Chernobyl genetic disaster

["Michael C. Baker" <mcbaker@lanl.gov>]

Post-Chernobyl genetic disaster in Belarus

BELARUS: March 1, 2000

MINSK - Post-Soviet Belarus has been plunged into a
demographic disaster, with soaring levels of infertility
and genetic changes 14 years after the Chernobyl
disaster in neighbouring Ukraine, doctors said
yesterday.

"Science cannot yet assess the consequences of the
Chernobyl accident, but it is plain that a demographic
catastrophe has occurred in Belarus," Vladislav Ostapenko,
head of Belarus's radiation medicine institute, told a news
conference.

"It is clear that we are seeing genetic changes, especially
among those who were less than six years of age when
subjected to radiation. These people are now starting
families."

Belarus, a country of 10 million downwind from Chernobyl,
bore the brunt of the April 26, 1986 explosion and fire in the
power station's fourth reactor.

One quarter of its territory was subjected to severe
contamination and tens of thousands of people were
evacuated from their homes. Radiation from Chernobyl
spread throughout most of Europe, but Belarus, Ukraine
and Russia were worst hit and still devote huge resources
to cleanup operations.

Ostapenko said that within seven years of the accident,
mortality rates were outstripping birth rates.

Girls in affected areas had five times the normal rate of
deformations in their reproductive systems and boys three
times the norm. Each year, 2,500 births were recorded with
genetic abnormalities and 500 pregnancies were terminated
after testing.

Thousands of cases of thyroid cancer, rare in areas not
subject to high radiation levels, have been recorded in
Belarus's "risk zone", where a million people still live. High
levels have now been observed among teenagers.

"We are seeing problems of infertility in this generation," he
said. "Exactly the sort of observations we saw in animals
subjected to similar radiation."

Belarus, Ostapenko said, needed more outside help to
cope with the consequences. "It is impossible to say
whether we are over the peak of the consequences of
radioactive contamination or whether we are just on the
threshold."

Gennady Lazyuk, head of a state institute for hereditary
diseases, said the aftermath of the accident was
compounded by ills associated with post-Soviet hardship.

"Of course this is a complex problem and includes low
living standards, alcoholism and poor nutrition," he said.
"Regardless, in contaminated areas the growth rate in
genetic abnormalities is more than twice as high as in
uncontaminated areas."

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE


__________________________________

Michael C. Baker
Environmental Technology Group (E-ET)
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Mail Stop J594, Los Alamos, NM 87545

mcbaker@lanl.gov

(505) 667-7334 (phone)
(505) 665-8346 (fax)
(505) 996-3519 (pager)
__________________________________

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