Chernobyl Radiation Killed Nearly One Million People
Nearly one million people around the world died from exposure to radiation released by the 1986 nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl reactor, finds a new book from the New York Academy of Sciences published today on the 24th anniversary of the 1986 meltdown that ocurred at the Soviet facility.
The book, "Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and
the
Environment," was compiled by authors Alexey Yablokov of the Center
for
Russian Environmental Policy in Moscow, and Vassily Nesterenko and
Alexey Nesterenko of the Institute of Radiation Safety, in Minsk, Belarus.
The authors examined more than 5,000 published articles and studies,
most written in Slavic languages and never before available in English.
The authors said, "For the past 23 years, it has been clear that there
is a danger greater than nuclear weapons concealed within nuclear power.
Emissions from this one reactor exceeded a hundred-fold the radioactive
contamination of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki."
"No citizen of any country can be assured that he or she can be
protected from radioactive contamination. One nuclear reactor can
pollute half the globe," they said. "Chernobyl fallout covers the entire
Northern Hemisphere."
The Chernobyl nuclear reactor was destroyed by an explosion and fire
April 26, 1986 Their findings are in contrast to estimates by the World
Health Organization and the International Atomic Energy Agency that
initially said only 31 people had died among the "liquidators," those
approximately 830,000 people who were in charge of extinguishing the
fire at the Chernobyl reactor and deactivation and cleanup of the site.
The book finds that by 2005, between 112,000 and 125,000 liquidators
had
died. "On this 24th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, we now realize
that
the consequences were far worse than many researchers had believed,"
says Janette Sherman, MD, the physician and toxicologist who edited
the book.
Drawing upon extensive data, the authors estimate the number of deaths
worldwide due to Chernobyl fallout from 1986 through 2004 was 985,000,
a
number that has since increased.
By contrast, WHO and the IAEA estimated 9,000 deaths and some 200,000
people sickened in 2005.
On April 26, 1986, two explosions occured at reactor number four at
the
Chernobyl plant which tore the top from the reactor and its building
and
exposed the reactor core. The resulting fire sent a plume of radioactive
fallout into the atmosphere and over large parts of the western Soviet
Union, Europe and across the Northern Hemisphere. Large areas in
Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia had to be evacuated.
Yablokov and hise co-authors find that radioactive emissions from the
stricken reactor, once believed to be 50 million curies, may have been
as great as 10 billion curies, or 200 times greater than the initial
estimate, and hundreds of times larger than the fallout from the atomic
bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Nations outside the former Soviet Union received high doses of
radioactive fallout, most notably Norway, Sweden, Finland, Yugoslavia,
Bulgaria, Austria, Romania, Greece, and parts of the United Kingdom
and
Germany.
Disabled children from Belarus visiting the UK during Easter 2010
sponsored by the charity Medicine Chernobyl Belarus Special Aid Group.
(Photo by Matthew and Heather) About 550 million Europeans, and 150
to
230 million others in the Northern Hemisphere received notable
contamination. Fallout reached the United States and Canada nine days
after the disaster.
The proportion of children considered healthy born to irradiated parents
in Belarus, the Ukraine, and European Russia considered healthy fell
from about 80 percent to less than 20 percent since 1986.
Numerous reports reviewed for this book document elevated disease rates
in the Chernobyl area. These include increased fetal and infant deaths,
birth defects, and diseases of the respiratory, digestive,
musculoskeletal, nervous, endocrine, reproductive, hematological,
urological, cardiovascular, genetic, immune, and other systems, as
well
as cancers and non-cancerous tumors.
In addition to adverse effects in humans, numerous other species have
been contaminated, based upon studies of livestock, voles, birds, fish,
plants, trees, bacteria, viruses, and other species.
Foods produced in highly contaminated areas in the former Soviet Union
were shipped, and consumed worldwide, affecting persons in many other
nations. Some, but not all, contamination was detected and contaminated
foods not shipped.
The authors warn that the soil, foliage, and water in highly
contaminated areas still contain substantial levels of radioactive
chemicals, and will continue to harm humans for decades to come.
The book explores effects of Chernobyl fallout that arrived above the
United States nine days after the disaster. Fallout entered the U.S.
environment and food chain through rainfall. Levels of iodine-131 in
milk, for example, were seven to 28 times above normal in May and June
1986. The authors found that the highest U.S. radiation levels were
recorded in the Pacific Northwest.
Americans also consumed contaminated food imported from nations affected
by the disaster. Four years later, 25 percent of imported food was
found
to be still contaminated.
Little research on Chernobyl health effects in the United States has
been conducted, the authors found, but one study by the Radiation and
Public Health Project found that in the early 1990s, a few years after
the meltdown, thyroid cancer in Connecticut children had nearly doubled.
This occurred at the same time that childhood thyroid cancer rates in
the former Soviet Union were surging, as the thyroid gland is highly
sensitive to radioactive iodine exposures.
The world now has 435 nuclear reactors and of these, 104 are in the
United States. 54 were the Japanese count! and that's a tight little
ISlaND!
The authors of the study say not enough attention has been paid to
Eastern European research studies on the effects of Chernobyl at a
time
when corporations in several nations, including the United States,
are
attempting to build more nuclear reactors and to extend the years of
operation of aging reactors.
The authors said in a statement, "Official discussions from the
International Atomic Energy Agency and associated United Nations'
agencies (e.g. the Chernobyl Forum reports) have largely downplayed
or
ignored many of the findings reported in the Eastern European scientific
literature and consequently have erred by not including these
assessments."
http://www.prisonplanet.com/harmless-chernobyl-radiation-killed-nearly-one-million-people.html
Analysis of chart. Sag rising (and the Degree rising is conjunct that 'dark hole at the center of our Galaxy Yep We have a black HOLE out in Sagittarius, center of our Milky Way is a black hole. Like the drain o a sink! URANUS is smack on the rising point, with the black HOLElord of hour Jupiter in sign of death, PISCES ." Sun is conjunct the South Node (fatalities) opposed Pluto in Scorpio,the most powerful sign for Pluto to be in. It is bombastic there. Scorpio and Pluto are one energy, and rule nuclear fission. MOON had just gone over that PLUTO, difference between six deg. and ll deg is 5 deg meaning moon moves a deg in 2 hrs, l0 hrs earlier there'd been serious atomic misfunction! To boot, JUPITER hour ruler links to the nodes, by semisquare. Nodes are 'fate'. the appointed hour. Add it to a planet, that thing is IN YOUR PATH.
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