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Re: [cdn-nucl-l] 20 years later, memories of Chernobyl run deep
Adam,
Good letter! I hope they publish it.
The additional (fewer than) 19 deaths (< 50 - 31) are in line with ~ 1%/year
normal mortality x 18 years of 106 people (134 ARS patients - 28 deaths).
The 4000 estimate was determined using the LNT hypothesis.
A colleague at Pickering NGS (in fuel handling) visited the Chernobyl
station in the early 1990s (after the cleanup) for a tour. He brought his
dosimeter to make his own radiation intensity measurements as he toured
about the other operating reactors. He told me the radiation levels were
very low.
Jerry
----- Original Message -----
From: "Adam Mclean" <adam.mclean@utoronto.ca>
To: "Canadian Nuclear Discussion List" <cdn-nucl-l@mailman1.cis.mcmaster.ca>
Sent: Saturday, April 08, 2006 1:32 AM
Subject: [cdn-nucl-l] 20 years later, memories of Chernobyl run deep
> 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
>
>
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