EDITORIAL: Remember Chornobyl (04/22/01)

CHORNOBYL: THE FIFTEENTH ANNIVERSARY

EDITORIAL: Remember Chornobyl

The 15th anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear accident, it seems, is being commemorated rather quietly in Ukraine and in the diaspora. Five years ago there was much activity in conjunction with the 10th anniversary, while today ... well, most of the commemorations are low-key: a memorial service here, a conference there ...

But that should not affect how we respond to the needs of the victims of the world's worst nuclear accident, a "disaster of global proportions," as it has been called.

Five years ago, Dr. Yuri Shcherbak, a physician and writer who at the time was Ukraine's ambassador to the U.S. (and today is its envoy to Canada) cited Ministry of Health and Greenpeace statistics indicating that 8,000 to 32,000 people have died as a result of Chornobyl. He explained the wide discrepancies as "not maliciousness, but a result of the exceptional complexity of the disaster, multiple factors and unpredictability."

At the same time, Dr. David Marples, who has extensively studied and researched Chornobyl and its aftermath, noted: "The disaster ... contaminated an area of about 100,000 square miles. This area encompassed about 20 percent of the territory of Belarus; about 8 percent of Ukraine; and about .5 to 1 percent of the Russian Federation." Dr. Marples went on to note the dramatic rise in thyroid cancer among children in Ukraine and Belarus, as well as the severe health problems affecting the "liquidators," as Chornobyl clean-up workers are known, and the generally poor state of health of the populace of Ukraine and Belarus.

Attempting last year to sum up what we know about the Chornobyl accident, Alex Kuzma, executive director of the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund, wrote: "We know that the accident released more than 185 million curies of radiation over a heavily populated area. We know that thyroid cancer among children has exploded to levels 10 times higher than normal in Ukraine, and in some areas, more than 80 times higher than normal. We know that the accident has caused significant chromosome damage and that birth defects have doubled since 1986." All sobering statistics.

But, he added, there is much we do not know about the aftereffects of Chornobyl. "The debate over Chornobyl's effects will continue for many years to come," he noted, adding that some "experts may cling to the fantasy that the current health crisis in Ukraine and Belarus is nothing more than a symptom of a failing economy."

As a result, as Dr. Marples pointed out in a speech prepared for the 15th anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster, "there is no consensus on the impact of Chornobyl on health, ... there is no widely accepted study on the health consequences of the accident. There is no agreement on the number of victims. ... The populations of both republics [Ukraine and Belarus] have fallen to disquieting levels."

Perhaps the best approach then is the one advocated by Mr. Kuzma, who argued: "Whether a birth defect or child's cancer is caused by Chornobyl or by some other environmental factor is a secondary issue. What is undisputed and far more relevant is the fact that here in the West we have the resources, the know-how and financial clout to make a significant difference in the lives of thousands of Ukrainian youngsters and their families."

And that, dear readers, is precisely where we come in. It is surely within our power, as we solemnly observe the 15th anniversary of the nuclear calamity known around the globe simply as "Chornobyl," to support institutions and organizations that strive to help the people of Ukraine deal with the medical and social crises they face on a daily basis, to help ease their very real pain, to help give new generations a better tomorrow. Indeed, that would be the best way for all of us to continue to remember Chornobyl.

| Home Page |