[cdn-nucl-l] 20 years later, memories of Chernobyl run deep

["Adam Mclean" <adam.mclean@utoronto.ca>]

Posted in the Toronto Star on April 7, 2006 and at:
www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type
1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1144318868442
340,000 dead?!  My letter to the editor follows the article below...

Adam

-------------------

20 years later, memories of Chernobyl run deep
World's worst nuclear disaster exposed millions to danger

Toronto concert being held to `remember the victims,' `lift the spirit'
Apr. 7, 2006. 01:00 AM
LESLIE FERENC
STAFF REPORTER

It was the day that changed the world and Nadia Zastavna's life.

It was a picture-perfect spring day and she was busy in her kitchen as her
4-month-old son slept peacefully in his cradle, when Zastavna heard a news
brief over the radio about a minor fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power
station.

Nothing to worry about, everything under control, the announcer said.

The then 30-year-old mother didn't give a second thought to the mishap so
far away. Little did she or millions of her countrymen know that less than
500 kilometres from her Ternopil home, hell's fury had broken loose.

"People were already dead," she recalled of that fateful day. "Some were
dying as they fought the fire and were exposed to high amounts of
radiation."

By the time the truth of the April 26, 1986, disaster surfaced days later,
millions in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia (all in what was then the Soviet
Union) had been exposed to the deadly radiation that spewed from Chernobyl's
Reactor No. 4.

"We all felt the consequences," said Zastavna, who at the time was teaching
English at a middle school in Ukraine. "After the catastrophe, you could
hardly find one healthy child in class."

The years that followed saw dramatic increases in birth defects,
neurological disorders and leukemia, as well as thyroid and liver cancer
among children, she said. Her own son, Andriy Bortnyk, who was born healthy,
grew up a sickly child. Doctors feared the worst when they discovered
enlarged lymph nodes when he was 8. But by that time, Zastavna was working
for an international aid agency that arranged for her and her son to go to
Minnesota, where Andriy was treated for a compromised immune system for more
than a year.

Today they live in Toronto, where Zastavna works for Children of Chornobyl
Canadian Fund helping victims of the nuclear disaster. (The organization
uses the Ukrainian spelling of Chernobyl.) A strapping Andriy has his sights
sets on becoming a police officer.

Zastavna and her son will be in the audience at Roy Thomson Hall Sunday for
a commemorative concert marking the 20th anniversary of the world's worst
nuclear disaster.

"We'll be there to remember the victims and pray that such a catastrophe
will never happen again," she said.

Presented by the Toronto-based CCCF, the concert aims to "lift the spirit"
in memory of those whose lives were sacrificed and those who, two decades
later, continue to struggle with serious health problems linked to radiation
exposure, fund president and chairman Roman Stepczuk said.

Since it was established in 1989, CCCF has raised more than $17 million -
most of it in Canada - to help the sick and provide much-needed medical
equipment and supplies for treatment centres and hospitals in Ukraine.

Though there's no hard data on how many people were affected by radiation
from Chernobyl, some studies estimate that 340,000 in the so-called hot
spots around the plant died as a result, and as many as 7.1 million in
Ukraine, Belarus and Russia succumbed to diseases linked to radiation,
Stepczuk noted.

Sunday's concert, featuring such ensembles as the Gryphon Trio, the Vesnivka
and the Elmer Iseler Singers, will also mark the premiere of Canadian
composer Christos Hatzis' powerful Wormwood.

Wormwood is the English name for Chernobyl. It is also the English word for
Apsinthos, which in the Book of Revelation is the name of the death star
that was hurled to Earth, poisoning the planet's waters and people.

Tickets for Chernobyl 20 are available through Roy Thomson Hall at
416-872-4255, Ticketmaster at 416-870-8000 or online at
http://www.roythomson.com.

--------------------

April 8, 2006
Toronto Star, Letter to the Editor

Dear Sir/Madam:

In the letter "20 years later, memories of Chernobyl run deep", the author
states that there is "no hard data" on how many people were affected by
radiation from Chernobyl.  Quite the contrary, there has been an intense
global effort to monitor and quantify health, environmental and
socio-economic impacts as a consequence of the accident.  

This effort has been led by the Chernobyl Forum, a group made up of hundreds
of scientists from over 20 countries, composing 8 specialized agencies of
the United Nations, including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),
the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Development Program
(UNDP), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations
Environment Program (UNEP), the United Nations Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA), and the United Nations Scientific
Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR).

The article also suggests that 340,000 people were killed as a result of
radiation from the accident.  This figure is completely without credibility
and simply untrue.  Major studies by the Chernobyl Forum and UNSCEAR in 2000
and 2005 (available at www.unscear.org) have concluded that to date fewer
than 50 deaths have been attributable to radiation from the disaster, and
estimate that a total of up to 4,000 people could eventually die prematurely
due to radiation exposure.  

Adam McLean
PhD Candidate
University of Toronto