[ RadSafe ] Chernobyl's Reduced Impact

[Stabin, Michael]

The last paragraph is interesting, especially considering the source.

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Chernobyl's Reduced Impact
NY Times Editorial: September 8, 2005

An authoritative scientific report commissioned by the United Nations
has found that the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in
rural Ukraine - the worst nuclear accident in history - caused far less
health and environmental damage than originally feared. The findings
offer clues for coping with a major release of radiation from a nuclear
plant, whether caused by terrorists or by an accident. 

No sooner had the report been issued this week than it was attacked by
several environmental groups as a biased attempt to whitewash the
potential dangers of nuclear power. But the report reflects the
consensus of eight United Nations agencies, including those responsible
for health, the environment and nuclear power, and the governments of
Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. 

The explosion at one of Chernobyl's reactors sent chunks of the core
into surrounding fields and spewed clouds of radioactive particles into
the air for days afterward, contaminating large swaths of land downwind.
There were dire predictions that tens of thousands, possibly even
hundreds of thousands, of people might die from radiation-related
illnesses. So far 56 deaths have been directly attributed to the
accident, 47 among emergency workers and 9 among young children who
developed thyroid cancer after drinking contaminated milk. 

In the long run, the experts predict, some 4,000 emergency workers and
residents of the most contaminated areas may die from radiation-induced
cancer. That qualifies Chernobyl as a very serious accident but not a
catastrophe.

The greatest harm was inflicted on emergency workers; some succumbed
quickly to acute radiation sickness and show a slight rise in leukemia.
This suggests that proper equipment for such workers can greatly
mitigate the health damage after an accident. In the wider region, the
most concrete damage has been thyroid cancer, which has afflicted some
4,000 children. Some 99 percent were treated successfully, and 9 died.
Efforts in areas around nuclear plants to stockpile pills that block
thyroid cancer appear well advised. 

Most emergency workers and residents of contaminated areas received
relatively low radiation doses, comparable to natural background
exposures in some areas of the world. So there have been no decreases in
fertility and no increases in birth defects.

Instead, the greatest public health hazard has been mental. People from
the region are anxious and fatalistic, based on a greatly exaggerated
view of the risks they face. The result can be drug and alcohol abuse,
unemployment, and an inability to function. Disaster coordinators will
clearly have to factor mental health effects into their planning. 


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Mike

Michael G. Stabin, PhD, CHP
Assistant Professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences 
Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences 
Vanderbilt University 
1161 21st Avenue South
Nashville, TN 37232-2675 
Phone (615) 343-0068
Fax   (615) 322-3764
Pager (615) 835-5153
e-mail     michael.g.stabin at vanderbilt.edu 
internet   www.doseinfo-radar.com