[2]Chernobyl in Russian press

["Tsurikov, Nick" <nick.tsurikov@iluka.com>]

Dear Radsafers,
More sensible article has been published yesterday in the "Independent
Newspaper".  It shows very nicely that the main problem is not the health
effects due to irradiation, but due to psychological effect of
radiophobia...
I do not have time to translate the whole article; the second part is mainly
economical.  Though, please let me know if someone would like to get the
full translation - I'll do this over the weekend.  The first half (with main
points) is presented below:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
http://www.ng.ru/events/2000-04-26/2_chernobyl.html
<http://www.ng.ru/events/2000-04-26/2_chernobyl.html> 
THE CANON OF CHERNOBYL	, by Andrei Vaganov
The 14-th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident was not accompanied by
super-sensational findings, as it was the case in pervious years.  Even the
amount of theories explaining what actually happened has decreased
significantly.  This is the indication of the 'canonisation' of the biggest
accident in the history of nuclear industry.  So what are the facts?
200,000 people participated in the liquidation in 1986-1987 received average
doses in order of 100-200 mSv. About 10% of these people received doses of
250 mSv, several percent - above 500 mSv, several tens of people, who were
there right after the explosion, received lethal doses.
116,000 people evacuated from the 'zone' in 1986, received the highest doses
(10% - more than 50 mSv, 5% - more than 100 mSv).  These doses were
published in EU-IAEA-WHO report on the 10-th anniversary of the accident.
It should be, however, mentioned that during one's life (70 years) one gets
a dose from natural sources in order of 170 mSv.
Here are the more recent data of international studies.  Until now there are
no indication of increase in leukemia incidence due to the accident.  In
accordance with predictions, the number of deaths from leukemia due to
irradiation is insignificant - about 200 cases from 3.7 million of
inhabitants of contaminated territories and 200 cases from 200,000
'liquidators', who worked there in 1986-1987.  In accordance with existing
models 150 out of 200 of these cases were expected during the first 10
years.  However, actually observed leukemia incidence is in accordance with
spontaneous incidence during this period.
In accordance with the data from Russian State Medical Dosimetry Register
(database on 500,000 people, including 170,000 liquidators), in 1996
'liquidators' were the most 'unhealthy' people - 8.6% of them are of good
health, and 67.4% have some or other sickness.  However, it is evident that
there is a difference between primary causes of disablement between
liquidators and the male Russian population in general.  For example, the
amount of cancer (?-sorry, don't know the exact term-NT-?) is 2% and 21%,
respectively, physical trauma - 3% and 11%, respectively.  At the same time,
disablement due to stress and other 'nervous' illnesses is 32% and 5%, and
for psychological problems - 15% and 4%, respectively.
In other words, the most important consequence of the Chernobyl accident is
RADIOPHOBIA.  This aspect has not only qualitative, but also quantitative
expression. As reported by Alexander Vasiliev (adviser to the Ukrainian
government on science and technology), about 10,000 people in the Ukraine
are classified as disabled due to Chernobyl every year.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Please accept my apologies for some mistakes here, I am doing this
translation "on the run".

Kind regards
Nick Tsurikov
Eneabba, Western Australia
http://www.eneabba.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html