited diseases, deformities, developmental abnormalities, spontaneous abortions and premature births. Some recent epidemiological studies confirm the worst of these inevitable effects. The June 25, 1995 Washington Post reported that birth defects in the areas most heavily poisoned have doubled since 1986. In a long page one story, the Aug. 2, 1995 New York Times reported that life expectancy has plummeted in Russia, making it the first nation in history to ever experience such a public health status reversal. Male life expectancy is now the lowest in the world (below even India or Bolivia) and, at the same time, infant mortality rose 15 percent in both 1993 and 1994, and there are now epidemic rates of heart disease and cancer. dr. David Hoel, an epidemiologist at the Medical University of S. Carolina, is studying whether Chernobyl's radiation is a major factor in the spread in cancers and birth defects. "Everyone assumes the connection," he said. The journal Nature has published a study of children born in 1994 to mothers exposed to Chernobyl's fallout in 1986. Researchers studied 79 families 186 miles from Chernobyl and found never-before-observed "germ-line" mutations: changes in DNA of the sperm and ovum. Such mutations are passed on from generation to generation.18 Nature has also reported that in Greece, 2,800 kilometers from Chernobyl, where radiation exposures were far lower than in areas close to the reactor, leukemia has been diagnosed at rates 2.6 times the norm in young people who were in the womb when the reactor exploded. The British epidemiologist Dr. Alice Stewart found long ago that only one diagnostic X-ray to the pregnant abdomen increases the risk of leukemia in the offspring by 40 percent.19 However, the report from Greece is the first to link Chernobyl's wreckage to increased leukemia incidence in children exposed in utero.20 The report has moved some experts to again warn that the low levels of radiation to which people are exposed every day "could contribute to cancer." Even the stodgy New York Times has reported that "cancers are now believed to be the result of smaller [radiation] doses, and the amount of damage inflicted by a given dose is now believed to be larger."21 In a related study, two U.S. geneticists analyzing animals inside Chernobyl's 6-mile radius found that small rodents known as voles "sustain an extraordinary amount of genetic damage." The study found that "the mutation rate in these animals is...probably thousands of times greater than normal." Two findings called "ominous" were, first, that one-third of the mutations that the scientists expected to see were not even detected ¾ probably because they were lethal. "It could be that the animals were never born," said Dr. Robert Becker of Texas Technical Univ. Second, "the vole mutations were cumulative, increasing with each succeeding generation." Both researchers doubted that any species could sustain such a mutation rate indefinitely.22   Acceptable Whole-Earth Poisoning The extent of Chernobyl's radioactive, biological and ecological damage, and the depth its psychological and economic devastation are incalculable. What everyone does know about nuclear reactors is that they have a record of whole-earth poisoning, and that their potential for more of the same is considered acceptable ¾ authorized in advance. This potential, for unlimited and uncontrollable radiation "accidents," has been deliberately developed, promoted, protected, ignored and then denied, or forgotten. Sadly, denial and forgetfulness only make another Chernobyl inevitable. Notes: 1 The Nuclear Monitor, newsletter of Nuclear Information Resource Service (NIRS), April 1996. 2 St. Louis Post Dispatch (SLPD), 7-23-90. 3 SLPD, 4-26-90. 4 Associated Press, 5-15-86. 5 Time, 11-13-89. 6 The Chicago Tribune, 6-22-86. 7 "The Truth About Chernobyl," Critical Mass: Voices for a Nuclear-Free Future, Ruggiero and Sahulka, Eds., 1996 by Open Media, p. 127. 8 Not Man Apart, the journal of Friends of the Earth, March 1987. 9 The Minneapolis Star Tribune, 5-19-86. 10 SLPD, 4-24-87. 11 The New York Times, 11-20-87. 12 SLPD, 4-24-87. 13 The New York Times, 11-29-96. 14 The Washington Post, 3-25-95. 15 Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, 12-12-94. 16 Caldicott, H., Nuclear Madness, 1994, Norton, p. 137. 17 SLPD, 4-24-87. 18 The New York Times, 4-25-96. 19 Caldicott, Ibid., p. 43. 20 St. Paul Pioneer, 7-25-96. 21 The New York Times, 6-23-96. 22 The New York Times, 5-7-96, B6. --end-- [Part One ran in NUKEWATCH The Pathfinder, Summer 1996, part Two in Winter 1996/1997 EDITION; an edited compilation of both parts is published in Earth Island Journal, Summer 1997, EIJ, 300 Broadway, No. 28, San Francisco, CA 94133].

 

Donbass, Ukraine     1980          68       coal mine methane explosion Kuzbass, Siberia     1982          39       coal mine methane explosion Mexico City            1984         500+          LPG explosion Italy                         1985         250            dam failure Chernobyl, Ukraine   1986          31+  (een leugen)  nuclear reactor accident Offshore, North Sea  1988         167    explosion of offshore oil rig Asha-ufa, Siberia    1989         600    LPG pipeline leak and fire Turkey                   1992              270    coal mine methane explosion Egypt                     1994               460    fuel depot hit by lightning Taegu, S.Korea       1995         100+    gas explosion Henan, China         1996          84    coal mine methane explosion Datong, China        1996         114    coal mine methane explosion Henan, China         1997          89    coal mine methane explosion Fushun, China        1997          68    coal mine methane explosion Kuzbass, Siberia     1997          67    coal mine methane explosion Huainan, China       1997          89    coal mine methane explosion Huainan, China       1997          45    coal mine methane explosion Shanxi, China        1997          28    coal mine methane explosion Guizhou, China       1997          43    coal mine methane explosion Donbass, Ukraine     1998          63    coal mine methane explosion Liaoning, China      1998          71    coal mine methane explosion Warri, Nigeria       1998         500+  oil pipeline leak and fire Donbass, Ukraine     1999          50+  coal mine methane explosion Donbass, Ukraine     2000          80   coal mine methane explosion Shanxi, China        2000          40   coal mine methane explosion Yunnan, China        2000          13   coal mine methane explosion Guizhou, China       2000         150   coal mine methane explosion Appin, Australia     1979          14   coal mine methane explosion Moura, Australia     1986          12   coal mine methane explosion Moura, Australia     1994          11   coal mine methane explosion And here are 21 deaths attributed to wind power  Met de bovenstaande statistiek willen de voorstanders van kernenergie  aantonen dat atoomenergie de veiligste energiebron is  lees het onderstaande commentaar This is almost to ridiculous to answer. All these explosions, regrettable as they are were LOCAL disasters. 30 days after Chernobyl the mothers in Wilmington Delaware, where I live fed their babies contaminated milk . In Austria which is my home, 14 years after the accident they still can not eat the mushrooms which they enjoyed for generation. Just this year Japan returned and refused further import of mushrooms from Italy.  How contaminated is the soil of Europe? And how many generations will be affected? Nuclear Power was concieved in secret (The Joint Committee on Atomic Energy) promoted with lies and perpetuated through the "revolving door" which made the NRC  as "protector" the laughing stock for years. Nothing has changed so far , the roosters are still in charge of the hen house. Spare me your statistics in  my years of opposing this technology i have heard them all. 2002  Frieda A Berryhill <frieda302@juno.com> Chernobyl Radiation Lingers November 13, 2004 ``We must now worry about the children of the children of Chernobyl,'' said Gennady Groushevoy, head of Children of Chernobyl. ``The health danger is reaching into a second generation ... but the government has retreated into a Soviet-era attitude of silence.'' In all, 7 million people in the former Soviet republics of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine are believed to have suffered medical problems as a result of the April 25, 1986, accident. In Ukraine, more than 2.32 million people, including 452,000 children, have been treated for radiation-linked illnesses, including thyroid and blood cancer and cancerous growths, according to Ukrainian health officials. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/science/AP-Living-With-Chernobyl.html?oref=login Activists: Chernobyl Radiation Lingers By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: November 13, 2004 Filed at 8:34 p.m. ET SVETILOVICHI, Belarus (AP) -- The signs say ``KEEP OUT'' and warn of radiation contamination, but the mushroom-pickers trudge right past them carrying their pails. Eighteen years after the reactor at Chernobyl in neighboring Ukraine exploded, spewing a cloud of radiation that blew north and contaminated 22 percent of this ex-Soviet republic, activists warn of a new threat facing Belarusians: the longing to return to normal life. Advertisement The government -- and many Belarusians -- are eager to put the world's worst nuclear accident behind them. President Alexander Lukashenko, branded Europe's last dictator, has made it a priority to repopulate much of the Chernobyl-infected region beyond the hardest hit areas. But opposition parties and advocacy groups such as the Belarus-based Children of Chernobyl accuse the government of overriding warnings that radiation continues to contaminate this region of pine forests and mud-splattered farming villages. Belarusians, many of them poor and ill-informed about radiation, are returning home to villages that still require permanent monitoring because of higher than average radiation levels. Tractors till farmland, cows graze and residents fill their yards with vegetable gardens. Others are venturing into the ``exclusion zones'' -- the worst hit areas -- to forage in the forests for berries and wild mushrooms, which are then sold throughout the region. The critics claim that the government of this tightly controlled nation of 10 million is capitalizing on the plight of desperate jobseekers to repopulate still dangerous areas and boost agricultural production. In the last five years, Belarus has struck 1,000 population centers from the danger list. It has boosted regional farm production by 30 percent, cut Chernobyl-related welfare funding from 14 percent of the approximately $3 billion annual budget to 4 percent, and censored health statistics of rising death and cancer rates, the opponents say. ``We must now worry about the children of the children of Chernobyl,'' said Gennady Groushevoy, head of Children of Chernobyl. ``The health danger is reaching into a second generation ... but the government has retreated into a Soviet-era attitude of silence.'' In all, 7 million people in the former Soviet republics of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine are believed to have suffered medical problems as a result of the April 25, 1986, accident. In Ukraine, more than 2.32 million people, including 452,000 children, have been treated for radiation-linked illnesses, including thyroid and blood cancer and cancerous growths, according to Ukrainian health officials. Most villages around the plant remain off-limits today, though some Ukrainians are moving back despite government warnings. Sixty percent of the fallout landed over Belarus, contaminating a region that was home to more than 1.5 million people. Some 125,000 families were evacuated, and large swaths of forest and farmland were declared ``exclusion zones,'' sealed by checkpoints. Many of the evacuees still complain bitterly that household belongings, left behind during their hurried retreat, later turned up for sale in regional markets, while they lived in limbo in shabbily constructed apartment blocks. Nikolai Nagorny, director of the International Committee of the Red Cross' Chernobyl program, said that cases of thyroid cancer -- one of the few radiation-related illnesses that has been well studied around Chernobyl -- have skyrocketed among children in Belarus' affected regions, from just two cases of thyroid cancer before the accident to at least 1,000 in the 10 years after. ``I don't feel any danger, and even if I did -- what would it matter?'' said Raisa Stradayeva, 62, as she and her grandson, Andrusha, trudged home through the rain in Svetilovichi, a village just outside the highly contaminated exclusion zone. ``I have to live somewhere and this is my home,'' she said. Besides, she said, the health risks can't be that severe because ``People are returning all the time.'' Not only Belarusians; foreigners are coming too, mostly from poorer ex-Soviet republics, seeking jobs and housing. Yuri Kuzmich, head of Belarus' Chernobyl exclusion and monitoring zone, rejects accusations that the government is intentionally sending anyone into danger. In his office in Gomel, a city of 500,000 that has suffered increased radiation-related illnesses, Kuzmich said his staff does all it can to keep people out of the worst-hit areas and provide information to those living in the surrounding region. But, he admits, not everyone is on the same page. State-run farms ``have plans to fulfill ... and they want to fulfill these no matter what,'' he said. Those farms need workers, and farm workers come. ``The passage of time and economic necessity take their toll,'' he said, sitting beneath a portrait of Lukashenko. ``Human memory is short. Eighteen years might as well be 100.'' Kuzmich's team oversees the exclusion zone, manning checkpoints, escorting visitors into the region and collecting scientific and medical data. Some employees are also assigned to oversee the villages under radiation monitoring. However, a reporter visiting recently was never questioned when entering the exclusion zone, checkpoints appeared deserted and the mushroom- and berry-pickers walk through on the main road, via forest paths or on buses that still pass through the zone. Margarita Artemyeva, who moved here from Kazakhstan, was helping her 25-year-old daughter, Natasha, wallpaper her new home -- a damp bungalow identical to its neighbors. ``I don't even think about it. I'm not scared at all. If there was a real danger, we'd know it, wouldn't we?'' said Artemyeva, 44. She rejected the claim that the poor are being used to repopulate the area. Critics claim vegetables, milk and meat from Chernobyl-contaminated regions such as Svetilovichi are being sold throughout Belarus. But in a nation where the average monthly salary is about $150, few have the option of putting health concerns first and buying imports. Besides, the berries and wild mushrooms supplement meager diets and also sell well. After Artemyeva mentioned she loved mushrooms, one of Kuzmich's employees took her aside and gently warned her against collecting them in the exclusion zone.

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