Chernobyl to kill more than 90,000: Greenpeace

Environmental watchdog Greenpeace said that more than 90,000 people are likely to die of cancers caused by radiation from the Chernobyl explosion, challenging a UN report that predicted the death toll would be about 10 times less.

Mara Bellaby for The Standard

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Environmental watchdog Greenpeace said that more than 90,000 people are likely to die of cancers caused by radiation from the Chernobyl explosion, challenging a UN report that predicted the death toll would be about 10 times less.

The report's conclusion underlines the uncertainty that remains about the health effects of the world's worst nuclear accident as its 20th anniversary approaches.

A reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine exploded on April 26, 1986, spewing heavy levels of radioactive fallout over much of Europe.

The fallout was particularly severe in northern Ukraine, western Russia and in much of Belarus.

Areas immediately around the now- inoperative plant remain off-limits, but other areas that got significant fallout are inhabited and health anxiety is common in those areas.

A report last year by the Chernobyl Forum, which comprises the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency and other UN groups, said fewer than 50 deaths could be connected to Chernobyl and said the number of radiation-related deaths among the 600,000 people who participated in fighting the consequences of the accident would ultimately be around 4,000.

The increase in cancer deaths among the five million exposed to lower levels of radiation would be so low as to be statistically difficult to identify, the report's authors said, but estimated it could be around 5,000.

But Greenpeace, citing data from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, suggested the Chernobyl Forum report was deliberately misleading.

"The nuclear industry is the most dangerous in the world, and they are definitely trying to minimize the results of the Chernobyl catastrophe," said Ivan Blokov of Greenpeace's Russia office. "We have a report showing the incredible damage caused to humans ... Nearly every system of the organism is damaged."

Many of the consequences of Chernobyl remain controversial and difficult to identify, particularly as the economic depression and unhealthy lifestyles - heavy drinking and smoking - are common in the region.

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Posted June 2006 | Permanent Link


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