A new study released in Kiev, Ukraine directly challenges the findings of a widely criticized International Atomic Energy Agency/World Health Organization report from last September that predicted 4,000 likely cancer deaths as a result of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
The study was commissioned by Rebecca Harms, a Green Party member of the European Parliament, on behalf of the Greens/EFA in the European Parliament and in conjunction with the April 23-25 "Chernobyl+20: Remembrance for the Future" conference in Kiev, Ukraine. The study, titled "TORCH" (The Other Report on Chernobyl) was prepared by two scientists from the United Kingdom, Dr. Ian Fairlie and Dr. David Sumner.
Some key findings of The Other Report on Chernobyl (TORCH) (i) include:
- Belarus, Ukraine and Russia were heavily contaminated, however more than half of Chernobyl's fallout was deposited outside these countries.
- Fallout from Chernobyl contaminated about 40% of Europe's surface area.
- About 2/3rds of Chernobyl's collective dose was distributed to populations outside Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, especially to western Europe.
- About 30,000 to 60,000 excess cancer deaths are predicted, 7 to 15 times greater than IAEA/WHO's published estimate of 4,000.
Said Rebecca Harms, "We commissioned TORCH to counterbalance claims made by the IAEA in the media last year, which both played down the lethal consequences of the nuclear accident at Chernobyl and failed to make a meaningful analysis of its wider effects on Europe and the world. The much-publicized IAEA estimate of a mere 4000 excess cancer deaths provoked an outcry among the scientific community and environmental NGOs, and was a dishonor to those who have and will suffer as a result of Chernobyl. This is one of a number of underestimates, which TORCH set out to rebut. There must be no mistaking the catastrophic dangers that are still very much associated with nuclear power."
18.04.2006
Source of news: Chernobyl.Info
<< back
