The Hindu : International : Chernobyl disaster haunts thousands, 20 years later

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 27, 2006

International

International

Chernobyl disaster haunts thousands, 20 years later

Vladimir Radyuhin

Diseases in contaminated regions will peak in another five years

MOSCOW: When Marina Khutonos (14) was offered to undergo medical tests in Moscow to check for symptoms of Chernobyl-related diseases, her mother readily agreed.

The trip from Bryansk, 380 km south-west from Moscow, and all other expenses were paid for by the NTV television station, whose team picked the girl at random for a film they were shooting to mark the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

The Chernobyl reactor explosion on April 26, 1986 spewed radiation across northern Ukraine, western Russia, Belarus and northern Europe.

The Bryansk Region on the border with Ukraine was the worst contaminated territory in Russia, and authorities declared dozens of towns and villages in the region, including the one where Marina was born six years after Chernobyl and where she still lives with her mother today, not fit for habitation.

However only a handful of villages have been actually evacuated for lack of funds.

Initial tests in Moscow confirmed the diagnosis Marina had been given back in Bryansk: the girl had excessive levels of strontium and cesium, but was not suffering from thyroid problem or any other specific ailments linked to radiation.

Further tests

However, further tests showed Marina had a life-threatening heart condition. Surgeons who operated Marina at Russia's premium Bakulev clinic said they could not say for sure whether Marina's heart problem was directly related to high radiation levels, but suggested the girl should move to live in a safer region.

Medical specialists predict that radiation-caused diseases in contaminated regions will peak in another five years.

Russia's chief sanitary inspector Gennady Onishchenko, expects the number of thyroid cancer cases in the Bryansk region will double by 2010.

The incidence of cancer in the region is already 10 to 15 per cent higher than the national average. Dr. Onishchenko told a news conference in Moscow that almost 1.5 million persons still live in the 4,343 small towns and villages in Russia polluted by Chernobyl.

Russian veterinary sources said more than 50 per cent of food products in the Bryansk Region are contaminated.

Residents also widely consume mushrooms, berries, and game from the heavily irradiated forests. After Marina spent a month in Moscow her levels of strontium and cesium dropped by half thanks to radiation-clean food. Doctors said the girl would get rid of all traces of radiation if she could stay on such a diet at least for two months every year.

Marina's mother can neither afford to buy clean food, nor does she have the means to resettle from her polluted village.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail