FW: UNSCEAR threatened: : U.N. Faces Tough Sell on ChornobylResearch

[Muckerheide <muckerheide@attbi.com>]

 Friends,

 From Physics Today, by way of Zbigniew Jaworowski and Jerry Cuttler:



> No funding for politically incorrect research.

> More than neglect is at work, says Poland's representative to UNSCEAR,

> Zbigniew Jaworowski of the Central Laboratory for Radiological Protection in

> Warsaw. "UNSCEAR dared in 2000 to state that practically no adverse radiation

> effects were observed among the post-Soviet population exposed to Chernobyl

> radiation, and that no genetic effects have been observed in the children of

> Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors. As a result, UNSCEAR's activities have been

> all but stopped, and there are real prospects that UNSCEAR could disappear,"

> he says. 

> 

>     Issues and Events

>     Radiation Assessment at Risk

> 

>     For nearly half a century, the United Nations Scientific Committee on the

> Effects of Atomic Radiation has been an influential resource on radiation

> sources and their effects on human health and the environment. But if its

> budget is not resuscitated, UNSCEAR's data compilation and evaluation

> activities will grind to a halt.

>          

>           UNSCEAR's report on the sources and effects of ionizing radiation

> come out every few years.

>     UNSCEAR's budget, $674 000 for the two-year period 2002-03, is roughly

> half of what it was a decade ago. Because of the crunch, UNSCEAR cancelled its

> annual meeting this spring and will instead meet just once, in January, during

> the current two-year budget period. But hardest hit is the portion of

> UNSCEAR's budget that covers travel and honoraria for outside consultants: 10

> years ago, it was $180 000; by 2000-01, it had shrunk to $52 000; and for

> 2002- 03, it was further chopped in half. "We can't run on that," says Norman

> Gentner, scientific secretary for UNSCEAR, which is based in Vienna, Austria,

> and has 21 member countries. "[The consultants] are world-level people. They

> get a pittance. It's become impossible to function."

> 

>     UNSCEAR assembles experts who comb through and analyze the literature on

> such topics as the health effects of the Chernobyl accident, non-cancer

> mortality from ionizing radiation, and the risks associated with

> radiation-based medical procedures. Their work forms the core of the tomes the

> committee puts out every few years. The International Atomic Energy Agency,

> the International Commission on Radiological Protection, and other

> international and national bodies use data from UNSCEAR in setting safety

> standards and making policies, says the committee's chair, Joyce Lipsztein, a

> radiation protection scientist at Brazil's National Atomic Energy Commission.

> "UNSCEAR is not biased. It's just scientific, not political. That's why it's

> so valuable." 

> 

>     The squeeze on UNSCEAR's budget is part of a broader belt-tightening at

> the UN, Gentner says. UNSCEAR was especially vulnerable because during the

> last negotiating phase, which took place before Gentner came on board, it was

> without a leader. The committee comes under the umbrella of the UN Environment

> Programme, and UNSCEAR members and others describe the UNEP-UNSCEAR

> relationship in terms ranging from "neutral" to "benign neglect" to "a divorce

> would help." Last year, the UN complimented UNSCEAR's work and directed UNEP

> "to continue providing support for the effective conduct of the work of the

> Scientific Committee and for the dissemination of its findings to the General

> Assembly, the scientific community and the public." But, says Lipsztein, "that

> hasn't happened."

> 

>     More than neglect is at work, says Poland's representative to UNSCEAR,

> Zbigniew Jaworowski of the Central Laboratory for Radiological Protection in

> Warsaw. "UNSCEAR dared in 2000 to state that practically no adverse radiation

> effects were observed among the post-Soviet population exposed to Chernobyl

> radiation, and that no genetic effects have been observed in the children of

> Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors. As a result, UNSCEAR's activities have been

> all but stopped, and there are real prospects that UNSCEAR could disappear,"

> he says. 

> 

>     While politicians may not always like UNSCEAR's conclusions, says

> Lipsztein, "among scientists, they are not controversial." At a General

> Assembly this month, Brazil's mission to the UN will try to bring attention to

> UNSCEAR's plight. "Without the appropriate funding, UNSCEAR cannot continue,"

> says Lipsztein. For countries around the world, she adds, "that would be like

> not buying insurance."

> 

> 

>     Toni Feder

> 

> 

>     © 2002 American Institute of Physics



Further confirms government bias and actions to suppress collecting and

applying radiation health effects data to radiation protection policy.



(see also info at the [Save UNSCEAR] link at:

 http://cnts.wpi.edu/rsh/docs )



OTOH, the cost of saving UNSCEAR would probably be to get an ICRP/IAEA etc.

"review" (like the Roger Clarke "review" of RERF) to destroy its science

integrity. Do NOT support "Save UBSCEAR at any cost. Gentner's performance

in Oxford last month was disheartening!



Regards, Jim Muckerheide

Radiation, Science, and Health

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