Turning the pages back... May 6, 2001 (05/02/04)

Turning the pages back...

May 6, 2001

Three years ago in May, The Ukrainian Weekly's Andrew Nynka reported on the solemn commemoration marking the 15th anniversary of the world's worst nuclear disaster, the International Conference on Health and the Environment which was dedicated to re-evaluating the medical aftereffects and continuing illnesses that have plagued Ukraine, Russia and Belarus due to the nuclear fallout from Chornobyl.

The conference, held at the United Nations and organized by World Information Transfer (WIT), was a three-day event from April 25 to 27. Conference organizers devoted April 26, exactly 15 years after the initial catastrophe, to discussing health and medical issues relating to the Chornobyl disaster. Dr. Christine K. Durbak, chair and CEO of WIT, remarked that "although much time has passed, there is still tremendous work left to be done."

"Fifteen years have provided us ample time to estimate the immediate effect of some of the health consequences, but 15 years is still too short a time to provide an overview of the tragedy with all the outcomes it is expected to bring in the future to the Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian people," said Prof. Sergiy Komisarenko, director of the Palladin Institute of Biochemistry in Kyiv. Speeches were delivered by U.N. Ambassadors Valeriy Kuchinsky of Ukraine; Sergey Lavrov of the Russian Federation, Sergei Ling of Belarus; and Madina B. Jarbussynova of Kazakstan.

One conference participant commented "Chornobyl was not an 'accident' in the sense that it has a definite end. Its repercussions will be with us for many generations. This is a war that will go on for some time yet. We must be continually committed to fight its effects."

Source: "U.N. conference highlights Chornobyl," by Andrew Nynka, The Ukrainian Weekly, May 6, 2001, Vol. LXIX, No. 18.

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