• the health of individuals in regard to disorders that are historically linked to irradiation, such as stable chromosomal aberrations.
Below are some examples of ways to reveal the real effects of radioactive contamination after Chornobyl. The rise in the cancer rate in contaminated areas (see figures 10.8 and 10.9) is only part of the picture. There are also statistically significant changes over a number of years involving the following:
• prenatal development disorders leading to an increased number of spontaneous abortions (figure 10.10) and premature births
• increase in neonatal, prenatal, and infant mortality (figures 10.11 and 10.12)
• numerous minor and major congenital malformations (figure 10.13)
• lower body weight of newborns
• brain development disorders
• the endocrine system
• the immune system
• premature aging
• somatic and genetic chromosomal mutations and genetic instability (figure 10.14)
• the blood and the circulatory system
• the respiratory system
• the urogenital system
• the skeletal system
• the central nervous system (altering the brain and leading to diminished intelligence and mental disorders)
• the eye (lens) structure (figure 10.15)
• the digestive tract
The radioactive fallout from Chornobyl may also lead to changes in sex ratio: the number of boys born in the Northern Hemisphere decreased by a million after Chornobyl (figure 10.16). There have also been hundreds of examples of health deviations after Chornobyl.
Pro-nuclear scientists often insist that psychological factors (“radiation phobia”) are the cause of declining health in radioactive contaminated areas, but morbidity continues to increase even as radiation concerns have decreased. Importantly, voles, swallows, frogs, and pine trees, which do not suffer from radiation phobia, have suffered similar ailments and increased mutation rates.
What will be the total death toll of the Chornobyl catastrophe? The WHO and IAEA only acknowledge the generations spanning 1986 to 2056, with nine thousand people estimated to die from cancer and a further two hundred thousand to fall sick due to the accident—the latter are practically invisible in the total mortality and morbidity of the affected populations. Under pressure, the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) launched discussions on Chornobyl-induced thyroid cancer and autoimmune thyroiditis (which has affected up to several thousand people), leukemia, and cataracts.
Precise calculations based on the official data on mortality in areas contaminated with more than 40 kilobecquerels per square kilometer in six Russian provinces (compared with the neighboring six less contaminated ones) reveal about a 4 percent increase from 1990 to 2004, or nearly 237,000 additional deaths (figure 10.12). About 60 percent of the Chornobyl radionuclides were deposited outside Belarus and Ukraine, and these results indicate that in Europe, Africa, Asia, and even the United States, the total Chornobyl death toll for the period from 1987 to 2004 could reach nearly eight hundred thousand people worldwide. A study, for instance, of the deviation of infant mortality from long-term trends in several European countries shows a spike in infant mortality after the Chornobyl catastrophe (figure 10.13), and there is no explanation for this other than Chornobyl.
The lesson to be learned from Chornobyl is that nuclear electricity brings the same level of risk to humanity and the earth as nuclear weaponry.
11
Congenital Malformations in Rivne, Ukraine
Wladimir Wertelecki
In 2000, our team launched an international program to establish a registry of every child born in the Ukrainian province of Rivne, located two hundred kilometers west of the site of the 1986 Chornobyl accident. The goal was to monitor the population frequency of congenital anomalies. Our team performed ultrasound examinations on nearly 70 percent of pregnant women in Rivne. We reviewed all examinations of stillborn children, and we had newborns examined by trained neonatologists and infants with visible congenital anomalies later monitored by pediatricians and, in most cases, clinical geneticists. We recorded anomalies in children up to the age of one according to methods approved by the Ukrainian Ministry of Health and EUROCAT, a consortium of thirty-eight European systems monitoring congenital anomalies. Our partnership with EUROCAT allowed us to compare congenital malformation rates in Rivne with those elsewhere in Europe. Within two years, it became evident that some congenital anomalies occurred more frequently in northern Rivne-Polissia, henceforth referred to as Polissia.
Polissia is heavily polluted by radiation from the accident at Chornobyl, and there are two additional nuclear power plants of the same age and type as Chornobyl that remain potential sources for further pollution. The area’s forested wetlands are geologically different from the fertile plains of southern Rivne, and the soil in Polissia transfers a greater proportion of radioactivity to plants, thereby increasing the quantity of radioactive elements in wood, vegetables, milk, meat, and other products used by the local population. Furthermore, seasonal flooding and frequent forest fires redistribute radioactive materials.
Since 1986, the isolated native population has had no option but to come in contact with radioactive materials. Locally produced milk, cheese, potatoes, and other foods in Polissia are polluted by radioactive elements found in soils. Approximately 67 percent of households burn local wood for cooking or for heating. This wood is a source of radioactive smoke, which is inhaled by both adults and their children. Families also use wood ash to fertilize their home garden plots, further concentrating the radioactive materials as humans and domestic animals consume homegrown vegetables. During harvest, pregnant women are often given easier tasks such as burning dried stems of potato plants containing cesium-137 and strontium-90, which are inhaled as smoke. Consequently, everybody in Polissia has been, and continues to be, exposed to radiation, with a growing proportion of the population exposed since the moment of their conception by parents who have themselves been exposed to radiation.