Chernobyl Health Study Findings

["RUSSELL, MIKE" <russelmj@songs.sce.com>]

     DATE:     3/28/96

     SUBJECT:  Chernobyl Health Studies: The 16 research projects sponsored
     by the European Commission, Prof. Albrecht Kellerer, professor of
     radiation biology at the University of Munich.

     Radsafers,

     The WSJ article below reports the findings of a four year study
     which found no increase in leukemia due to Chernobyl accident.

     Does anyone know how I can obtain copies of these reports.  Thanks for
     your help...mjr

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Scientists: Chernobyl Not the Health Hazard Many Think

  MINSK, Belarus (Dow Jones)--Childhood thyroid cancers increased markedly in
the area after the 1986 Chernobyl explosion, but there has not been the expected
increase in leukemia and other diseases, European and former Soviet scientists
announced Friday according to The Associated Press. 

  But local doctors working in contaminated areas found the result incredible. 

  The scientists, presenting the results of a four-year study on the
consequences of the 1986 disaster, said the accident did not cause an increase
in leukemia or other diseases often blamed on it. 

  The affected region--parts of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia--had seen only a
handful of childhood thyroid cancers in the decade before the accident. Since
1986, the study found, 610 cases have been reported, and of those, three
children have died. 

  'The lack of an observable increase of leukemias in children...makes it very
implausible that other increases of morbidity can be due to radiation,' said
Prof. Albrecht Kellerer, professor of radiation biology at the University of
Munich. 

  The 16 research projects comprising the study, sponsored by the European
Commission, also concluded that radiation released by the accident has had no
measurable effect on health in Western Europe. 

  The study also refuted claims of widespread fatalities as a result of the
explosion. The Ukrainian Health Ministry has said that 125,000 people had died
in Ukraine alone, while the scientists at Friday's conference maintain that only
45 deaths are attributable to the accident. 

  Official Soviet accounts had put the number of deaths at 32, mainly plant
operators and firefighters who were exposed to heavy doses of radiation
immediately after the nuclear plant exploded and caught fire. 

  The No. 4 reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear plant exploded on April 26, 1986,
exposing some 5 million people to radioactive fallout. 

  (END) AP-DOW JONES NEWS 22-03-96

  0211GMT

(AP-DJ-03-23-96 0211GMT)
:SUBJECT: NUKE BLRU CIS ASIA PETR SCI
Copyright (c) 1996 Dow Jones and Company, Inc.
Received by NewsEDGE/LAN: 3/23/96 00:59