[ RadSafe ] Chernobyl Nuclear Accident Could Have Been Worse

[Susan Gawarecki]

More details from the report.

--Susan Gawarecki

Chernobyl Nuclear Accident Could Have Been Worse
http://www.medpagetoday.com/PublicHealthPolicy/PublicHealth/tb/1686

By Michael Smith , MedPage Today Staff Writer
Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor at the University of 
Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

Review

VIENNA, Sept. 5 - The Chernobyl nuclear disaster 19 years ago may 
eventually lead to up to 4,000 deaths from radiation exposure, but so 
far fewer than 50 people have died from the direct effects of radiation, 
a United Nations report says.

Most of the deaths were among emergency workers and came within months 
of the April 26, 1986, explosion, which has been called the world's 
worst nuclear accident. The toll also includes nine children who died of 
thyroid cancer from drinking radiation-tainted milk.

The UN report says there will likely be 3,940 excess cancer and leukemia 
deaths among the roughly 600,000 people who were exposed to high levels 
of radiation after the accident, but that is only about a 3% increase 
over the rate of spontaneous cancer deaths and may be difficult to detect.

"The health effects of the accident were potentially horrific, 
but...were not nearly as substantial as had first been feared," said 
Michael Repacholi, Ph.D., manager of the World Health Organization's 
radiation program.

Dr. Repacholi was commenting on a three-volume, 600-page report, 
Chernobyl's Legacy: Health, Environmental and Socio-Economic Impacts, 
just released by the Chernobyl Forum, a scientific investigative body 
including representatives of eight UN agencies, as well as the 
governments of Russia, Belarus, and the Ukraine.

The Forum was set up in 2003 to provide solid scientific data on the 
health, economic, environmental, and psychological effects of the 
accident. The release of the report today came on the eve of a two-day 
meeting of the Forum to discuss the latest findings.

In the wake of the accident, radioactive contamination forced the 
evacuation of more than 100,000 people from the affected region during 
1986, and the later relocation of another 200,000.

About five million people still live in areas contaminated by the radiation.

"This was a very serious accident with major health consequences, 
especially for thousands of workers exposed in the early days," said 
Burton Bennett, Ph.D., chairman of the Chernobyl Forum and an authority 
on radiation effects.

"By and large, however, we have not found profound negative health 
impacts to the rest of the population … nor have we found widespread 
contamination that would continue to pose a substantial threat to human 
health," Dr. Bennett said.

Among the highlights of the report:

* There were 4,000 cases of thyroid cancer attributable to the accident, 
mostly among children; all but nine recovered.

* There is no evidence yet for increases of leukemia and other cancers 
among residents of the region.

* Most emergency works and people living in contaminated areas got 
relatively low doses of radiation and there are no signs of reduced 
fertility or congenital malformations that can be blamed on the radiation.

* Relocation of about 350,000 people was "a deeply traumatic experience" 
that has left them with "paralyzing fatalism" because of fears about 
radiation effects.

* Poverty, lifestyle diseases, and mental health problems pose more of a 
threat than does continued radiation exposure.

"Two decades after the Chernobyl accident, residents still lack the 
information they need to lead the healthy and productive lives that are 
possible," said Louisa Vinton, of the United Nations Development Program.

"Poverty is the real danger," she added.

The report also says that outside a 30-kilometer radius of the destroyed 
power plant, radiation levels have mostly returned to "acceptable levels."

Contamination of agricultural land and surface waters throughout Europe 
rapidly abated, the report says, although some "closed lakes" - those 
without out flowing streams - remain hazardous.

No acute radiation effects on plants and animals were reported outside a 
region within 30 kilometers of the Chernobyl plant, the report says.

"In most areas, the problems are economic and psychological, not health 
or environmental," said Mikhail Balonov, the scientific secretary of the 
Forum and a radiation expert who has been involved with the Chernobyl 
recovery since the accident occurred.

The report concludes that people in the affected areas have negative 
feelings about their health and well-being, an exaggerated sense of the 
danger of radiation, and a belief they will live shorter lives.