Chernobyl: Understanding Consequences of Playing With The Poison Fire

SOURCES & excerpts

Living with Chernobyl - Personal stories from the world’s worst nuclear disaster

Cindy Folkers, beyondnuclearinternational, 4 Apr 2021

What was it like to live through the April 26, 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster in Ukraine? And now, 35 years later, what are the health, environmental and social repercussions of that disaster? And if you had lived through the event—or chose to research it later—how would you tell the story?
A grim reality - Living longterm in radioactively contaminated areas damages our health

Cindy Folkers, beyondnuclearinternational, 15 Feb 2021

People living in areas radioactively contaminated by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster have a higher frequency of children born with birth defects than those living in areas considered uncontaminated. These are the findings of a new study, but in Japan, for example, the government has raised permissible exposure rates to allow (or force) people to return to and live in areas where radiation levels are unsafe.
           Bodies that are supposed to protect health and regulate the nuclear industry, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the International Commission on Radiological Protection and Nuclear Regulatory Commission are raising recommended public exposure limits, considering halting evacuations from radiation releases, and encouraging people to live on, and eat from, contaminated land.
           The public justification for continued nuclear energy use is, ostensibly, to address the climate crisis. The reality is more likely a desperate last-ditch effort by the nuclear industry to remain relevant, while in some countries the nuclear energy agenda remains inextricably linked to nuclear weapon programs.
           Forcing people to live on and consume produce grown from radioactively contaminated land is contrary to scientific evidence indicating that these practices harm humans and all animals, especially over the long-term. By the time these health impacts are unearthed, decades later, the false narratives of “harmless low radiation doses” and “no discernible impact” have solidified, covering up the painful reality that should be a touchstone informing our debate over nuclear power.
De novo congenital malformation frequencies in children from the Bryansk region following the Chernobyl disaster (2000-2017)

Korsakov AV, Geger EV, Lagerev DG, Pugach LI, Mousseau TA. Heliyon. 2020;6(8):e04616. Published 2020 Aug 17. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04616

Ionizing radiation and chemical pollution can disrupt normal embryonic development and lead to congenital malformations and fetal death. We used official government statistical data for 2000-2017 to test the hypothesis that radioactive and chemical pollutants influenced the frequency of de novo congenital malformations in newborns of the Bryansk region of southwest Russia.

New issues of the Chernobyl: ECOLOGY AND HEALTH festschrift #8 in Ukrainian and #9 in English

Chernobyl: Ecology And Health
Collection of Scientific and Practical Articles

Under general editorship of Prof. Yu. I. Bandazhevsky, Issue 9, Dnipro «Serednyak T.K.» 2019

The publication of a collection of articles «Chernobyl: Ecology and Health» No. 9 is associated with a project of the European Commission in Ukraine “Health and Ecological Programmes around the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone: Development, Training and Coordination of Health-Related Projects” and initiatives of the Children of Chernobyl Association (France).
It contains information on the protection of the health of people living in the territories affected by the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The collection is intended for health professionals and the population living in radioactive contaminated territories after accident at a nuclear power plant.
CONTENTS

Original Research

Bandazhevsky Yu. I., Dubovaya N. F., Kadun O. N.
Age-Specific Features Of ¹³⁷CS Concentrations In Children From Ivankovsky And Polessky Districts In Kiev Region, Ukraine, 30 Years After The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Accident - page 4
Bandazhevsky Yu. I., Dubovaya N. F.
Associations Between Processes Of ¹³⁷CS Incorporation Into Human Body, MTHFR:C677T Genetic Polymorphism And Physical Growth In Children Living In Districts Affected By The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Accident - page 11
Dubovaya N. F., Bandazhevsky Yu. I.
Peculiarities Of Home Diets Of Rural Children Living In Radiation-Contaminated Areas In The Post-Chernobyl Period - page 22
Bandazhevsky Yu. I., Dubovaya N. F.
Physical Growth Of Children In The Presence Of ¹³⁷CS Incorporation 30 Years After The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Accident - page 29
Bandazhevsky Yu. I., Dubovaya N. F.
Associations Between ¹³⁷CS Radionuclides Incorporated Into The Human Body And Blood pressure In Children Living In Districts Affected By The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Accident - page 42
Bandazhevsky Yu. I., Dubovaya N. F.
¹³⁷CS Concentrations And Activity Of Serum Transaminases In Children From Polessky And Ivankovsky Districts, Kiev Region, Ukraine, 30 Years After The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Accident - page 48
Bandazhevsky Yu. I.
Risk Of Cardiovascular Diseases In The Population Living In The Territories Affected By The Accident Of The Chernobyl Nuclear Electric Power Plant - page 59
Information about the authors and editorial board members - page 69

Once Again About Victims of the Chernobyl Disaster

Yu. I. Bandazhevsky, Ivankov: PI Coordination and Analytical Center «Ecology and Health», Dnipro: Serednyak T.K. 30 August 2019, 38 pp.

The article is devoted to the humanitarian consequences of the Chernobyl disaster. The publication is intended for all people who are interested in the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
          Thirty-three years have passed since the accident at Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, yet the seriousness of this event for all humanity is still of concern. During the whole post-accident period, the nuclear lobby made many efforts to weaken public interest in this event....
          The Institute for Congenital and Hereditary Diseases, Ministry of Health of the Republic of Belarus, directed by Prof. G. I. Lazjuk, Associate Member of the National Academy of Sciences, also assessed the effect of a radiation factor occurred as a result of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident on the prenatal development of human embryos. Gennady Ilyich established this unique Institute back in Soviet times, and over the years, along with his highly qualified students and colleagues he studied the morphological manifestations (congenital defects) of human genetic disorders, also in the context of consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident. The Institute was closed down in the beginning of the 21st century, as the nuclear lobby was afraid of results of its activities....
          Almost every inhabitant of the Republic of Belarus has experienced radiation exposure directly. So it is no surprise that there has been an increase in cardiovascular diseases and cancers due to this, including among children of the second post-Chernobyl generation.
          That is why the country’s leadership should have asked for serious humanitarian aid and support of the world community in the 1990s and not refused it, as it was done. A method of assessment of radiation doses received by the population and individuals formed the basis for governmental decisions to render assistance to the population with a view to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident. A concept based on results of effects of external radiation exposure on humans was used. The influence of incorporated radionuclides on separate organs and systems was hardly considered. However, millions of people have suffered and are suffering currently because radioactive elements have been entering and are entering their body causing damage to vital organs and systems. These people are not recognized as victims of the Chernobyl disaster at the state level.
          This is the main problem of Chernobyl and its negative impact on human health in the long term.
The state of folate metabolism and its link with thyroid system in children after forest fires in the Chornobyl exclusion zone

Bandazhevsky Yu.I., Dubovaya N.F., Environment & Health, No: 2 (91) - June, 2019 - Pages: 10-16

Abstract: Objective: We determined the state of folate cycle and its link with thyroid system in the children of the Ukrainian Polissia after forest fires in the Chornobyl exclusion zone.
Methods: Immunochemical, mathematical and statistical ones.
Results: Blood homocysteine levels were statistically significantly higher in the subgroup of the children who were the carriers of the T risk allele of the MTHFR:C677T genetic polymorphism living in Ivankovsky and Polessky regions than in the subgroup of the children without this allele.
The examination of the children from the regions adjacent to the Chornobyl nuclear power plant allowed to identify in them the metabolic processes’ changes in the form of increased production of Hc due to the forest fires in the exclusion zone.
Blood Hc levels were higher in the children from Ivankivskyi region examined after fires in the Chornobyl exclusion zone than in those from Poliskyi region examined before fires, including the majority of genetic subgroups, with the exception of the genetic subgroup which included cases of homozygous carriership of the T allele.
Direct links between blood homocysteine and pituitary thyroid-stimulating hormone levels, homocysteine and triiodothyronine levels were detected in the group of the children from Ivankivskyi region who had higher blood homocysteine concentrations compared to the group of children from Polisskyi region.
Conclusions: It can be reasonably assumed that fires in the Chornobyl exclusion zone have a negative effect on the functioning of folate metabolism in a child’s organism.
Keywords: folate metabolism, homocysteine, hormones of hypophysis and thyroid gland, forest fires, Chernobyl exclusion zone
Ecological mechanisms can modify radiation effects in a key forest mammal of Chernobyl

Mappes, Boratyński, et al. Ecosphere 10(4):e02667. 10.1002/ecs2.2667, April 2019

Nuclear accidents underpin the need to quantify the ecological mechanisms which determine injury to ecosystems from chronic low-dose radiation. Here, we tested the hypothesis that ecological mechanisms interact with ionizing radiation to affect natural populations in unexpected ways. We used large-scale replicated experiments and food manipulations in wild populations of the rodent, Myodes glareolus, inhabiting the region near the site of the Chernobyl disaster of 1986. We show linear decreases in breeding success with increasing ambient radiation levels with no evidence of any threshold below which effects are not seen. Food supplementation of experimental populations resulted in increased abundances but only in locations where radioactive contamination was low (i.e., below ≈ µ lSv/h). In areas with higher contamination, food supplementation showed no detectable effects. These findings suggest that chronic low-dose-rate irradiation can decrease the stability of populations of key forest species, and these effects could potentially scale to broader community changes with concomitant consequences for the ecosystem functioning of forests impacted by nuclear accidents.
Transcriptional Upregulation of DNA Damage Response Genes in Bank Voles (Myodes glareolus) Inhabiting the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

Jernfors, Kesäniemi, et al. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 9 January 2018

Exposure to ionizing radiation (IR) from radionuclides released into the environment can damage DNA. An expected response to exposure to environmental radionuclides, therefore, is initiation of DNA damage response (DDR) pathways. Increased DNA damage is a characteristic of many organisms exposed to radionuclides but expression of DDR genes of wildlife inhabiting an area contaminated by radionuclides is poorly understood. We quantified expression of five central DDR genes Atm, Mre11, p53, Brca1, and p21 in the livers of the bank vole Myodes glareolus that inhabited areas within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) that differed in levels of ambient radioactivity, and also from control areas outside the CEZ (i.e., sites with no detectable environmental radionuclides) in Ukraine. Expression of these DDR genes did not significantly differ between male and female bank voles, nor among sites within the CEZ. We found a near two-fold upregulation in the DDR initiators Mre11 and Atm in animals collected from the CEZ compared with samples from control sites. As Atm is an important regulator of oxidative stress, our data suggest that antioxidant activity may be a key component of the defense against exposure to environmental radioactivity.

“Life in Ukraine will never the the same” By Joelle & Chelsea [†]

Faster Development Covaries with Higher DNA Damage in Grasshoppers (Chorthippus albomarginatus) from Chernobyl

Bonisoli-Alquati, Ostermiller, et al. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 91(2):776-787. 8 January 2018

In Chernobyl, chronic exposure to radioactive contaminants has a variety of deleterious effects on exposed organisms, including genetic damage and mutation accumulation. However, the potential for such effects to be transmitted to the next generation is poorly understood. We captured lesser marsh grasshoppers (Chorthippus albomarginatus) in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone from sites varying in levels of environmental radiation by more than three orders of magnitude. We then raised their offspring in a common garden experiment in order to assess the effects of parental exposure to radiation on offspring development and DNA damage. Offspring that reached maturity at a younger age had higher levels of DNA damage. Contrary to our hypothesis, parental exposure to radioactive contamination did not affect DNA damage in their offspring possibly because of intervening adaptation or parental compensatory mechanisms. Our results suggest a trade-off between developmental rate and resistance to DNA damage, whereby offspring developing at faster rates do so at the cost of damaging their DNA. This result is consistent with and extends findings in other species, suggesting that faster growth rates cause increased oxidative damage and stress. We propose that growth rates are subject to stabilizing selection balancing the benefits of fast development and the competing need of buffering its damaging effects to macromolecules and tissues.
Analysis of heteroplasmy in bank voles inhabiting the Chernobyl exclusion zone: A commentary on Baker et al. (2017) “Elevated mitochondrial genome variation after 50 generations of radiation exposure in a wild rodent.”

Kesäniemi, Boratyński, et al. Evolutionary Applications 11(8), January 2018

Exposure to ionizing radiation is a well-established cause of mutation. Given the global problem of accidental release of radionuclides into the environment (Lourenço, Mendo, & Pereira, 2016), it is essential to fully understand the genetic consequences of exposure to radionuclides. On 26 April 1986, a fire and explosion in Reactor 4 of the former nuclear power plant at Chernobyl (CNPP), Ukraine, released more than 9 million terabecquerels (TBq) of radionuclides over much (>200,000 km²) of Europe and eastern Russia (see reviews on the effects, e.g., Mousseau & Møller, 2012; Møller & Mousseau, 2006). The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) was established at about a 30-km radius around the accident site to limit human exposure to radioactive fallout. The CEZ contains elevated levels of persistent radioisotopes, notably strontium-90 (⁹⁰S), caesium-137 (¹³⁷Cs) and plutonium-239 (²³⁹Pu) that have half-lives of 28.8, 30.2 and 24,100 years, respectively. Wildlife inhabiting the CEZ provide clear models of the biological consequences of exposure to environmental radionuclides, with many reports of elevated levels of developmental instability, genetic damage and mutation rate associated with inhabiting areas contaminated by radionuclides. Hence, a meta-analysis revealed a strong effect of radiation upon mutation rate in organisms affected by Chernobyl fallout (data for 30 species in 45 published studies) (Møller & Mousseau, 2015). With this in mind, the report by Baker et al. (2017) in Evolutionary Applications of elevated levels of genetic diversity rates in bank voles inhabiting the CEZ appears consistent with the putative mutagenic effect of exposure to radionuclides.
The analysis by Baker et al. (2017) is promising for two principal reasons: (i) they have data from two time points and (ii) they use next-generation sequencing (NGS) to identify polymorphisms and thus bring studies of Chernobyl wildlife into the genomics era. Baker et al. (2017) sequenced whole mitochondrial genomes of samples of the bank vole Myodes glareolus to determine whether the bank voles inhabiting the CEZ have accumulated mutations as a consequence of exposure to elevated levels of radionuclides. The bank vole is a small rodent that is common in forest habitats in northern Europe. As this species is common within and around the CEZ, the bank vole has been widely studied as a model of the mammalian response to radionuclides (Boratyński, Lehmann, Mappes, Mousseau, & Møller, 2014; Chesser et al., 2000; Lehmann, Boratyński, Mappes, Mousseau, & Møller, 2016; Meeks, Chesser, Rodgers, Gaschak, & Baker, 2009; Meeks et al., 2007; Rodgers & Baker, 2000; Rodgers, Wickliffe, Phillips, Chesser, & Baker, 2001). Baker et al. (2017) found greater mitochondrial diversity in samples from two contaminated areas (Red Forest and Glyboke Lake) than in samples of bank voles from three uncontaminated (control) areas (Nedanchychy, Nezamozhnya and Oranoe) (see Figure 1 for sample locations). In the abstract, the authors state [that their data are] “consistent with the possibility that chronic, continuous irradiation resulting from the Chernobyl disaster has produced an accelerated mutation rate in this species over the last 25 years.” However, Baker et al., 2017 did not fully discuss three important issues relating to their data: (i) sampling, (ii) bank vole population dynamics and (iii) heteroplasmy.

Because the issue is credibility—not the data—but is the credibility of the data. For [example], those who teach and have students or young researchers, I think the news releases by the WHO or the IAEA are masterpieces of language manipulation. I would like to call your attention that IAEA now is basically behind WHO so their declarations now are given to the young people in the name of the World Health Organization to which they should trust because if they don’t trust the World Health Organization then how can they trust much else?

—Dr. Wladimir Wertelecki (at 01:30), Congenital Malformations in Rivne Polossia and the Chernobyl Accident,
Helen Caldicott Foundation Fukushima Symposium,
New York Academy of Medicine, 12 March 2013

Nuclear energy and its ecological byproducts: Lessons from Chernobyl and Fukushima

T.A. Mousseau, A.P. Møller, in book Learning from Fukushima: Nuclear power in East Asia, September 2017, pp. 261-283

Given increasing energy needs related to global development, and the spectre of climate change related to carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions from fossil fuels, there is an urgent need for large-scale energy production that does not involve the production of greenhouse gases. Nuclear energy is one possible solution that has been embraced by developing and developed countries alike (for example, China and the US). But the accidents at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and most recently Fukushima have demonstrated the vulnerability of this technology to human error, design flaws, and natural disasters, and these accidents have resulted in enormous health, environmental, and economic costs that must be factored into any energy policy that includes nuclear as an option. In the past, such analyses have largely ignored the potential costs of accidents for ecological systems in affected regions. Studies of natural systems are essential since they provide a bellwether for the potential long-term consequences for human populations that by necessity and government policy continue to inhabit contaminated regions. In this chapter, we discuss studies of the non-human biota living in Chernobyl and Fukushima. Extensive research on birds, insects, rodents, microbes, and trees has demonstrated potentially significant injury to individuals, species, and ecosystem functioning related to radiation exposure that has previously been underappreciated. We present an overview of the effects of radiation on DNA, birth defects, infertility, cancer, and longevity, and its consequences for the health and long-term prospects of wildlife living in radioactive regions of the world.
The Health-Related Projects for the Protection of the People Living Around the Chernobyl Exclusion Area

Conference led by Prof. Yuri Bandazhevsky, European Parliament, Brussels 27 June 2017
Brussels - The European Parliament hosted a conference covering the results of three years of led by Professor Yury Bandazhevsky, in which deputies of the European Parliament, members of the European Commission, experts and participants of the project took part. Three presentations and a speech by Prof. Yuri Bandazhevski and Dr Nataliia Dubova are included.
- Improving diagnostic and therapeutic measures for children and the adult population in Ivankov district, using modern medical equipment provided by the European Union in the framework of the project, Dr. Oksana Kadun, Chief PhD Ivankiv Central Hospital
- The modern maternal and child health center - an important tool for protecting public health in Ivankov and Poliskie territories, Dr Mykola Melnychuk, Dir. Mother and Child Protection Center, Ivankiv Central Hospital
- The monitoring of radioactivity and the health status of children and territories of Ivankov and Poliskie, its results and the basic orientations of the prevention measures of cancer and cardiovascular diseases, Prof. Yury Bandazhevsky & Associate Prof. N. Dubovaya
- Text of Reports by Prof. Yu.I. Bandazhevsky & Associate Prof. N.F. Dubovaya
Chornobyl 30 years later: Radiation, pregnancies, and developmental anomalies in Rivne, Ukraine

Wertelecki, Chambers, et al. European Journal of Medical Genetics, 60 (2017) 2-11

In the 30 years since the Chornobyl nuclear power plane disaster, there is evidence of persistent levels of incorporated ionizing radiation in adults, children and pregnant women in the surrounding area. Measured levels of Cesium-137 vary by region, and may be influenced by dietary and water sources as well as proximity to nuclear power plants. Since 2000 comprehensive, population-based birth defects monitoring has been performed in selected regions of Ukraine to evaluate trends and to generate hypotheses regarding potential causes of unexplained variations in defect rates. Significant!v higher rates of microcephaly, neural tube defects, and microphthalmia have been identified in selected regions of Ukraine collectively known as Polissia compared to adjacent regions collectively termed non-Polissia, and these significantly higher rates were evident particularly in the years 2000-2009. The Polissia regions have also demonstrated higher mean whole body counts of Cesium-137 compared to values in individuals residing in other non-Polissia regions. The potential causal relationship between persistent ionizing radiation pollution and selected congenital anomaly rates supports the need for a more thorough. targeted investigation of the sources of persistent ionizing radiation and the biological plausibility ol a potential teratogenic effect.

Healthy Scots Pine Forest

Abnormal Scots pine trees (Pinus sylvestris) from Chernobyl
From slides 5 and 6 of Prof. Tim Mousseau speaking at the 2016 IPPNW Chernobyl Congress, Berlin, on Recent Developments Concerning Impacts To Non-Human Biota in Fukushima.

Chernobyl And New Knowledge About The Impact Of Low Doses Of Radiation

Burklakova, Grodzinsky, et al. The Chernobyl Disaster, Nova Publishers, pp. 63-106, 2016

An international research team has analyzed their own studies and data available from the literature concerning the biological effects of chronic or acute exposure to ionizing radiation (IR) on humans and biota as a consequence of the Chernobyl accident. Mechanisms of their effects at the cellular, body, and population levels were studied and compared. It is shown that multiple somatic cell line diseases (primarily non-cancerous), which in subsequent generations lead to reduced adaptation, increased mortality and degeneration of the population, can be registered in all groups of biota including humans. Simultaneously, it is demonstrated that effects of low-dose chronic irradiation are expressed more significantly than those after one-time acute exposure of higher doses. Non-linearity of the dose-effect relationship is commonly reported as well. We also emphasize commonality in mechanisms of disease manifestations in many studied biological groups. Along with radiation-induced damage to DNA and genomic instability, attention is drawn to the fact, that most of the effects are not directly induced by radiation, but indirectly through regulation and through alterations in the immune and antioxidant status of the organism, which affects sensitivity to environmental factors. The response of the organism to low doses of IR is a complex function of not only dose, but of also its intensity, the time of exposure, and the time period that it takes to engage recovery (repair) systems.
Humanitarian support to children from Ivankov and Polesie districts of Kiev region living in areas contaminated by radioactive elements as a result of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

circa 2016

The studies carried out in 2014-2015 by the Professor Yury Bandazhevsky and Associate Professor Nataliya Dubovaya with the help of public health institutions and international organisations showed that a significant number of children from families in Ivankov and Polesie districts chronically living in the territory contaminated by radioactive substances due to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident have considerable health problems. Given the nature of changes in the child’s body, one should anticipate that in the future, as a child grows, these problems may provoke severe diseases ending in death or disability [a collection of scientific articles «Ecology and Health», N° 1, 2, 3].
Reconstructing the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (CNPP) accident 30 years after. A unique database of air concentration and deposition measurements over Europe

Evangeliou, Hamburger, et al. Environmental Pollution, Vol.216, pp. 408-418, 1 September 2016

30 years after the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (CNPP) accident, its radioactive releases still remain of great interest mainly due to the long half-lives of many radionuclides emitted. Observations from the terrestrial environment, which hosts radionuclides for many years after initial deposition, are important for health and environmental assessments. Furthermore, such measurements are the basis for validation of atmospheric transport models and can be used for constraining the still not accurately known source terms. However, although the “Atlas of Cesium Deposition on Europe After the Chernobyl Accident” (hereafter referred to as “Atlas”) has been published since 1998, less than 1% of the direct observations of ¹³⁷Cs deposition has been made publicly available. The remaining ones are neither accessible nor traceable to specific data providers and a large fraction of these data might have been lost entirely. The present paper is an effort to rescue some of the data collected over the years following the CNPP accident and make them publicly available. The database includes surface air activity concentrations and deposition observations for 131I, 134Cs and ¹³⁷Cs measured and provided by Former Soviet Union authorities the years that followed the accident. Using the same interpolation tool as the official authorities, we have reconstructed a deposition map of ¹³⁷Cs based on about 3% of the data used to create the Atlas map. The reconstructed deposition map is very similar to the official one, but it has the advantage that it is based exclusively on documented data sources, which are all made available within this publication. In contrast to the official map, our deposition map is therefore reproducible and all underlying data can be used also for other purposes. The efficacy of the database was proved using simulated activity concentrations and deposition of ¹³⁷Cs from a Langrangian and a Euleurian transport model.
TORCH-2016 - An Independent Scientific Evaluation of the Health-Related Effects of the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster

Dr. Ian K. Farlie, PhD, UK, Commissioned by GLOBAL 2000/Friends of the Earth Austri, 31 March 2016

“We did not yet possess a system of imagination, analogies, words or experiences for the catastrophe of Chernobyl.”
—Svetlana Alexiyevich, writer from Belarus, 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate
In 2005, the IAEA/WHO (2005) stated
“What the Chernobyl disaster has clearly demonstrated is the central role of information and how it is communicated in the aftermath of radiation or toxicological incidents. Nuclear activities in Western countries have also tended to be shrouded in secrecy. The Chernobyl experience has raised the awareness among disaster planners and health authorities that the dissemination of timely and accurate information by trusted leaders is of the greatest importance.”
           While this is undoubtedly correct, it raises the vexed question of trust in governments and international agencies which does not exist after Chernobyl and Fukushima. To re-establish that trust will be difficult. At a minimum, it will require the following to happen.
           First, for concerned governments to make clear to their citizens that they will consider safer energy options that do not have the potential for another Chernobyl or Fukushima.
           Second, for a dialogue to be created between agencies such as IARC, IAEA, WHO and national governments on the one hand and various NGOs/health charities on the other for exchanges of views on radiation risks and energy policies. Unfortunately, no such dialogue exists at present.
           Third, WHO should no longer be required to have its reports on radiation matters vetted by the IAEA, as presently required under the 1959 agreement between the two UN agencies. http ://independentwho.org/en/who-and-aiea-aggreement/.
           Fourth, UN agencies in this area, IARC,WHO, UNSCEAR, IAEA should be required to have independent scientists from NGOs and health charities as members of their main Committees. This does not occur at present. Also these agencies should be required to consult on their draft reports, including the convening of meetings with environment NGOs and independent health charities. This also does not occur at present.

“Chernobyl / Never Again / No Life / Why? / Radiation” [†]

Folate Metabolism Gene Polymorphisms and Homocysteinemia in Children From Families Continuously Living in an Area Affected by the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Accident

Yu. I. Bandazhevsky, N. F. Dubovaya, Chernobyl Ecology and Health, 2015 (source)

A high mortality rate associated to a greater extent with cancer and cardiovascular diseases is recorded in areas affected by the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident [1].
It is extremely important practically and scientifically to find causes of this phenomenon. In this regard, it is reasonable to carry out studies to assess blood concentrations of homocysteine—an amino acid formed during transmethylation of methionine—a sulfur-containing amino acid essential for the human body.
During metabolic reactions, homocysteine is converted into cysteine or transformed back into methionine. The resynthesis of methionine from homocysteine is carried out during the metabolism of folic acid by transfer of the methyl group involving methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase, B12-dependent methionine synthase and methionine synthase reductase.
Elevated levels of homocysteine in the body may be caused by folate metabolism disturbances, including genetic defects of above enzymes and may lead to serious consequences in the form of a higher risk of developing cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, chronic miscarriage, congenital abnormalities and other diseases [2].
The purpose of this study was to assess blood homocysteine concentrations and genetic system of enzymes associated with folate metabolism in children from families continuously residing in an area affected by the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident.
Slides: Chernobyl: Prospects For The Second Generation
Paper: Assessment of the cardiovascular system in children from Polesie and Ivankov districts,

Coordination and Analytical Center Ecology and Health, 2015 (sources: Slides, Paper)
Demonstration materials contain the results of scientific research Professor Yu.I. Bandazhevsky, Associate Professor N.F. Dubovaya, Associate Professor G.S. Bandazhevskaya.
Conclusions
1. The results of the instrumental examination give evidence of presence of functional changes in heart function in the majority of children from Polesie and Ivankov districts of Kiev region, Ukraine, detected during a routine medical examination in 2014-2015.
2. Particular attention should be paid to the health of boys aged 12-17 years, among whom in comparison with other age groups, there were most frequently cases of increased arterial and pulse pressure, abnormalities of heart beat rhythm in the form of bradycardia and early ventricular repolarization syndrome.
3. Pathologies found in the adolescent period are the basis for the occurrence of serious diseases leading to death in adults.
Human Health and Incorporated Radionuclides

Yuri I. Bandazhevsky, translation by Olga S. Dubova, International Solidarity Chernobyl, 5 May 2014 (source)

          The population of the Republic of Belarus, Ukraine and the Russian Federation living in areas affected by the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant has been exposed to adverse effects of long-living radionuclides for 28 years, and primarily of ¹³⁷Cs (radiocesium), given the amount released into the biosphere in 1986 [1]. Immediately following the accident, radiocesium had been on the surface of the soil, and naturally could not have been available to the root system of plants, unless the upper layers of the soil were inverted while ploughing. For the same reason, the mushrooms just after the Chernobyl accident could not have contained Chernobyl cesium in high concentrations. It takes several years for them to accumulate significant quantities of radionuclides. However, the mushrooms that grew in the affected area in 1986, had contained high concentrations of radiocesium. This situation may be explained by the findings of the studies carried out by the Institute of Biophysics of the Ministry of Health in the Russian Soviet Federated Socialistic Republic, which prove that a large part of the Republic of Belarus had been contaminated with radiocesium in the 60s of the last century, for which reason this radionuclide had been detected in meat and dairy products in high concentrations [2]. Radiocesium contamination maps for the Belarussian-Ukrainian territory Polessye before and after the Chernobyl accident are practically identical [3].
          So what did the specialists that carried out radiometric measurements in areas affected by the Chernobyl accident in 1986 find?
          This raises the question relating to the calculation of radiation doses absorbed by the population living in these areas. At the official level, it was decided to calculate doses received by the population from affected territories starting from April 26, 1986 - the date of the Chernobyl accident. The health of the population has been assessed and continue to be assessed also beginning from this date. But what about radiation doses received by the same population over a 20-year period prior to the Chernobyl accident?
          Based on the above, we can conclude that the results of Belarus’s population health assessment do not conform to radiation doses that have been officially presented, including data related to such radionuclides as ¹³⁷Cs.
          Research institutions in the USSR and CIS countries have for many decades studied and continue to study effects on the living organism mainly caused by external radiation, while in reality the population receives 80% of the radiation load due to internal irradiation.
          The absence of full data on the impact of incorporated radionuclides on the human body did not allow to carry out an effective policy of protection of health of the population affected by the Chernobyl accident at the state level, which led to serious medical and demographic consequences [3].
          The radiation load of no more than 1 mSv per year corresponding to the specific activity of radionuclides in the organism of 400 Bq/kg is currently accepted to be safe for the human health in the Republic of Belarus, Ukraine and the Russian Federation. However, the studies conducted by Gomel State Medical University in 1991-1999 had shown that the incorporation of even smaller amounts of ¹³⁷Cs negatively affect the human health (see below).
Elevated of Cataracts in Birds from Chernobyl

Mousseau TA, Møller AP, PLoS ONE 8(7):e66939, 30 July 2013

Background: Radiation cataracts develop as a consequence of the effects of ionizing radiation on the development of the lens of the eye with an opaque lens reducing or eliminating the ability to see. Therefore, we would expect cataracts to be associated with reduced fitness in free-living animals.
Methodology/Principle Findings: We investigated the incidence of lens opacities typical of cataracts in more than 1100 free-living birds in the Chernobyl region in relation to background radiation. The incidence of cataracts increased with level of background radiation both in analyses based on a dichotomous score and in analyses of continuous scores of intensity of cataracts. The odds ratio per unit change in the regressor was 0.722 (95% CI 0.648, 0.804), which was less than odds ratios from investigations of radiation cataracts in humans. The relatively small odds ratio may be due to increased mortality in birds with cataracts. We found a stronger negative relationship between bird abundance and background radiation when the frequency of cataracts was higher, but also a direct effect of radiation on abundance, suggesting that radiation indirectly affects abundance negatively through an increase in the frequency of cataracts in bird populations, but also through direct effects of radiation on other diseases, food abundance and interactions with other species. There was no increase in incidence of cataracts with increasing age, suggesting that yearlings and older individuals were similarly affected as is typical of radiation cataract.
Conclusions/Significance: These findings suggest that cataracts are an under-estimated cause of morbidity in free-living birds and, by inference, other vertebrates in areas contaminated with radioactive materials.

Location of the eight study sites in relation to background radiation level (Ci/km2) around Chernobyl, Ukraine. Adapted from Shestopalov (1996).
Tree rings reveal extent of exposure to ionizing radiation in Scots pine Pinus sylvestris

Mousseau, Welch, et al. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 11 June 2013

Tree growth has been hypothesized to provide a reliable indicator of the state of the external environment. Elevated levels of background ionizing radiation may impair growth trajectories of trees by reducing the annual growth. Such effects of radiation may depend on the individual phenotype and interact with other environmental factors such as temperature and drought. We used standardized growth rates of 105 Scots pine Pinus sylvestris located near Chernobyl, Ukraine, varying in the level of background radiation by almost a factor 700. Mean growth rate was severely depressed and more variable in 1987-1989 and several other subsequent years, following the nuclear accident in April 1986 compared to the situation before 1986. The higher frequency of years with poor growth after 1986 was not caused by elevated temperature, drought or their interactions with background radiation. Elevated temperatures suppressed individual growth rates in particular years. Finally, the negative effects of radioactive contaminants were particularly pronounced in smaller trees. These findings suggest that radiation has suppressed growth rates of pines in Chernobyl, and that radiation interacts with other environmental factors and phenotypic traits of plants to influence their growth trajectories in complex ways.
Congenital Malformations in Rivne Polossia and the Chernobyl Accident (32:19)

Dr. Wladimir Wertelecki, Helen Caldicott Fdn Fukushima Symposium, New York Academy of Medicine, 12 March 2013

The following is from TUC Radio’s Fukukshima Symposium Mini-Series (29:00 minute mp3):
          Wertelecki presented the results of OMNI-Net Ukraine’s Congenital Malformations Monitoring Program; the results of ten years of scientific study of birth defects of children and their possible relation to ionizing radiation. Since 2000 OMNI-Net scientists have conducted research of the Rivne, Polissia region just north-west of the exploded Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
          They found statistically higher than normal incidents of the most heartbreaking birth defects: NTD, Neural Tube Defects of the brain or spinal cord; Anencephaly, where most of the brain and skull do not develop; Microcephaly, a condition in which the circumference of the head and the brain size are smaller than normal.
          The data are collected under strict scientific protocols. They are based on a population registry of every baby born in the last ten years with 15,000 measurements; as well as whole body radiation counts that include pregnant women, with a data base of 20,000.
          Wladimir Wertelecki was born in Poland in 1936. He trained in pediatrics at Washington University and in Clinical Genetics at the Harvard School of Medicine. From 1968 to 1970 he served as a Senior Surgeon of the United States Public Health Service. From 1974 to 2010 he was chair of the department of medical genetics at the University of South Alabama. Now retired he is dedicated to contributing to a clearer scientific and public understanding of the global impacts of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986.
High Congenital Malformations Rates in a Chornobyl Ionizing Radiation Impacted Population Isolate in Ukraine and Call for Research Co-Investigators

Wladimir Wertelecki, M.D., 13th IRPA Intl Congress Proceedings, Glasgow, 15 May 2012 (source)

32 slides summarizing some of the effects of radiation exposure in Ukraine including slide 12:
From Chernobyl to Fukushima

Nikolay Karpan, Kiev: S. Podgornov, 2012, 304 pp. (source)

In his book From Chernobyl to Fukushima physicist and engineer Nikolay Karpan provides many earlier unknown facts on two major large-scale NPP accidents. With his longterm practical experience of work at many different NPPs, including ten years of work at the Chernobyl NPP (1979-1989), Karpan fully experienced all aspects of life of “liquidators of nuclear accidents”. The author provides an impressive account of initial hours of these disasters and gives interesting analysis of these historical events. The description of contemporary state of international Chernobyl projects and his account how the Chernobyl tragedy was transformed into a farce will leave nobody indifferent.
The events at Japanese Fukushima NPP are assessed from a professional point of view. For the first time the reader will see logical patterns in explosions of the Japanese reactors, associated with inadequate understanding of relations between the Man and the Nature with its mighty forces releasing in natural disasters.
Safe nuclear reactors do not exist and they cannot exist, as in addition to high operational temperature and pressure they contain deadly radioactive loads that release to the environment far too often—every 15 years (four off-design accidents in 57 years of the global nuclear power industry’s history).
The book is a major event as it is written by a professional physicist about extreme developments he experienced himself, the book written honestly, stingingly and without pathos.
Elevated Population Rates of Malformations in a Region Impacted by Chornobyl Radiation, Call for a Technical Assessment and Prospects

Editor: W. Wertelecki, M.D., OMNI-Net Ukraine, Child Development Programs, Winter 2011

POLISSIA INITIATIVE
GOALS
Investigations of Reproductive Risks and Pregnancy Outcomes Call for a Technical Assessment and Prospects
Facilitate Research - Invitation to co-Investigators
OBSERVATIONS
Polissia is a Natural Laboratory
Stable Indigenous Population Isolate
Chornobyl Ionizing Radiation Impact on Several Generations
Persistent Increased Prevalence of Malformations
Ongoing Access to Communities and Defined Population Cohorts
Established Research Support Platforms

The facts and factors:
- persisting elevated population rates of mainly neural malformations
- the elevated malformation rates are among the highest in Europe and are highest in Polissia;
- native population of Polissia is ethnically distinct and represents a stable population isolate;
- a growing proportion of Polissia individuals represent are a third generation exposed to ionizing radiation;
- the impact of Chornobyl ionizing radiation on Rivne-Polissia is among the most severe in Ukraine;
- the transfer index of ¹³⁷Cs from soil to the food-chain in Polissia is among the highest in Ukraine;
- high consumption of ¹³⁷Cs containing edibles and wood for cooking and heating;
- long-standing OMNI-Net / Provincial Public Health partnerships.
Chernobyl: Consequences of the catastrophe 25 years later

Janette D. Sherman, M.D., and Alexey V. Yablokov, Ph.D, San Francisco Bay View, 27 April 2011

          The most serious effect of the Chernobyl radiation is to the brain and is a major medical, social and economic problem for the affected individual, the persons’ family and society at large....
          Inexplicably, WHO had a special project on brain damage in the Chernobyl territories, which was abruptly stopped after the first definitive results. It is becoming clear that low-dose and low-dose rates of radiation have a profound effect upon fine structures of the nervous system, upon higher nervous system function and upon neuropsychiatry function....
          It takes 10 decades for an isotope to completely decay, thus the approximately 30-year half-lives for Sr-90 and Cs-137 mean it will take nearly three centuries before they have decayed, a mere blink of the eye when compared to Plutonium-239 (Pu-239) with a half-life of 24,100 years.
          The human and economic costs are enormous: In the first 25 years, the direct economic damage to Belarus, Ukraine and Russia has exceeded $500 billion. To mitigate some of the consequences, Belarus spends about 20 percent of its national annual budget, Ukraine up to 6 percent and Russia up to 1 percent. Funding from other countries and from the U.N. is essential to continue scientific studies and to provide help to those who continue to live with significant radioactive contamination....
          When a radiation release occurs, we do not know in advance the part of the biosphere it will contaminate, the animals, plants and people that will be affected, nor the amount or duration of harm. In many cases, damage is random, depending upon the health, age and status of development and the amount, kind and variety of radioactive contamination that reaches humans, animals and plants. For this reason, international support of research on the consequences of Chernobyl must continue in order to mitigate the ongoing and increasing damage. Access to information must be transparent and open to all, across all borders. The WHO must assume independent responsibility in support of international health.
          Given the continuing and known problems caused by the Chernobyl catastrophe, we must ask ourselves: Before we commit ourselves to economic and technological support of nuclear energy, who, what and where are we willing to sacrifice and for how long?
Chernobyl Catastrophe: 25th Anniversary of World’s Worst Nuclear Accident

Dr. Janette Sherman and Dr. Jeff Patterson Interview, DemocracyNow.org, 26 April 2011

DR. JEFF PATTERSON: [N]uclear power, nuclear energy, has three poisonous Ps, and those are pollution—and we’re certainly seeing the example of that now at the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl. That pollution occurs all along the fuel cycle, from the time we dig it out of the ground, the tailings that are left and expose people to radon, to the proliferation of nuclear weapons, to the production of fuel, and then we don’t know where to bury the waste or what to do with it. And now we’re seeing the catastrophic release of radiation once again, which happened at Kyshtym in Russia, happened in Chernobyl, and now is happening in Fukushima—and will happen again. And so, pollution is the first thing that is the poisonous P.
          Second is price. And as Medvedev said—he claims that this is the cheapest form of energy. It’s by far and away the most expensive form of energy. When we figure in the results of these disasters and the cost to people’s health, the economic loss, the agricultural loss, the Ukraine, in the initial days of this, spent a sixth of their national budget on Chernobyl. And Belarus and the Ukraine are still spending five to seven percent of their national budgets every year to deal with the Chernobyl accident. If we figured all of that in to the cost of nuclear power, nuclear power becomes extremely expensive. As Dr. Sherman mentioned, the next sarcophagus that they’re proposing to build over the nuclear power plant, they’re estimating will cost $1.1 billion, and they’ve only raised $800 million for this now. It’s already three years behind time in terms of being built. And so, the question is, will this ever get done, because the cost of this is so much. The cost of building a new nuclear power plant is so expensive that, chances are, none will be built, because nobody wants to fund them.
          And the third poisonous P is proliferation. Nuclear power and nuclear weapons go hand in hand. Medvedev talked about the peaceful atom that was designed by Eisenhower. Well, it’s out of the peaceful atom program that has come nuclear weapons for many countries. And we’re seeing the example of that in Iran today. So, these are deadly parts of the nuclear experiment that we are conducting today that, in my opinion, is a highly unethical experiment....
DR. JANETTE SHERMAN: ... When a nuclear reactor explodes, the radiation goes around the entire hemisphere. It is not confined to where the people live—or where the accident occurred. The effects are ubiquitous across all species: that’s wild and domestic animals, birds, fish, bacteria, viruses, plants and humans. So the effects are extremely serious, and they last for generations. We’re terribly concerned about Belarus, where only 20 percent of the children are now considered healthy. So, what do you do with a society if 80 percent of your population is sick? Who are going to be the artists and the musicians and the scientists and the teachers, if your population is not well?...
          It’s very, very, very important to keep adequate records on exposures and the effect of the workers and make them publicly available, certainly not by the name of the individual person, but certainly the data needs to be available and transparent so scientists can follow what is happening to these people. The problem within Chernobyl was that they released almost no data for three years, and it was very, very difficult to reconstruct what was happening. And as Dr. Patterson pointed out, many of these records have disappeared. And indeed, many records of nuclear workers in the United States have disappeared, and it has—workers have a very hard time finding what their exposures were, even when they knew what their job description was.

Difference in width of tree rings in pine logs from Chernobyl. The year of the accident in 1986 is clearly visible from the change in the color of the wood.
From page 7 “Tree rings reveal extent of exposure to ionizing radiation in Scots pine Pinus sylvestris,” Mousseau, Welch, et al. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 11 June 2013:
“The change in tree growth rate at the time of the Chernobyl accident is clearly visible in pine logs from the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Growth varied significantly among years.... While growth varied little during 1914-1985 ..., there was considerably greater variation during 1986-2008.”

A version of this image dons the cover of Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment and is described in the 2011 edition: “Pine trees reveal changes in wood color, density, and growth rate following irradiation from the Chernobyl disaster. T.A. Mousseau, University of South Carolina (2009)”. (p.5)

Health Effects of Chernobyl, 25 years after the reactor catastrophe

Dr. rer. nat. Sebastian Pflugbeil, Society for Radiation Protection
Henrik Paulitz, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW)
Dr. med. Angelika Claussen, IPPNW
Prof. Dr. Inge Schmitz-Feuerhake, Society for Radiation Protection
With the support of Strahlentelex information service, 8 April 2011

from the Executive Summary:
          According to UNSCEAR between 12,000 and 83,000 children were born with congenital deformations in the region of Chernobyl, and around 30,000 to 207,000 genetically damaged children worldwide. Only 10% of the overall expected damage can be seen in the first generation....
          A paper by Kristina Voigt, Hagen Scherb also showed that after 1986, in the aftermath of Chernobyl, around 800,000 fewer children were born in Europe than one might have expected. Scherb estimated that, as the paper did not cover all countries, the overall number of “missing” children after Chernobyl could be about one million. Similar effects were also observed following above-ground nuclear weapons tests....
          Up until today, there has unfortunately been no conclusive overview of the changes in the health condition of the whole of the affected population in the region of Chernobyl, not to mention the lack of an overview of the catastrophe for the people in the Northern hemisphere. The numbers referred to here may seem on the one hand to be terribly high, on the other hand rather low. But it has to be taken into account that nearly all of the collated studies dealt with relatively small sections of the population. Even supposedly slight changes in rates of sickness can signify serious health damage and a large extent of human suffering when they are extrapolated onto a larger population group....
from 4. Genetic and teratogenic damage (malformations), 4.1 The Chernobyl region:
          Scientists from the Universities of Moscow and Leicester examined blood samples from 79 families, the parents of which had been living within a 300-kilometre radius of the reactor. The scientists were surprised by the fact that in those children born between February and September 1994 cases of mutations had doubled. The genetic scientists reasoned, that as the examined children were only two years old this was due to genetic changes in the parental germ cells. Professor David Hillis from the University of Texas in Austin drew attention to the correlation with measurement results from field mice that had lived off highly contaminated food in the area around the Chernobyl sarcophagus: “The rate of mutation amongst the field mice is one hundred thousand times higher than normal”.[92]....
from 6. All cancers and leukaemia:
          The estimated whole-body doses for the affected population in the area around Chernobyl ranged from 0-1.5 Gy. At the same time, it must be noted that an increasing number of Chernobyl studies from the three countries affected have come to the conclusion that the risk of cancer due to chronic low-level radiation is higher in comparison with the results from studies on atomic bomb survivors. The multi-centre study that was carried out on nuclear industry workers in 15 countries shows that the risk for all cancers, except leukaemia and lung cancer, is approximately 3-times higher than for the atomic bomb survivors. It must therefore be ascertained that the results of studies carried out on atomic bomb survivors cannot be applied to the Chernobyl population, as they systematically underestimate the risk.[168]....
from the Executive Summary:
          By 2050 thousands more cases of illnesses will be diagnosed that will have been caused by the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe. The delay between cause and noticeable physical reaction is insidious. Chernobyl is far from over.
          Particularly tragic is the fate of the thousands of children who were born dead or died in infancy, who were born with malformations and hereditary diseases, or who are forced to live with diseases they would not have developed under normal circumstances.
          The genetic defects caused by Chernobyl will continue to trouble the world for a long time to come – most of the effects will not become apparent until the second or third generation.
          Even if the extent of the health effects is not yet clear, it can still be predicted that the suffering brought about by the nuclear disaster in Fukushima is, and will be, of a similar magnitude.

Just One Part in a Thousand ?
       It may sound like a trifle to put only one part per thousand of a poison into the environment, but we will show what one part per thousand means with respect to radioactive cesium.
       The cesium-137 produced each year by a 1000-megawatt (electrical) nuclear power plant amounts to nearly 4 million curies. Since its radioactive half-life is 30.2 years, very little of it decays during a year.
       The Chernobyl reactor contained a two-year cesium-inventory of about 8 million curies. Recent estimates are that the Chernobyl reactor released about 2.5 million curies of cesium-137, which is equivalent to (2.5 / 4.0) or 62.5 % of a ONE-year inventory.
       Now let us consider 100 large nuclear power plants each operating in the USA for a lifespan of about 25 years each. Call "A" the yearly cesium-137 production by one plant. Then 100A = the yearly production by 100 plants. Lifetime production = 25 yrs x 100A/year = 2,500A. 99.9 % containment = release of 1 part per 1,000. With 99.9 % perfect containment, loss = 2.5A. Chernobyl lost 0.625A. The ratio of 2.5A and 0.625A is 4.0.
       This ratio, 4, has an enormous meaning. It means that achieving 99.9 % PERFECT containment of the cesium-137 produced by 100 plants during 25 years of operation, through all steps of the cesium’s handling up through final burial, would STILL result in cesium-137 contamination equivalent in curies to 4 Chernobyl accidents.
       Worldwide, there are about 400 plants underway, so the same scenario (99.9 % perfection in containing cesium) would mean cesium-loss equivalent to 16 Chernobyl accidents per 25 years of operation. And this assault on human health could occur without blowing the roof off any single plant.

—John Gofman, MD, PhD, Radiation-Induced Cancer from Low-Dose
Exposure: An Independent Analysis, 1990,
Chapter 25, "Main Text: A Closing Statement"

Chernobyl’s Accident: Path and Extension of the Radioactive Cloud

Graphic reconstruction of the path of the first 14 days of the 1986 Chernobyl radioactive plume created by the French Government’s official agency on radiation and nuclear matters, the INSTITUT DE RADIOPROTECTION ET SÛRETÉ NUCLÉAIRE (IRSN).
Also included: graphic from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory showing dispersions of Chernobyl radioactive cloud on 27 April and 6 May 1986 (reproduced from “The Chernobyl Catastrophe, Consequences on Human Health,” Greenpeace, 18 April 2006, p.2).
What Next for the WHO and IAEA? Chernobyl, 25 Years Later

Dr. Janette D. Sherman, MD, Counterpunch, 4 March 2011

Immediately after the catastrophe, release of information was limited, and there was a delay in collecting data. WHO, supported by governments worldwide could have been pro-active and led the way to provide readily accessible information, but did not. These omissions resulted in several effects: limited monitoring of fallout levels, delays in getting stable potassium iodide to people, lack of care for many, and delay in prevention of contamination of the food supply....
          The number of victims is one of the most contentious issue between scientists who collected data first-hand and WHO/IAEA that estimated only 9,000 deaths.
          The most detailed estimate of additional deaths was done in Russia by comparing rates in six highly contaminated territories with overall Russian averages and with those of six lesser-contaminated areas, maintaining similar geographical and socioeconomic parameters. There were over 7 million people in each area, providing for robust analysis. Thus data from multiple scientists estimate the overall mortality from the Chernobyl catastrophe, for the period from April 1986 to the end of 2004, to be 985,000, a hundred times more than the WHO/IAEA estimate.
          Given that thyroid diseases caused such a toll, Chernobyl has shown that nuclear societies – notable Japan, France, India, China, the United States, and Germany – must distribute stable potassium iodide (KI) before an accident, because it must be used within the first 24 hours.
          Key to understanding effects from nuclear fallout is the difference between external and internal radiation. While external radiation, as from x-rays, neutron, gamma and cosmic rays can harm and kill, internal radiation (alpha and beta particles) when absorbed by ingestion and inhalation become embedded in tissues and releases damaging energy in direct contact with tissues and cells, often for the lifetime of the person, animal or plant....
          When a radiation release occurs we do not know in advance the part of the biosphere it will contaminate, the animals, plants, and people that will be affected, nor the amount or duration of harm. In many cases, damage is random, depending upon the health, age, and status of development and the amount, kind, and variety of radioactive contamination that reaches humans, animals and plants. For this reason, international support of research on the consequences of Chernobyl must continue in order to mitigate the ongoing and increasing damage. Access to information must be transparent and open to all, across all borders. The WHO must assume independent responsibility in support of international health.
Landscape portrait: A look at the impacts of radioactive contaminants on Chernobyl’s wildlife

Mousseau, Møller, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 67(2):38-46, March 2011

The Chernobyl accident of 1986 released vast quantities of radioactive materials and significantly contaminated about 200,000 square kilometers of land. The Chernobyl Forum Report, an initiative of the International Atomic Energy Agency, suggested that the effects of radiation on wildlife were negligible relative to the impacts of human habitation, but this position was based on the very limited data available prior to this 2006 report. The wildlife of this region has been the subject of extensive study since 2005; since then, research has found that many birds, insects, spiders, and mammals show significant declines as a probable consequence of exposure to radionuclides. The best-studied group, birds, shows a 50 percent decrease in species richness and a 66 percent drop in abundance in the most contaminated areas compared to areas with normal background radiation in the same neighborhood. In addition, mutation rates and developmental abnormalities are dramatically higher, and survival rates and fertility are lower, in regions of moderate to high contamination. These findings challenge reports in the popular media and the conclusions of the Chernobyl Forum Report and are of relevance today, given recent interest in returning contaminated lands to agriculture use and the renaissance of the global nuclear power industry.

Deceitful Assessment of the Chernobyl Disaster: ENOUGH!

Prof. Yury Gandajevski, Ecological and Health Center of Kiev, 2010 (source)

Response to the information which appears in the last assessment of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) published by the agency Reuters on Sept 22, 2010.
Malformations in a Chornobyl-Impacted Region

Wladimir Wertelecki, MD, Pediatrics 2010;125:e836-e843 (source)

OBJECTIVE: One of the populations most exposed to chronic low-dose radiation from Chornobyl (Chernobyl in Russian) lives in Polissia, the region representing the northern half of Rivne Province (Oblast) in Ukraine. Here the patterns and population rates of malformations are reported and possible etiologic factors and regional contrasts are explored.
PATIENTS AND METHODS: Malformations, as defined by international standards, noted among all 96 438 births in Rivne between 2000 and 2006, were analyzed statistically. Contrasts of rates in Polissia compared with the rest of Rivne also were investigated.
RESULTS: The overall rate of neural tube defects in Rivne is among the highest in Europe (22.2 per 10 000 live births). The rates of conjoined twins and teratomas also seem to be elevated. In Polissia, the overall rates of neural tube defects are even higher (27.0 vs 18.3, respectively; odds ratio: 1.46 [95% confidence interval: 1.13-1.93]), and the rates of microcephaly and microphthalmia may also be elevated.
CONCLUSIONS: The malformation patterns observed suggest early disruptions of blastogenesis, manifesting as alterations of body axes, twinning, duplications, laterality, and midline formation. The results are sufficiently compelling to justify continuing and expanding this investigation of malformations in chronic low-dose radiation-impacted regions of Ukraine.
Historical Mutation Rates Predict Susceptibility to Radiation in Chernobyl Birds

A.P. Møller, J. Erritzøe, et al. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 2010

Extreme environmental perturbations are rare, but may have important evolutionary consequences. Responses to current perturbations may provide important information about the ability of living organisms to cope with similar conditions in the evolutionary past. Radioactive contamination from Chernobyl constitutes one such extreme perturbation, with significant but highly variable impact on local population density and mutation rates of different species of animals and plants. We explicitly tested the hypothesis that species with strong impacts of radiation on abundance were those with high rates of historical mutation accumulation as reflected by cytochrome b mitochondrial DNA base-pair substitution rates during past environmental perturbations. Using a dataset of 32 species of birds, we show higher historical mitochondrial substitution rates in species with the strongest negative impact of local levels of radiation on local population density. These effects were robust to different estimates of impact of radiation on abundance, weighting of estimates of abundance by sample size, statistical control for similarity in the response among species because of common phylogenetic descent, and effects of population size and longevity. Therefore, species that respond strongly to the impact of radiation from Chernobyl are also the species that in the past have been most susceptible to factors that have caused high substitution rates in mitochondrial DNA.

Location of breeding bird census areas and levels of background radiation around Chernobyl. Partly developed from European Union (1998).
Non-cancerous Medical Conditions in Areas of Belarus Contaminated by Radioactivity from the 1986 Chernobyl Nuclear Accident,

Prof. Yury Bandazhevsky & Dr. Galina Bandazhevskaya, Slide Presentation, Belarus 2009

          Twenty-three years after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the people of the Republic of Belarus, who have lived in areas contaminated by radioactive elements and continuously consumed these radionuclides through food over a long period are exposed to a risk of increased cardiovascular diseases and malignant tumors.
          The steady increase of these diseases during the 23 years after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant has led to a situation that is near the demographic catastrophe where the mortality rate is almost twice the birth rate.
          The current situation requires immediate actions at national and international levels to address the problem: the protection of the health of people living in the territories affected by the Chernobyl accident.
Chernobyl: An Unbelievable Failure to Help

Rosalie Bertell, International Journal of Health Services, March 2008

... IAEA subsequently took its radiation protection recommendations directly from ICRP (rather than WHO), therefore persons from the Commission who also sit on UNSCEAR both make the rules and judge their adequacy. Dr. Fred Mettler, Jr. is not the only person to sit on the Commission and also sit on UNSCEAR. This dual role is commonplace and clearly a conflict of interest....
          The nuclear industry has a monopoly on radiation and human health scientific information, and its dissemination through the Universities into nuclear reactor facilities, hospital radiology laboratories and UN organizations. This poses a further serious problem. Normally, one believes the evidence at hand, rather than the theory! If one has been taught theory as fact, the situation becomes more complicated. ICRP has created an artificial "consensus" on the health effects of radiation....
          The next logical question is: why would the serious health effects of radiation, such as **non-fatal cancers, (including thyroid, breast and skin), non-cancer somatic effects and teratogenic effects of radiation be discounted and ignored? It is my opinion that this administrative decision made by the physicists of the Manhattan Project was meant as a safeguard against possible objections to the northern hemispheric nuclear fallout....
          Thus the radiation protection standards proposed by the Manhattan Project physicists and later by ICRP and IAEA have been, from the start, a trade-off between the "benefits" sought by the professional users of ionizing radiation, not least of which were the bomb makers, and the "risk" to life and health of workers and the public....
          Since the ICRP methodology and radiation risks depend heavily on the Atomic Bomb Research, which looked at the effects of high radiation doses delivered at a fast rate from an external (to the body) source, it fails to address chronic low dose internal radioactive contamination.... The IAEA Report of 2005 and UNSCEAR 2000 analysis ignored these considerations. When the international scientific critics of ICRP methodology develop an internationally acceptable alternative, and when the UNSCEAR data gaps are filled, we may be able to adjust this estimate of Chernobyl deaths and severe injuries accordingly. However, the inadequate record-keeping in this high-technology age will always be seen as an attempt to cover-up the true effects of the Chernobyl disaster. Clearly, the true damage to health attributable to the Chernobyl disaster has been hidden from the general public through poor and incomplete scientific investigation, obfuscation and poor recording of data and outright lying.
          Many people are mystified that three UN Agencies (IAEA, WHO and UNEP) appear to be agreeing on the minimal damage done to the people directly affected by Chernobyl and other low dose radiation exposures. I think this is a failure to understand the profound influence wielded by ICRP which dictates not only what should be of concern to UN Agencies, but also provides the methodology which must be used in order to determine both the dose of ionizing radiation received by the victims and the risk posed by that dose. All of the U.N. Agencies use these same protocols, methodologies and risk estimates—hence there are no independent assessments. Reform of the UN must assure independence of its agencies....
          The time has come to replace closed science with open science, self-perpetuating committees with professional societies accountable to their peers, and monopolized areas of research with properly funded transparent scientific research. While physics is needed to identify and quantify the strength and nature of a radiation source, physicians with expertise in epidemiology, toxicology, oncology, pediatrics and community health should describe the injury caused by it, and the ramifications of the exposure for the public health. The need is urgent for UN reform in this important area on which the survival of the human species and the environment may well depend.
Biological consequences of Chernobyl: 20 years on

Anders Pape Møller and Timothy A. Mousseau, Trends in Ecology and Evolution, vol. 21, May 2006, pp. 200-207

The disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986 released 80 petabecquerel of radioactive caesium, strontium, plutonium and other radioactive isotopesinto the atmosphere, polluting 200 000 km² of land in Europe. As we discuss here, several studies have since shown associations between high and low levels of radiation and the abundance, distribution, life history and mutation rates of plants and animals. However, this research is the consequence of investment by a few individuals rather than a concerted research effort by the international community, despite the fact that the effects of the disaster are continent-wide. A coordinated international research effort is therefore needed to further investigate the effects of the disaster, knowledge that could be beneficial if there are further nuclear accidents, including the threat of a ‘dirty bomb’.
The Big Lie - The Secret Chernobyl Documents

Alla Yaroshinskaya, Eurozine, 21 April 2006

In 1990, journalist Alla Yaroshinskaya came across secret documents about the Chernobyl catastrophe that revealed a massive cover-up operation and a calculated policy of disinformation. The state and party leadership had knowingly played down the extent of the contamination and offered a sanitized version to the outside world. In 1991, five years after the accident, a series of laws was adopted to protect the victims of radiation; now, scientists have begun to find serious flaws in these too. As recent studies show, the human and environmental damage shows no sign of abating.
The Other Report On Chernobyl (TORCH)

Ian Fairlie, PhD, UK. David Sumner, DPhil, UK, Commissioned by Rebecca Harms, MEP, Greens/EFA, European Parliament, Berlin, Brussels, Kiev, April 2006

An Independent Scientific Evaluation of Health and Environmental Effects 20 Years After the Nuclear Disaster Providing Critical Analysis of a Recent Report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
“We did not yet possess a system of imagination, analogies, words or experiences for the catastrophe of Chernobyl.”
—Svetlana Alexiyevich, Writer from Belarus
          In August 1986, four months after the Chernobyl disaster, Morris Rosen, head of the Division of Nuclear Safety of the Vienna based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), declared: “Even if there was a Chernobyl type accident every year, I would still consider nuclear power an interesting type of energy production”.[1] After a gigantic explosion and a ten day blazing fire had spread two hundred times the amount of radioactivity of the combined releases of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs all over the planet, after the evacuation of over one hundred thousand people, the IAEA’s chief nuclear safety officer considered an annual repetition of such a catastrophe an acceptable hypothesis. This man was the most powerful person in the IAEA on the issue of nuclear safety between 1981 and 1996, when he retired from his position then as Assistant Director General for Nuclear Safety. Breathtaking.
          Rosen’s post-Chernobyl declaration sheds a particular light on the mission statement of the IAEA, which stipulates that the Agency “develops nuclear safety standards and, based on these standards, promotes the achievement and maintenance of high levels of safety in applications of nuclear energy, as well as the protection of human health and the environment against ionizing radiation”. Frightening.
          When the IAEA in September 2005 released two reports on the environmental effects (coordinated by the IAEA) and health impacts (coordinated by the World Health Organisation - WHO) of the Chernobyl accident, numerous people and NGOs were suspicious about intentions and content. The IAEA is not neutral. Its primary role, as defined on its website, is “to promote safe, secure and peaceful nuclear technologies”. The IAEA led interagency cooperation with the WHO is not a coincidence. An 1959 agreement between both organisations stipulates: “Whenever either organization proposes to initiate a program or activity on a subject in which the other organization has or may have a substantial interest, the first party shall consult the other with a view to adjusting the matter by mutual agreement.” The term is well chosen: “adjusting the matter”.
          For the Swiss medical doctor Michel Fernex, the consequences are straight forward: “This Agreement explains why the WHO action plan for Chernobyl, IPHECA[2], launched as late as 5 years after the catastrophe, was designed by the IAEA, it explains why the proceedings of the WHO Chernobyl Conference (Geneva 1995) were never published, and why the inter-agency UN report on Chernobyl[3] still indicates, against all evidence, that Chernobyl caused 32 deaths, 200 irradiated and 2,000 thyroid cancers (in children and teenagers only), those being the IAEA and UNSCEAR[4] figures, and not those of WHO and OCHA[5].”

“NIGTMARE IN CHERNOBYL” by Jacklyn Sauevdaé (sp?) [†]

Chronic Cs-137 incorporation in children’s organs

Yuri I. Bandazhevsky, M.D., Swiss Med Wkly 2003;133:488-490

In Belarus’s Gomel region, which was heavily contaminated by fallout from the Chernobyl disaster, we have studied the evolution of the Cs-137 load in the organisms of the rural population, in particular children, since 1990. Children have a higher average burden of Cs-137 compared with that of adults living in the same community.
We measured the Cs-137 levels in organs examined at autopsy. The highest accumulation of Cs-137 was found in the endocrine glands, in particular the thyroid, the adrenals and the pancreas. High levels were also found in the heart, the thymus and the spleen.
Key words: Chernobyl children; radiocaesium; thyroid; adrenals; pancreas; thymus; myocardium
Radioactive Cesium and the Heart: Pathophisiologic Aspects

Prof Yuri I. Bandazjevsky, M.D The Belrad Institute, 2001 (Russian-to-English translation: 2013) (source)

This book is one of a series of the author’s publications on the effects of radioactive elements on the human body. The author analyzes the results of his clinical-laboratory studies on the impact of radioactive cesium [primarily Cs-137] upon cardiac function. The book is intended for a wide range of readers, physicians and scientists who are interested in problems of the influence of incorporated radionuclides on the human body.
from the Preface:
Dr. Bandazhevsky’s groundbreaking research on the effects of radioactive cesium upon the children and people of Belarus is not well known in the United States. This is in large part because the government of Belarus chose to persecute him and suppress his work, which threatened to disrupt their plans to repopulate lands grossly contaminated with radioactive cesium. Bandazhevsky was forced to write this study while under house arrest, awaiting many years of subsequent imprisonment and torture. Government agents had already destroyed many of the archived samples, slides and materials that he and his colleagues and students had accumulated during the nine years he was Rector of the Gomel State Medical Institute of Belarus. However, Bandazhevsky had already published much of the statistical data he had obtained in 4 books: Clinical and experimental aspects of the effects of incorporated radionuclides in the body [Russian and English], Gomel 1995; Pathophysiology of incorporated radioactivity, Gomel, 1997; Structural and functional effects of radionuclides incorporated into the body, Gomel, 1997. Pathology of incorporated radioactivity, Minsk, 1999, as well as numerous articles in the collection of scientific works of the Gomel State Medical Institute. He used much of this previously published information in conjunction with the slides that he had preserved at his residence, in order to write this study. For purposes of clarity, I have added a section, at the bottom of page 6, which provides more details on the methodology used by Dr. Bandazhevsky to obtain Whole Body Counts and the specific activity of ¹³⁷Cs (cesium-137). This section on methodology is taken from “Chronic Cs-137 Incorporation in Children’s Organs,” published in Swiss Med Wkly 2003; 133:488-490. Dr. Bandazhevsky was the author, but note that he was in prison at the time, and the 2003 study was compiled by his European colleagues using data that they had obtained from Dr. Bandazhevsky during their visits to the Gomel State Medical Institute during the period 1997-1999. Dr. Bandazhevsky has recently confirmed to me that that the methodology described in the 2003 study did in fact describe the methodology used during his nine year research recorded in this study.
—Steven Starr, March 2013
Belarus brought to its knees by ‘invisible enemy’

Opinion, Irish Times, 26 April 2001

Fifteen years after Chernobyl, the world has moved on. But for Belarus the problems are only beginning. Thyroid cancer rates have risen by 2,400 per cent since the explosion ... It is the country of Belarus which has suffered, and continues to suffer, most from the disaster: 70 per cent of the radiation has fallen on its land and people.... Medical research has shown that radioactive elements (primarily caesium 137 and iodine 131) cross the placental barrier from mother to foetus, contaminating each new generation. Faced with soaring levels of infertility and genetic changes, the gene pool of the Belarussian people is now under threat.
Pathology of Incorporated Radioactive Emission

Yury Bandazhevsky, Minsk: Gomel Medical Institute, 2000, 82 pp. (source)

The publication deals with the effect of incorporated radioisotopes upon the condition of vital systems of the organism. The author has employed the clinical and experimental approach to analyze the relationship between the origination of a variety of pathological conditions and the quantity of radioisotopes incoroporated by the organism, primarily ¹³⁷Cs, considering its extensive prsence in the environment after the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
          The publication is intended for various practitioners, researchers investigating the problems of radiation effect upon the human organism. It can also serve as a manual for students of medicine and biology.
The Chernobyl disaster has brought about a lot of grief and suffering to the people of Belarus, Ukraine, Russia..Partially it has been due to the lack of awareness about valid information how the factors of radioactive fall-out affect the human organism.
          Release of a huge quantity of radioisotopes into the environment has placed the lives of many thousands and millions of people of the living and future generations under constant threat.
          In order to reduce the negative effect of radiation agents upon the human organism to the minimum, profound medical research is required using the results of fundamental studies. The present publication evaluates the results achieved by the author and researchers of the Gomel Medical Institute in numerous research projects aimed at assessing the effect upon the human organism of the Chernobyl radioisotopes which contaminated the environment . The accomplished research has been based on the following methodological approaches:
          1. Assessment of the medical and biological effects with the consideration of the dose of radioisotopes incorporated by the organism.
          2. Investigation of pathological processes clinically and by experimental simulation among laboratory animals (the clinical and experimental approach).
          3. Investigation of structural, functional and metabolic modifications evolving in the organism, its individual organs and systems (the morphofunctional approach).
          4. Assessment of the severity of pathological conditions, such as disorders of the integrating processes in the organism in order to combine together the pathological modifications evolving in different organs.
          The author hopes that the treated problems will attract the medical and scientific community and will welcome with.appreciation all comments and suggestions.
Chernobyl & Thyroid Cancer
- Cancer: Radiation hits very young the hardest, 3/15/00
- Nature: Thyroid Cancer 7.5 yrs after Chernobyl soaring, 9/3/92
14 years after and beyond ...
- Chernobyl Kills And Cripples 14 Years After Blast, 4/21/00
- Deadly toll of Chernobyl, 4/22/00
- Ukraine Chernobyl Survivors Mark 14th Anniversary, 4/23/00
- Worst Effects of Chernobyl To Come, 4/25/00
- 50,000 extra Chernobyl cancers predicted, 4/26/00
- Chernobyl: For 14 years, the industry has downplayed the damage to humans and the planet, 5/7/00
- Chernobyl’s risk to sheep may persist for 15 years, 5/11/00
- Ukraine: Chornobyl Contamination Lingers Longer Than Thought, 5/15/00
- Chernobyl Radiation Will Affect UK 100 Times Longer than Forecast, 6/7/00
- Chernobyl Newborns at Risk From 1986 Reactor Blast, 9/19/00
Benevolent Doctor Uses Skills to Help Chernobyl Victims

Takeshi Kuroiwa, Daily Yomiuri, 27 March 2000
Atlas of Cesium Deposition on Europe After the Chernobyl Accident

De Cort, Dubois, et al. Luxembourg, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 1998

The atlas contains maps of the deposition on Europe of caesium-137 which was released in the Chernobyl accident in 1986. Maps are provided on three scales: European, national/regional and local. Perspective is also provided on the current radiological significance of these deposits.
This Atlas was prepared under the auspices of the EC/CIS collaborative programme of research on the consequences of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (CNPP) accident. Various institutes in Belarus, the Russia, Ukraine and the European Union (EU) participated in the development of the Atlas through one of the projects (Joint Study Project No. 6) carried out within the collaborative programme. Extensive data on the deposition of radioactive material on Europe resulting from the CNPP accident have been collected and validated: these data have been transformed into maps of deposited material using advanced interpolation techniques and a geographical information system. The resulting Atlas is unique in providing a coherent and comprehensive picture of deposition across the whole of Europe and will, for many years to come, be the authoritative reference on this subject.

“Welcome to Chernobyl # Do Not Enter!!! # ☠ Radiation” by Kimberly Kido [†]

Pathophysiology of Incorporated Radioactive Emission

Yu.I. Bandazhevsky, Gomel State Medical Institute, 1998, 57 pp. (source)

This book is an earlier version of the 2000 edition (above), Pathology of Incorporated Radioactive Emission. It is included here for completeness.
Structural and Functional Effects of Radioisotopes Incorporated By The Organism

Ed. by Prof. Yu. I. Bandazhevsky, Ministry of Health Care of Republic of Belarus, Belorussian Engineering Academy, Gomel State Medical Institute, 1997, 137 pp. (source)

This book is another one scientific labour of researchers of the Gomel State Medical Institute. It deals with the effect of incorporated radioactivity on human organism.
          The book represents results of clinical and experimental investigations of state of vitally important system s of the organism: vegetative nervous, cardiovascular as well as the organs of vision, immuno-hematological status, the pregnancy flow and embryo evolution.
          Special attention in the book is paid to incorporation of widely spread in the environment radioactive elements into the human organism. The factors affecting this process are also discussed.
          In this connection, I think, quite interesting are the results of experimental study of the pectopal enterosorbent on laboratory animals. It can help to spread it widely in medicine practice.
          I hope that materials presented in the book will be useful at projecting actions on preventing and treatment of diseases caused by effect of incorporated radioactive elements on human body.
Nuclear Technology: The Inappropriate Exercise of Human Intelligence

Dave Ratcliffe, marking 10 year mark of Chernobyl Catastrophe, 16 June 1986
Chernobyl at Ten: Half-lives and Half Truth
John M. LaForge, Nukewatch, April 1996
- Part I
- Part II
Chernobyl’s 10th: Cancer and Nuclear-Age Peace—Don’t Be Deceived

John Gofman, M.D., Ph.D., Committee for Nuclear Responsibility, 9 March 1996

The monolithic nuclear/radiation "community" cannot afford to provide a meaningful analysis of the radiation consequences. Life, for this monolith, requires the lowest possible death consequences of Chernobyl.... Those enterprises (military or civilian) which deliver ionizing radiation to people, anywhere in the world, share the common goal of underestimating the health-hazard of ionizing radiation. Thus, the military enterprises, the nuclear power enterprises, and the medical radiation enterprises (x-rays and "nuclear medicine") share a common endeavor.
Clinical and Experimental Aspects of The Effect of Incorporated Radionuclides Upon The Organism

Edited by Professor Yu.I. Bandazhevsky and Professor V.V. Lelevich, Ministry of Health of The Republic of Belarus, Belorussian Engineering Academy, Gomel State Medical Institute, 1995, pp.126 (source)

The Chernobyl disaster in 1986 has been a severe grievance for the people of Belarus. Alongside with socioeconomic cataclysms the radiation factor has affected the people living in contaminated areas. At least 180 million Curies of radioactive substances were released into the environment. They have spurred a number of diseases, specifically neoplasm of the thyroid, endocrine and cardio-vascular pathology. Considering the entire variety of the factors it is a problem to discriminate those which are decisive in the evolution of pathological processes. While initially short-living isotopes (¹³⁷I, ⁸⁹Sr, inert gases krypton, xenon and others) were the leading contributors into the dose rate, subsequently ¹³⁷Cs, ¹³⁴Cs and ⁹⁰Sr became dominating. These elements both govern the external radiation background and penetrate into organisms with food, water and air. They accumulate in tissues and organs and destroy their normal functions. Though 9 years have passed after the disaster the lives of the people in these areas remain under threat. Only the nature of this effect undergoes changes. While a lot of information has been obtained about the effect of external radiation, quite little is known how incorporated isotopes affect the human organism.
The present manuscript deals exactly with this problem. It contains the results of studies accomplished at the Gomel and Grodno Medical Institutes. The authors do not claim that their conclusions are beyond argument, they believe it is their duty to make the results of this 5-year long study initiated by the Gomel Medical Institute known to the international medical community. It is hoped that this information will be a useful step stone for further investigation o f the effect o f radioactive substances upon the human organism with a view to develop methods of protection and treatment.
As of November 1995, a partial list of some of the costs of Chernobyl Catastrophe [1-5, 6, 7, 8, 9] :
1. Death rates are 30 percent higher for those in contaminated regions in the Ukraine compared to the rest of the country.
2. Birth rates in Belarus have fallen 50 percent.
3. Thyroid cancer, particularly among children, is up 285 percent in Belarus.
4. About 7,000 in Russia alone who helped put out the fire and seal the reactor are believed to have died and 38 percent are recovering from some kind of disease.
5. Belarus, the most heavily affected country, spends 20 percent of its budget on dealing with Chernobyl’s aftermath; Ukraine devotes four percent and Russia, one percent.
6. Contamination of Lake Kojanovskoe—downriver from Chernobyl and used by more than 30 million people—with "radiation levels 60 times above European Union safety norms".
7. Repair estimates for the disintegrating sarcophagus range from $1.28 to $2.3 billion.
8. 125,000 people alone have died "from diseases related to the accident" according to Ukraine’s Health Ministry.
9. Ivan Kenik, Belarus’s Chernobyl minister, estimates the cost within the borders of Belarus for "total damages from the Chernobyl catastrophe from 1986 to 2015" to be $235 billion.
Radio-Iodine: From Hanford To Chernobyl ... And Beyond?

John Gofman, M.D., Ph.D., Committee for Nuclear Responsibility, Spring 1993

In 1989, a group of radiation experts who were sent to the Chernobyl area by the World Health Organization (WHO) denied that any of the health problems were related to radiation. In May 1991, a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) produced the same denial. Neither report denied health problems. Rather, the reports denied any connection between the problems and radiation. Both sets of experts claimed that the Chernobyl populations which they visited suffered from exaggerated fears about their radiation exposures.
We think that the explanation for some of the health problems may be radiation-induced hypo-thyroidism from radio-iodine—rather than “radio-phobia.” This essay explains why.

So Sorry If We’re Wrong ...
Some segments of the radiation community appear to believe passionately that no one should impede the nuclear enterprise on the basis of what they label as speculation and conjecture about injury from low doses and dose-rates. Instead, they ask the world to accept THEIR speculation and conjecture that low doses and dose-rates are safe—a notion which would surely result in increased exposures.
But if the threshold speculation is wrong (as shown in this book), and nonetheless we contaminate the planet irreversibly with radioactive poisons, the results might be hundreds of millions of unnecessary cancers over time—as well as a presently unquantifiable price in heritable genetic damage.

—John Gofman, MD, PhD, Radiation-Induced Cancer from Low-Dose
Exposure: An Independent Analysis, 1990,
Chapter 24, “Chernobyl: A Crossroad in the Radiation Health Sciences”

Chernobyl and the Collapse of Soviet Society

Dr. Jay M. Gould, original complete essay before edited and published in The Nation, 15 March 1993

Dr. Gould presents the evidence concerning the devastating health effects suffered by the majority of the Russian people from their exposure to the radioactivity released at Chernobyl as being the single most important factor hastening the collapse of the Soviet Empire.

[†]

Testimony about Chernobyl from the World Uranium Hearing conducted in Salzburg in 1992:
- Vladimir Chernousenko
  Physicist, scientific co-ordinator of the clean-up in Chernobyl
- Gernadij Grushevoi
  Co-founder of the Foundation for the Children of Chernobyl
- Irina Grushevaya
  Medical doctor, co-founder of the Foundation for the Children of Chernobyl
- Nikolaj Ostrogskij
  Head of an aviary clean-up task-force in Chernobyl
- Andres Illan
  Member of a clean-up task-force in Chernobyl
- Vladimir Nechunaev
  Member of the Estonian Chernobyl Committee
excerpts from Chernobyl, Insight From the Inside, Springer-Verlag, 1991

Dr. Vladimir M. Chernousenko, Scientific Director of the attempted “clean up”.

The book’s Forward, written From the Publisher, describes Chernousenko (born in 1941) as having,
started his scientific career at the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences Institute of Physics in Kiev. Since 1971, he has worked at the Institute for Theoretical Physics of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in Kiev, where he earned his Ph.D. in theoretical physics in 1973. Since then, up to 1991, he has been the head of the Laboratory for Nonlinear Physics and Ecology. His scientific acumen is exceptionally diverse, as can be seen from his numerous publications (120 scientific papers and four monographs).
When the Chernobyl Reactor went critical and exploded on April 26, 1986, Dr. Chernousenko was invited by the Academy to act as "Scientific Director of the Task Force for the Rectification of the Consequences of the Chernobyl Accident" (i.e. to help direct the cleanup of this catastrophe). In this capacity, he served for five years as one of three key participants in the attempts to "clean up" the disaster. In the Preface, "The Myths of Chernobyl, and why I Wrote This Book," Chernousenko articulates an "(incomplete) catalogue of [21] myths" about this tragedy.
“HOLOCAUST” versus “NOTHING HAPPENED” :
Tales from a Distant Place ... with a Problem Very Close to All of Us

John Gofman, M.D., Ph.D., Committee for Nuclear Responsibility, Fall 1991

Who will control what information becomes the new "textbook wisdom" about Chernobyl’s radiation consequences? Obviously it makes a huge difference....
          [O]ver decades and centuries, science has established important barriers against bias—rules which are widely disregarded today in radiation research. Adherence to these rules will not be demanded by the public, press, and other professions unless they are aware of them. Some of the basic principles will be listed in Part 5 ...
          If the world allows the truth about Chernobyl to become distorted by bias in the direction of underestimating its radiation consequences, it would be a warning that the truth about every chemical pollutant is also in danger of comparable distortion.
          And if all these hazards are systematically distorted by conflicts of interest in the research, humanity everywhere will face not only a vast harvest of radiation-induced misery from "permissible" nuclear pollution, but additional giant harvests from "permissible" chemical pollution of every type. And "mysteriously rising" rates of illness can occur even while the average length of life is growing.
          Therefore, one of the most vital activities in the field of citizen action and preventive medicine—today, tomorrow, and forever—is the fiercest possible defense of objective, untainted databases.
          There can be no activity more important for human health, for if the databases cannot be trusted and relied upon, then medical science can be turned on its head by mis-information, which can persist as textbook wisdom even for centuries.
Chernobyl: A Crossroad in the Radiation Health Sciences

John Gofman, M.D., Ph.D., Chapter 24, Radiation-Induced Cancer from Low-Dose Exposure: AN INDEPENDENT ANALYSIS, 1990.
Introduction
This chapter will compare our independent analysis of Chernobyl’s cancer consequences, with three estimates from influential segments of the radiation community. We will account for the huge disparity in such estimates. In addition, we shall provide some new estimates which use the Cancer-Yields developed in this book, as well as the Cancer-Yields published in 1987 and 1988 by RERF analysts.
In the process, we will suggest how the response by segments of the radiation community to the Chernobyl accident could have serious implications—extending to nuclear issues far beyond this single accident, and beyond ionizing radiation to other health issues and to the practice of science itself.
This chapter documents the following:

"De Minimis"—Beyond Radiation:
Many people have observed that human nature incorporates some contradictory tendencies. It seems contradictory to me that, on the one hand, there is a readiness to inflict cancer-death on undetectable victims who will not be noticed, while there is a competing tendency which causes some people in Oakland, California, to risk their own lives on an unstable structure and work themselves to exhaustion following the October 1989 earthquake, just on the very slim chance that they might SAVE one life from under the collapsed freeway.
People of goodwill need to look closely at the aggregate consequences of individually small risks. If pollution sources of all types are regulated individually, and each is allowed under the "de minimis" concept to kill one person in 100,000 (a low individual risk), then only 10,000 sources could kill up to one tenth of the population. And no one would ever be able to prove it.

—John Gofman, MD, PhD, Radiation-Induced Cancer from Low-Dose
Exposure: An Independent Analysis, 1990,
Chapter 24, “Chernobyl: A Crossroad in the Radiation Health Sciences”

Assessing Chernobyl’s Cancer Consequences: Application of Four “Laws” of Radiation Carcinogenesis

John W. Gofman, M.D., Ph.D., The American Chemical Society Symposium On Low-Level Radiation, Division of Chemical Health and Safety, 9 September 1986

There exists as large a body of evidence for the human concerning the quantitative aspects of induction of cancer and leukemia by ionizing radiation as exists for any other carcinogen, probably an even larger body of evidence. In 1969, using the human evidence available to that time, Gofman and Tamplin[2] presented three generalizations or “laws” which permit quantitative assessment of the cancer toll which will follow human exposure to ionizing radiation under virtually all circumstances of exposure....
          It is correct to say that a single event—the Chernobyl accident—has caused between 600,000 and a million cases of cancer and leukemia. The radio-cesiums are on the ground, and humans are committed to receive the doses from them. To the extent that a share of the dose has already been received, a share of the malignancies is already underway, even though they will not become manifest, clinically, for years.
          The Chernobyl accident obviously represents the most serious industrial tragedy in the history of mankind, and by a very large factor.
          We can predict with high confidence that an honest study of the proposed population sample will simply confirm—but decades from now—the magnitude of radiation production of cancer, a magnitude we know quite well prior to such a study.
          The existing human evidence provides a solid basis for assessing the Chernobyl toll. The credible lower-limit of malignancies from the cesium fallout is approximately 640,000 cases, and a credible upper-limit is probably 1,600,000 malignancies. Only additional and reliable measurements of cesium fallout, made by independent scientists, can narrow the range.

Documentary Films and Programs

PHOTO: IGOR KOSTIN

Liquidators working to clear exposed radioactive graphite and other debris of the exploded reactor core from the roof of Reactor 3. After unsuccessful attempts with Russian, West German, and Japanese robots which failed due to extreme radiation levels, authorities made the decision that people had to do the work. A worker’s time limit was 40 seconds as radiation exposure at this level was, at that time, the maximum lifetime allowable dose.

The Battle of Chernobyl, Writer/Director: Thomas Johnson, Producer: Hind Saïh, Play Film, 2006

On April 26, 1986, a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian city of Pripyat exploded and began spewing radioactive smoke and gas. Firemen discovered that no amount of water could extinguish the blaze. More than 40,000 residents in the immediate area were exposed to fallout 100 times greater than that from the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan. But the most serious nuclear accident in history up to that time had only begun.
          Based on top-secret government documents that came to light only in the Nineteen Nineties during the collapse of the Soviet Union, The Battle Of Chernobyl reveals a systematic cover-up of the true scope of the disaster, including the possibility of a secondary explosion of the still-smoldering magma, whose radioactive clouds would have rendered Europe uninhabitable. The government effort to prevent such a catastrophe lasted for more than seven months and sacrificed the lives of thousands of soldiers, miners and other workers.
          The Battle Of Chernobyl dramatically chronicles the series of harrowing efforts to stop the nuclear chain reaction and prevent a second explosion, to "liquidate" the radioactivity, and to seal off the ruined reactor under a mammoth "sarcophagus." These nerve-racking events are recounted through newly available films, videos and photos taken in and around the plant, computer animation, and interviews with participants and eyewitnesses, many of whom were exposed to radiation, including government and military leaders, scientists, workers, journalists, doctors, and Pripyat refugees.
          The consequences of this catastrophe continue today, with tens of thousands of disabled survivors suffering from the "Chernobyl syndrome" of radiation-related illnesses, and the urgent need to replace the hastily-constructed and now crumbling sarcophagus over the still-contaminated reactor. As this remarkable film makes clear, The Battle Of Chernobyl is far from over.
Chernobyl Heart, by Maryann DeLeo (38:38, 2003)
In 2002 award-winning filmmaker Maryann De Leo took her camera to ground zero, following the devastating trail radiation leaves behind in hospitals, orphanages, mental asylums and evacuated villages. The 2004 Academy Award-winning documentary short debuts immediately after the America Undercover special “Indian Point: Imagining the Unimaginable”.
          Following Adi Roche, founder of Ireland’s Chernobyl Children’s Project, CHERNOBYL HEART opens in the exclusion zone, the most radioactive environment on earth. From there, Roche travels to Belarus, home to many of the children she seeks to aid. The film reveals those hardest hit by radiation, including thyroid cancer patients and children suffering from unfathomable congenital birth and heart defects.
          Despite the fact that 99% of Belarus is contaminated with radioactive material, many people refuse to leave their homes behind. Asked why he would not move, the father of a radiation victim replies, “To leave the motherland where you were born and raised, where your soul is connected to the earth - I would not want to. To move to a new place is difficult, especially in terms of a job in Belarus and abroad.”
          In Belarus, only 15-20% of babies are born healthy. Roche comforts children who are born with multiple holes in their heart, a condition known in Belarus as “Chernobyl heart.” A lucky few will have their heart problems fixed by Dr. William Novick, who heads the International Children’s Heart Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping children with congenital or acquired heart disease in developing countries throughout the world. After saving the life of a young girl suffering from Chernobyl heart and being humbled by her parents’ gratitude, Dr. Novick affirms, “I appreciate this is a bit of a miracle for them...but we have a certain responsibility to these kids.”
Chernobyl.1986.04.26 P.S., 26 videos, last updated: 13 Jun 2019
For the first time 30 years on «1986.04.26 P.S.» “Telecon” documentary film studio is disclosing unique film archives on elimination of the consequences of the Chernobyl accident. The series is a reminder of the heroism of the liquidators, to whom whole generations are indebted. Yuri Samoilenko, Viktor Golubev, Peter Shvydko, Valery Starodumov Nikolai Tarakanov ... a lot of them – thousands of real heroes who sacrificed their lives and health.
Postscriptum
Valery Starodumov, a direct participant in the events, is commenting on the chronicle:
- 1982-1986: Chief Engineer of the Sverdlovsk radiation safety plant;
- 1986-1991 : Chief Engineer, Director of the Chernobyl radioactive waste decontamination and treatment enterprise - SE “Complex”;
- 1991-1992 : Head of the “Pripyat” International Research Center;
- 1992-1996 : Concern “Ukratomenergoprom”, Deputy Chairman of “Goskomatom”;
- 1996 : President of NNEGC “Energoatom”;
- 1997 : Head of the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine Directorate General;
- 1999-2002 : Chief Engineer of the “Bushehr” NPP construction project (Iran);
- 2002-2005 : Deputy General Director of the “Ostrov” company on NPP (Russia and Ukraine) and nuclear industry refrigeration equipment;
- 2005-2011 : NNEGC “Energoatom” Head of Section.
The media tend to remember these self-sacrificing people twice a year – on the day of the tragedy, on April the 26th, and on the Liquidator’s Day, on the 14th of December. But for the people of Chernobyl, who participated in the construction of the “Shelter”, the 30th of November, the day of the Sarcophagus over the 4th reactor completion, is no less important.
Nuclear Controversies, Emanuela Andreoli, Romano Cavazzoni, Wladimir Tchertkoff, Feldat Film Switzerland (50:15, 2004)
Notes by Joe Giambrone:
My friends, you have been lied to about the hazards of radiation your entire life (at least since the 1940s). An ongoing information war rages, and I do have some hope for progress. While the media repeats obvious lies about the death toll in Chernobyl (“43” absurd in the extreme) most regular people just don’t believe what they’re hearing from the pro-nuclear pundits.
          This Swiss investigation of the Chernobyl cover-up is must-see viewing for anyone who would ever consider typing a thought about radioactivity. I have transcribed some of the highlights, including admissions by the head of the World Health Organization, front and center...
“Because the IAEA reports directly to the Security Council of the UN, and we all specialized agencies report to the Economic and Development Council. The organization which reports to the Security Council–not hierarchically, we are all equal–but for atomic affairs, military use and civil use, peaceful or civil use, they have the authority. They command.”
–Dr. Hiroshi Nakajima, former head of UN World Health Organization
          The IAEA has the job of promoting atomic energy worldwide. They are not a trustworthy source for information about health effects of radioactivity. The system has been designed such that the organization which promotes atomic power has supremacy over the health monitoring organizations, and the WHO can simply be blocked from investigating, as happened here:
“In 1995 the Director General of WHO, Dr. Hiroshi Nakajima, tried to inform on Chernobyl by organizing in Geneva an international conference with 700 experts and physicians. This tentative was blocked. The International Agency for Atomic Energy blocked the proceedings which were never published. The truth on the consequences of Chernobyl would have been a disaster for the promotion of the atomic industry.”
(Nuclear Controversies)
          In my recent article, The UN Would Never Lie to George Monbiot, I explored this IAEA role in more depth. A 2006 IAEA “study” on the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl meltdown claimed it had a “consensus” of “100 leading scientists.” How does this measure up to the “700 experts and physicians” that the IAEA had a hand in silencing a decade before?
          The “consensus” myth is a Big Lie. Those that repeat the IAEA’s arguments without investigating this matter fully are either incompetent (which is the generous assessment) or downright evil. Children are sick and dying because of the failure of governments to acknowledge that radioactivity—even in very small doses—destroys life, creates deformities in the body, causes cancers and myriad other conditions. Children across the region are suffering horribly. Up to one million have died as a result of Chernobyl, as of 2006 (Yablokov et. al.).
          If you’re not going to watch NUCLEAR CONTROVERSIES right now, then here are the highlights. Use them well.
“The representative for the International Agency for Atomic Energy (A. Gonzales) maintains that the Chernobyl catastrophe caused 31 deaths of a few hundred highly irradiated individuals and 2,000 thyroid cancers in children. This UN agency recognizes only validated data, validated by the laboratories of Los Alamos and the French Atomic Energy Commissariat, CEA, two atomic bomb makers.”           “Nesterenko is the only scientist who systematically measured the internal artificial radioactivity (of children in the contaminated zone). His measures show that contamination is 8 times higher than that published by the Minister of Health, who tried to stop him.”
          “According to Professor Bandazhevsky over 50 bequerels per kilo body weight lead to irreversible lesions in vital organs.”
          “On June the 18th Yuri Bandazhevski, author of more than 400 scientific publications and 8 monographs, owner of 7 patents, member of 5 academies, recipient of 5 international awards was condemned by the military court of the Supreme Court of Belarus to 8 years in a work camp for alleged corruption. One year of inquiry could produce no proof against him.”
          “Today out of 100 children in Belarus, ony 20 can be declared to be healthy. Before the Chernobyl catastrophe the number was 80 out of 100. The IAEA, the UNSCEAR and the World Health Organization, who do not study the effects of the internal contamination by incorporated radionuclides, have no explanation for the increased incidence of somatic pathologies in those children.”
The Bell of Chernobyl, by Rollan Sergienko (1:27:26, 1987)
In May 1986, immediately after the accident, two film groups, one of which was headed by Rolland Sergienko, were the first to break into the “zone”, breaking the bureaucratic barriers. His film “The Bell of Chernobyl”, completed in November 1986 , according to the Interdepartmental Commission, “expressing an anti-state position, undermining the authority of science and sowing unnecessary doubts”, needed to be corrected. The picture hit the wide screen only in February 1987, and never received high authorization. The film received significant public outcry. In total, the director shot seven films on the subject of Chernobyl ("The Threshold", "Approaching the Apocalypse", "Chernobyl. Trizna", "Chernobyl. Afterword" and others).
Chernobyl Legacy by Paul Fusco (1996)
Photographer Paul Fusco faces the dark legacy of Chernobyl, focusing on the horrifying human consequences of the event that is now 20 years in the past. Fusco’s work forces us to remember an important nightmare that we would forget at the peril of our mortality and our future.
Chernobyl Legacy is Fusco’s elegy to these innocent souls, and a haunting reminder to the rest of the world that anything man-made can [and will] eventually break.
Chernobyl, edited by fafa99 (date unknown, 6:33)
Family life in Chernobyl before and after the nuclear accident. Music is “Huns and Dr. Beeker - Ghost Town.” Images of children’s drawings above [1][2][3][4][5][6] are from this film collection.
Chernobyl documentary they don’t show on TV. Atomic parade
Video of atomic parade is rare and unique material. Prophetic footage of Soviet nuclear scientists and atomic plant workers on parade, two years before Chernobyl disaster. Video is from Elena Filatova Chernobyl archives. I made research to find who were men on a parade in this Chernobyl documentary and what was their role in upcoming nuclear disaster in Chernobyl. You can find many Chernobyl videos, photo reportages and writings on elenafilatova.com for computers or elenafilatova.net for mobile devices.
To The Memory of Chernobyl April 26, 1986 - 2011, Maria Gilardin, TUC Radio
Instead of honoring its victims at this time, Chernobyl is referenced to minimize the impact of Fukuchima.
The Chernobyl disaster - the severe days, by Vladimir Shevchenko (6:30, 1986)
This film shows the terrifying images captured by the Russian filmmaker Vladimir Shevchenko on scene at Chernobyl those dreadful days in April 1986. Shevchenko later died suffering from the radiation he exposed himself to. Although his name is not among the official casualties of the accident, this last tragic film of him keeps his name alive forever.
Chernobyl nuclear disaster–in pictures, Igor Kostin, guardian.co.uk, 26 Apr 2011
In the immediate aftermath of the explosion on 26 April, 1986, few were prepared to endure the massive radiation levels and document the disaster, but Russian photographer Igor Kostin did. In the years that followed, he continued to monitor the political and personal stories of those impacted by the disaster, publishing a book of photos called Chernobyl: Confessions of a Reporter. His images of a deformed boy even led to adoption of the ‘Chernobyl Child’ in UK. Here is a selection of his finest photographs.

Humanitarian Organizations & add’l sources

“We should all be Concerned • Chernobyl” by Michelle and Rachel [†]

Adi Roche’s Chernobyl Children International
Chernobyl Children International (CCI) was formally established by Adi Roche in 1991 to give support and hope to children living in the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl Nuclear disaster. In her own words:
“I started working on Chernobyl in 1986 in the immediate aftermath of the accident and formally founded Chernobyl Children International (CCI) in 1991. My life’s work has been to develop programmes that restore hope, alleviate suffering and protect current and future generations in the Chernobyl regions. CCI is founded on hope and courage: the hope that the children—one by one and heartbeat by heartbeat—will thrive; and the courage to envision and create a better world.
“There may be an impression that Chernobyl is something which happened a very long time ago and no longer poses a threat to the world but the reality of the situation is very, very different. Chernobyl is not something from the past, Chernobyl “is forever”. The impact of that single shocking nuclear accident can never be undone; its radioactive footprint is embedded in our world forever and countless millions of people are still being affected by its deadly legacy. We must not abandon these future generations.”
Chernobyl Children’s Project (UK)
Supporting the Children of Belarus since 1995. Our mission is to help those in Belarus whose lives continue to be blighted by the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster – babies born with genetic disorders and children with cancer or disabilities. We also seek to provide social and educational opportunities for children with disabilities and to move children and young people out of institutions. See Who We Are and Why We’re Here with film and timeline as well as 12-page History of Chernobyl Children’s Project (UK) (1995-present).
Chernobyl Children’s Life Line
CCLL charity was established and registered in 1992 by Victor Mizzi O.B.E. to support the children (and their families) from Belarus and Ukraine forever affected by the world’s worst nuclear disaster. CCLL brings several thousand children to the UK each year from Belarus and Ukraine to stay with families in over 100 links around the country; it has a family support project providing financial help to many poor families in Belarus. Main aims are:
- To bring child victims of the Chernobyl disaster to the UK for recuperative breaks of four weeks - over 46,000 have been brought over to stay with host families since we started in 1992.
- To provide on-going supplies of multi-vitamins and basic healthcare products to the children on their return (thousands of tonnes in the last 9 years).
- To work with our Belarusian and Ukrainian partners to locate children who will benefit from a recuperative carebreak.
- To help children too sick to travel by providing chemotherapy medicines to Children’s Cancer Hospitals in Minsk, Gomel and other regions.
- Support with medicines and equipment: No. l Baby Home in Minsk, and many other orphanages.
- Support Kobrin children’s village.
Friends of Chernobyl Children - Restoring Hope
Friends of Chernobyl’s Children is a registered charity that funds and organises yearly visits for Belarusian children from disadvantaged social backgrounds to the UK, where they stay with host families for temporary recuperative care. The charity targets particularly needy children from seven to twelve years of age, who are often in need of dental and medical attention, education, and tender loving care. The children, from the badly contaminated areas of Belarus, come for one month every year for five consecutive years, which has been shown to have a significant effect up on their overall quality of life, their happiness, health and well-being.
Friends of the Belarusian Childrens Hospice
Friends of the Belarusian Children’s Hospice UK (FoBCH) supports the Belarusian Children’s Hospice based in Minsk. Not only was BCH the first children’s hospice in Belarus, it was the first children’s hospice in the former Soviet Union. FoBCH works with the Belarusian Children’s Hospice to develop the wider children’s hospice movement in Belarus and countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Working together since 1998, FoBCH has helped to fund BCH staff salaries, medical and other equipment, buildings and the summer holiday programme. In addition, they make major contributions to BCH staff training, strategic development and management decision making. Friends of BCH is a voluntary organisation with no paid staff.
Coordinating and Analytical Centre “Ecology and Health”
Coordinating and Analytical Center “Ecology and Health” opened in Ukraine in the fall of 2009 under leadership of the world-renown medical scientist, founder and first rector (1990-1999) of Medical University in Gomel (Belarus), and prisoner of conscience Yury Bandazhevski, on the basis of the Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Chernobyl, Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine in Kiev, center Pushcha-Vodice.
           The Center’s mission is «Research on human health and the sustainable development of Ukraine and Belarus».
           The Center focuses its efforts on improving health conditions in the regions affected by Chernobyl disaster. The Center will serve as a resource of information, expertise, and advocacy on health and ecology issues for Ukrainian and Belarusian communities and governments, as well as for other national and international parties involved, and provide reliable information for the population affected by the consequences on the issues related to health and ecology.
           Particularly, it’s including:
- Provide consultations related to national and international healthcare programs in Ukraine and Belarus;
- Coordinate academic and applicable research on the implications to the health of the population of contacts with radioactive elements and other pollutants;
- Research the causes and effects of the current ecologic and demographic situation with the Chernobyl catastrophe and ways to change the situation;
- Inform the population of the results of the above-mentioned research;
- Develop analytical materials to educate international community of the medical consequences of Chernobyl;
- Contribute to changing the national legislation of countries that have gaps and drawbacks in relevant pieces of legislation related to ecology, health, and demography;
- Create necessary conditions for the formation of the international intergovernmental program aimed at liquidation of the aftermath of Chernobyl;
- Coordinate its actions with the major international non-governmental players supporting the community of Chernobyl liquidators and victims.
Socio-Ecological Union
This is the only international ecological organization born in the USSR. In the middle of 2000 the Socio-Ecological Union brings together more than 25 thousand persons from 19 countries of Europe, Asia and North America. See especially, Programs of SEU.
Physicians of Chernobyl Association
This is a humanitarian organisation, which was registered in 1990 in the Ukraine, the epicentre of the Chernobyl disaster. It does not receive any financial support from the government nor from international and lobby organisations. Thus the independence in the assessment of the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster and in the association’s objective is sustained. Citizens of the Ukraine as well as foreigners, who take part in this field of activity, can become members of this association: physicians, scientists, journalists and other people, who realise humanitarian goals of the association.
USC Chernobyl + Fukushima Research Initiative
[The following was written circa 2016]
The Chernobyl Research Initiative began formal research activities in Ukraine in 2000, Belarus in 2005, and Fukushima, Japan, in July, 2011. To date, the group has conducted more than 35 research expeditions to Chernobyl and 16 expeditions to Fukushima.
          USC’s Chernobyl Research Initiative was the first and currently is the only research group to utilize a multidisciplinary approach to address the health and environmental outcomes of radiation effects in free-living natural populations. This has permitted the investigation of both acute (short term) and chronic (long term and multi-generational) exposures.
          The Chernobyl Research Initiative is also currently the only research team studying plants and animals in both Chernobyl and Fukushima.
          To date, more than 90 scientific publications have resulted from this initiative, most in the past 10 years (see Publications).... The team has pioneered the use of ecological, genetic and dosimetric technologies in order to unravel the health and environmental consequences of chronic low-dose exposure resulting from the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters. These have included massively replicated ecological censuses of natural populations of birds, mammals and insects to investigate population and demographic effects; DNA sequencing and genotoxicity testing to assess short and long term genetic damage to individuals living in the wild; and the use of miniature dosimeters attached to wild animals and field measurements of whole body burdens of radioisotopes in birds and mammals to obtain accurate estimates of realized external and internal radiation doses to animals living under natural conditions. Recently, the group has expanded to include epidemiological and genetic studies of human populations (especially children) living in Chernobyl-affected regions of Ukraine.
          These two disasters differ in the time since the events, and the amount and diversity of radionuclides that were released, although the predominant source of radiation is cesium-137 in both locations.
The Chernobyl Congress
2016: 5 years living with Fukushima - 30 years living with Chernobyl

Thirty years ago, on April 26th, 1986, the nuclear meltdown of Chernobyl put an end to the myth of “safe nuclear power”. Millions of people were directly affected by nuclear fallout. Many have died from the consequences of radioactive contamination and many more are still suffering today. Five years ago, on March 11th, 2011, it became clear that mankind had still not learned the lessons of Chernobyl, when multiple nuclear disasters occurred in Fukushima. Again, millions of people are affected.
           These two nuclear catastrophes exemplify the enormous human suffering, the health effects which will occur across generations and the ecological destruction, caused by the nuclear chain over the last 70 years. From uranium mining to nuclear energy, nuclear weapons and ultimately nuclear waste, fallout and radioactively contaminated residue—every single part of the nuclear industry causes harm to human health and the environment.
           In 2016, we commemorate the nuclear catastrophes of Chernobyl and Fukushima and renew our call for an immediate end to the use of nuclear energy. IPPNW will inform the public through an international congress what it means for people to live with the consequences of Chernobyl for 30 years—and Fukushima for 5 years.
           From February 26th-28th 2016, at the Urania in Berlin, renowned scientists from Japan, the former Soviet Union, Germany, the United States, and all over the world will join committed activists and volunteers who have been working with the affected population in contaminated regions for many years. Together, they will look at what lies ahead: learning from the catastrophic nuclear past means imagining a world free from nuclear threat—and making this vision reality.

2011: Chernobyl: 25 Years After, Stop the Nuclear Timebomb—Abandon Nuclear Power Now!

International IPPNW Public Congress
Timebomb Nuclear Power
25 Years after Chernobyl
Urania, Berlin
German affiliate of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Physicians for Social Responsibility in cooperation with the Society for Radiation Protection, the Physicians of Chernobyl, the Scientists Initiative for Peace and Sustainability and the Nuclear Free Future Award.
Chernobyl: The Meltdown
April 26, 1986: 23 minutes, 40 seconds after 1 am, Block 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded. For the first time ever, the world witnessed a “maximum credible accident” in a nuclear installation. This disaster changed the world. The Chernobyl catastrophe made millions of people into victims. 180,000 kilograms of highly radioactive material were inside the reactor. The radioactive cloud did not stop at borders, it circled the world. Even now, the effects of the accident are still being suppressed, hushed up and made light of.
25 Years After Chernobyl
Against the will of the German people, the operational lifespan of nuclear power plants is being increased. New nuclear power plants are being planned and built in Europe. Politics are slave to the nuclear industry. The fairy tale of “clean” nuclear energy as saviour of the climate and a “stopgap technology” is doing the rounds. In place of responsible policies we find only disinformation. The success story that was renewable energy has been stalled.
The Congress
  - provides information on the effects of Chernobyl
  - analyses the risk potential of the nuclear chain
  - offers solutions for a world free from the nuclear threat
  - introduces possibilities for action
Dr Ian Farlie
Chernobyl TV series, 4 June 2019
Final Episode of the HBO series on Chernobyl, 6 June 2019
elenafilatova.com large and varied archive
Chernobyl videos, photo reportages and writings on elenafilatova.com for computers or elenafilatova.net for mobile devices.
Arkadiusz Podniesinski - uncovering hidden world; Photo Essays
Timm Suess; Photos
The Long Shadow of Chernobyl, A Long Term Project by Gerd Ludwig
Due to the unfolding nuclear crisis in Japan, this project has become as timely and important as ever. While Gerd documents the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster nearly 25 years later, he reminds us that the cost and consequences of nuclear energy will continue to develop for decades to come.
—Brandon Nightingale, Studio Manager for Gerd Ludwig, 23 Mar 2011

Chernobyl Exclusion Zone 2008-2009 by Graham Gilmore

Pripyat Hospital Operating Room

Pripyat Hospital, as one might imagine, was by far the creepiest part of the tour. We walked passed dark room after dark room through a maze of hallways while drug vials and broken bottles cracked underneath our feet. Bottomless lift shafts and stairwells that descended into pitch black also added to the dreadful scene.... According to some accounts, a group of the first contaminated firefighters from the night of the accident were brought here before being transported to hospitals in Moscow. Sadly, at least one of them never left here alive. Other people who have visited here have said that they felt like they were being watched while passing through the hallways and rooms in this building, while I didn’t feel the same thing as them, there is definitely a feeling of dread here.

15.9. Conclusion

U.S. President John F. Kennedy speaking about the necessity to stop atmospheric nuclear tests said in July 1963:

. . . The number of children and grandchildren with cancer in their bones, with leukemia in their blood, or with poison in their lungs might seem statistically small to some, in comparison with natural health hazards, but this is not a natural health hazard—and it is not a statistical issue. The loss of even one human life or the malformation of even one baby—who may be born long after we are gone—should be of concern to us all. Our children and grandchildren are not merely statistics toward which we can be indifferent.
[listen to excerpt and complete speech (25:38)]

The Chernobyl catastrophe demonstrates that the nuclear industry’s willingness to risk the health of humanity and our environment with nuclear power plants will result, not only theoretically, but practically, in the same level of hazard as nuclear weapons.

Chapter 15. Consequences of the Chernobyl Catastrophe for Public Health and the Environment 23 Years Later, page 326.

Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment


Location of the eight study sites in relation to background radiation level (Ci/km2) around Chernobyl, Ukraine. Adapted from Shestopalov (1996).