From horror stories to criminal negligence. Tertium non datur.
The aggregate material damage caused by the Chornobyl disaster, including generating losses after closing the station, is assessed by experts at $358 billion. It is much harder to assess the damage in terms of human lives. UN experts believe about 7,000,000 persons were in the highly contaminated areas at the time, including three million children that are still in need of constant medical care. In Ukraine, the contaminated areas include Chernihiv, Rivne, and Kyiv (mostly to the north) oblasts. In Russia, it is Bryansk, OrСl, and Tula oblasts. In Belarus, practically the whole population is considered affected, although Homel oblast appears damaged the worst.
Experts further point out that the morbidity and incapacitating rates are higher in areas with higher radionuclide level territories; the incidence of respiratory, gastrointestinal, and pancreatic diseases is especially conspicuous, as is the currently “fashionable” chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Such immunopathologic phenomena as immunodeficiency (weakened defenses of the organism) and autoimmunity (aggressive response of the organism to its own tissues rather than their protection) are the cornerstones of this morbidity. Although there is also the stress caused by radiophobia developed by the populace in the contaminated areas, with people refusing — not always for good reason — to consume valuable foods like dairy products, as another immunity-lowering factor.
On the whole, it is extremely difficult to objectively assess and interpret Chornobyl-related morbidity indices. On the one hand, doctors have lost track of most “liquidators” and resetllers from the contaminated territories. On the other hand, there are dramatic socioeconomic changes (plummeting living standard, meaning worsening diet, rest-and-recreation and medical facilities), let alone all those daily worries, scant pay, back wages, and radiophobia, that cannot but stimulate morbidity.
As for all those heated debates about an upsurge of oncologic diseases, the sinister forecasts have proved right about the thyroid gland so far. It is an established fact that Chornobyl has produced an additional 1,400 cases of thyroid cancer. Compared to the TB, VD, cardiovascular or traffic accident death toll, these 1,400 cases in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine put together look like a drop in the ocean.
Relying on relative statistics only, leaving out hard figures (thyroid cancer incidence registers a 30 times growth in the most contaminated territories of Belarus), means an outrageous manipulation of the public opinion. Yet the actual perception becomes different if one recalls that thyroid cancer was considered a very rare disease. Only 21 cases were registered in Belarus [then Belorussia] 21 years before Chornobyl. As for other kinds of malignant tumors and leucosis, there are no reliable statistics available to make comparisons between the contaminated and relatively “clean” territories.
A total of 130,000 “liquidators” fell prey to the most ruthless part of the Chornobyl experiment — people who took part in rescue-and-repair operations after the explosion and the construction of the Sarcophagus containment in the first two years after the disaster. 85% of the early “liquidators” register some malignant diseases ar another, as they were exposed to an average of 130-170 mSv. The physical condition of 470,000 individuals that took part in such operations after 1987 causes less medical concern, owing to lesser exposure.
Closing the Chornobyl NPS does not mean an end to the medical consequences of the disaster. A number of experts predict that the toxic effect of small radiation doses may well manifest itself in the next 40 years, whereas genetic transformations, mutations in especially susceptible people could last another 200 years, passing through 7-10 generations. However, long- standing surveillance of Hiroshima and Nagasaki residents has not revealed any growth of genetic disorders.
Programs aimed at reducing ion radiation effects on the organism to a minimum remain pressing, with the attendant tasks of removing the population from contaminated areas, decontamination measures, liming of soils, using mineral fertilizer (mostly potash and phosphate) with microelements, adding ferrocyanides to fodder. All these measures have played a positive role.
A mass iodization campaign fell through, although if and when timely carried out, this simple preventive measure would have been quite effective in reducing thyroid incidence, especially in children. The Soviet leadership’s stubborn hushing up the actual scope of the Chornobyl disaster resulted in missing the right iodization time. Iodine is a key element of the thyroid gland and the latter, given acute iodine deficiency, becomes the target of the iodine attack. What prevented the disease from spreading catastrophically wide was Iodine-131’s short half-life of 8 days.
Cesium-137 remains the principal food pollutant, while Strontium-90 involvement is minimal: up to 5%. Abnormal cesium content is still found in wild berries and particularly in mushrooms. The trouble is that potassium is the mushroom’s key mineral element. Also, radioactive cesium, being a biological analog of potassium, accumulates in the mushroom and the latter has the nasty feature of concentrating radionuclides and all sorts of other toxic chemicals dozens of times more than the rest of the environment, known as the cumulative effect. Thus, it has 20 times more Cesium-137 than the soil in which it grows. Mushroom-lovers have to get rid of it by boiling mushrooms for 30 minutes in salted water, then rinsing them, then repeating the procedures, and only then using the mushrooms in preparing dishes.
In the early years after the Chornobyl explosion milk and meat were most cesium-contaminated. Today, despite the tougher sanitary control (with the allowable rates lowered 7 times) foodstuffs are rejected as defective on very rare occasions, not only in Kyiv and the oblast, but also in other contaminated areas of Ukraine, let alone the “clean” ones. Nor should people be afraid to buy Ukrainian products (doing so mostly by force of habit); exported foods may well turn out old stock and dangerous in a different, nonradiation way. Yet when buying meat and dairy products on a makeshift market, without radiation and sanitary control, you must remember that it is another way to play Russian roulette.
Actually, to have an idea about the actual Chornobyl threat to man, several facts must be known. If considered per capita in Ukraine, the radiation level is several times lower than the natural one and three times lower than the dose received when taking X-ray pictures. At present, the radiation dose of radon is higher than that of Chornobyl. Radon concentration in Ukrainian homes is several times higher than the average European level, yet the fact is traditionally kept away from the public eye. Radon accumulates in poorly ventilated rooms and buildings. Houses on inadequately sealed foundations turn into radon-catchers, as the gas is “exhaled” by the earth. The concentration is higher on the first couple of floors, ditto bathrooms immediately after taking a shower (radon is discharged by water), and kitchens with gas stoves. Likewise, the concentration is higher in winter than summer. Radiation is higher in concrete than brick buildings. Radon concentration is lowered by adequate ventilation.
Chemical factors not only act like radiation (overall toxic, immunodepressive, mutagenic, and cancerogenic effect), but often prove even more aggressive. Smoking and exhaust gas, especially from old car models, are the sources of the main hazardous chemical factors (chemical industrial wastes are to be reckoned with only where such enterprises are still operational). Combating traffic jams by expanding streets and highways, building overpasses, enforcing more rigid exhaust gas control appears a more economic and effective method of warding off the onslaught of hazardous factors on the organism.
Special attention must be paid to radon making up perhaps fifty percent of the natural radiation background, when monitoring modern construction technologies (heat insulation of walls rather than windows, sealing the foundations, rational basement ventilation). For example, combating Chernobyl 0.1-02 mSv a year, compared to radon 0.5-1.0 mSv a year, would benefit the residents of Kyiv about as much as campaigning against drug abuse, hunting down junkies rather than drug barons.
It is hard to estimate the role of some or other chemical factor in oncologic morbidity growth, yet it has been established that smoking is a hundred times stronger lung cancer stimulant than the Chornobyl factor in the contaminated territories.
Experts caution not to drink tap water originating from the Dnipro because of its potentially dangerous chemical composition. Mineral water is recommended for extensive consumption only if low-carbonized and if one is reasonably sure it comes from springs and not from taps, subsequently carbonized using baking salt and soda. Water from drinking wells drilled to the Jurassic stratum is the safest and proves an economic alternative to other sources of drinking water (although many such wells are already in an abominable sanitary condition). Water filters on sale are different; some fail to remove all dangerous substances, others even remove useful minerals, and used the wrong way they can produce water rich in hazardous matter.
Every individual can withstand the aggregate hazardous environmental effect in his or her individual way; some, when exposed to an additional dose of 10-100 mSv, may develop a variety of diseases, including cancer; others have a clean bill of health after 500 and even 1,000 mSv. In addition to the organism’s genetic stability, its resistance is enhanced by a healthy lifestyle, rational balanced diet, optimal physical strain, and quitting bad habits.
Of special importance in reinforcing individual radiation defenses is an adequate consumption of vitamins and minerals. Vitamins A (including beta carotene), E, C, the microelement selenium (the so-called antioxidative set) are reputed radio protectors and anticarcinogens. And there is a full vitamin-mineral set of 30 elements which is even more potent, although recent studies show that the effect of the synthetic antioxidative set sharply increases in the presence of natural components found in fresh vegetables and fruit. Therefore, in addition to taking pills on a regular basis, for a prescribed period, one ought to remember to eat fruit and vegetables provided they are ecologically safe, free of cesium, nitrites, and other harmful chemicals.
The sixteen years after the Chornobyl disaster show how dangerous it is to be inactive at an early stage, how badly information is needed, and how disastrous is the accumulation of ungrounded rumors resulting in a mass stress and psychosis. Truthful and timely information about the scope of the disaster and adequate medical and social measures being taken could have reduced the Chornobyl consequences to a minimum. And it is a crime to pretend that the Chornobyl problem has exhausted itself, so we can sit back and do nothing to protect ourselves and our posterity.
