RE: ARTICLE: Fallout likely caused 15,000 deaths

["Jim Muckerheide" <jmuckerheide@cnts.wpi.edu>]

Wes,

 

Also from www.unscear.org

 

Below is the full Press Release from the 2001 UNSCEAR meeting, before the Kiev meeting in June meeting which can be seen at:

:http://www.unscear.org/chernobyl.htm 

It's the last item on the page and links to a 114K pdf file.

 

So: What do we do about radiation if we can't kill anybody even with Chernobyl, even when we don't evacuate them!? And then we don't even have any significant "late-effects!!" :-)

 

Anybody want to do an honest assessment?  :-)



Regards, Jim

==========



UNSCEAR VIENNA MEETING FOCUSES

ON CHERNOBYL ACCIDENT



Issued during the 50th session of UNSCEAR

Vienna, 23 to 27 April 2001 



"VIENNA, 25 April (UN Information Service) -- The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) is presently holding its fiftieth session in Vienna. On 26 April, the 15th anniversary of the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, the Committee will discuss its future assessments of the level of adverse health effects from the accident.



"Immediately after the Chernobyl disaster, the Committee started evaluating the consequences of the accident. Already in the UNSCEAR 1988 Report, it gave its first assessments of doses and early effects. In September 2000 the Committee published the UNSCEAR 2000 Report and submitted it to the General Assembly. According to the Committee’s scientific assessments in that Report, there were 134 reported persons suffering acute radiation sickness, 28 of whom died within four months of the accident. About 1,800 cases of childhood thyroid cancer (mostly curable) occurred in Belarus, Ukraine and the Russian Federation in those who were children at the time of the accident. Apart from this increase, there is currently no evidence of a major public health impact attributable to radiation exposure from the accident. Although those most highly exposed individuals are at an increased risk of long-term radiation-associated effects, the great majority of the population were not likely to !

experience serious health consequences from radiation from the Chernobyl accident.



"The health effects from the Chernobyl accident remain a priority for the future work of the Committee. UNSCEAR intends to continue its studies of the affected republics and other countries, and prepare future scientific reports concerning the radiological health consequences of the Chernobyl accident. The Committee expects that new data will be available from Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine. The Committee has established close collaboration with scientists of the three affected republics."



 



	-----Original Message----- 

	From: Wes Van Pelt [mailto:wesvanpelt@att.net] 

	Sent: Thu 07-Mar-02 8:26 AM 

	To: Jim Muckerheide; radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu 

	Cc: 

	Subject: RE: ARTICLE: Fallout likely caused 15,000 deaths

	

	



	Jim and All,

	I thought that there were at least a few dozen fatalities from thyroid

	uptake of radioiodine from Chernobyl. Of the 1000+ thyroid cancers I would

	certainly expect some mortality. Even though you give references, the

	statement "no related mortality reported" is hard to believe.

	Regards,

	Wes

	Wesley R. Van Pelt, PhD, CIH, CHP

	Wesley R. Van Pelt Associates, Inc.

	Consulting in Radiation Safety and Environmental Radioactivity.

	http://home.att.net/~wesvanpelt/Radiation.html

	mailto:wesvanpelt@att.net

	

	Editors,

	

	The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic

	Radiation (UNSCEAR) has had to report that there are no deaths in the

	public even from the Chernobyl accident, though the surrounding

	population was not evacuated. Now, 16 years later, there is only a very

	small increase in the number of thyroid cancers primarily in persons who

	were children less than about 7 years old at the time of the accident,

	with no related mortality reported. This was confirmed in a June 2001

	meeting that included the World Health Organization (WHO) and the

	affected countries. Recently, the UNSCEAR, WHO conclusions were

	confirmed in a report including the UN Childrens Fund and UN Development

	Program.

	

	Regards, Jim Muckerheide

	President, Radiation, Science, and Health

	Co-Director, Center for Nuclear Technology and Society at WPI

	http://cnts.wpi.edu/rsh

	

	

	

	



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