Ukrainian doctor and Chornobyl's effects featured at nuclear survivors' conference (03/27/05)

Ukrainian doctor and Chornobyl's effects featured at nuclear survivors' conference

by Alexander Kuzma

MAJURO, Marshall Islands - On the 51st anniversary of the first U.S. hydrogen bomb test in the Bikini Atoll, an international delegation of non-governmental organizations from 10 nations gathered in the capital of the Marshall Islands to discuss the long-term impact of radiation exposure, and to develop new strategies for aiding radiation victims.

Among the featured speakers at the weeklong conference in Majuro was Dr. Lyudmyla Porokhnyak-Hanovska, the medical director for the Kyiv-based international women's organization Zhinocha Hromada (Women's Society).

Dr. Porokhnyak shared her experiences as a nuclear survivor, and presented some of the latest findings on Chornobyl's continuing impact on the health of women, children, nuclear clean-up workers and communities affected by nuclear fallout from the 1986 disaster in northern Ukraine.

As an active participant in Ukraine's Orange Revolution, Dr. Porokhnyak also fielded many questions from the press and from the conference participants about the dramatic political changes sweeping Ukraine.

The international conference drew participants from the United States, Japan, the Philippines, Guam, Okinawa and other locations. It culminated in the March 1 commemoration of the 51st anniversary of the so-called Bravo Test in 1954 that exploded a massive hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean. The explosion was over 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. The fallout from this massive blast and subsequent above-ground atomic tests contaminated large portions of the Pacific island atolls of Enewetak, Rongelap, Utrik and Bikini. In 1963 President John F. Kennedy called on the U.S. government to provide medical care and compensation for the large numbers of Marshall Islanders who were stricken with thyroid cancer, birth defects, reproductive complications, infertility and other serious illnesses as a result of radiation exposure.

Titled "Our Land is Our Life," the March conference received extensive press coverage in the Hawaiian Islands, in Micronesia, and in the Marshall Islands, as well as internationally through the Associated Press.

Dr. Porokhnyak's presentations drew special interest, as she was able to draw important parallels between the Chornobyl effects documented in Ukraine and Belarus and the many health effects documented in the Marshall Islands in the wake of the 67 atomic tests conducted by the U.S. military between 1946 and 1958. Dr. Porokhnyak served as a leading researcher at the Ukrainian Institute of Radiation Medicine in Kyiv. She has produced and patented several products designed to reduce radiation exposure among exposed populations.

Prior to the start of the conference in the Marshall Islands, Dr. Porokhnyak took part in a press conference at the Hawaiian State Capitol in Honolulu. She appeared together with Mazza Attari, a former senator from the Marshall Islands, and Charles Clark, an atomic veteran who was among the first U.S. troops to enter the city of Nagasaki after the detonation of the second atomic bomb on August 9, 1945.

Dr. Porokhnyak was accompanied by Alexander Kuzma, the executive director of the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund, who served as a translator and shared the fund's experiences in developing hospital partnerships, medical training and aid programs in Ukraine. Since 1990, CCRF has organized 31 airlifts and 15 sea shipments, delivering over $51 million dollars' worth of medical equipment and hospital supplies to medical centers in 18 regions of Ukraine.

The invitation to the Marshall Islands conference came about as a result of one of the shipments CCRF helped to coordinate many years ago for a hospital in Bohodukhiv, in the Kharkiv region. Jennifer and Irving Hollingshead, staffers for the American Friends Service Committee in Honolulu once worked with the Bordentown-Bohodukhiv Sister Cities Program. They urged the conference organizers to contact the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund to include a Ukrainian delegate and Chornobyl survivor in the proceedings. Besides support from the AFSC, the March conference also received extensive financial support from the United Church of Christ and the U.S.-Japan Committee for Racial Justice.

After returning from the Marshall Islands, Dr. Porokhnyak, Mr. Kuzma and other conference delegates were invited to make presentations at the Harris United Methodist Church and the historic Kauaihao UCC in downtown Honolulu.

The conference delegates issued several resolutions and appeals to world governments to provide more comprehensive research on the long-term effects of radiation exposure in the Marshall Islands and in the Chornobyl region. They also called for continuing medical aid for radiation victims, as well as economic and technical assistance to help the Marshall Islands implement sustainable development programs. The conference also devoted a great deal of attention to the ongoing need for decontamination of nuclear sites and the removal of toxic waste and unexploded military ordinance in many areas where it poses a continuing threat to human health and safety.

The diverse participants of the international conference included representatives of Navajo uranium miners from New Mexico, survivors of the Japanese occupation and U.S. invasion of Okinawa, and community leaders who helped persuade the Bush administration to end 25 years of bombing of the island of Vieques of Puerto Rico.

The international delegation was hosted in the Marshall Islands by a local non-governmental organization named ERUB. The acronym stands for Enewetak, Rongelap, Utrik and Bikini - the four atolls most heavily affected by nuclear fallout from the atomic tests in the Pacific. The word "erub" also means "broken" in the local Marshallese language.

Members of ERUB presented poignant testimony on the illnesses and birth defects they suffered. Several women had delivered so-called "jellyfish" babies, which were born with virtually no bone or cartilage. Some radiation experts have speculated that the mothers absorbed large quantities of radioactive strontium-90. Absorbed into the body, strontium replaces calcium and prevents normal bone growth in the fetus. Other ERUB members have had to travel to the U.S. mainland for thyroid and cancer surgery.

Using their experience with the Chornobyl evacuees and Ukrainian nuclear clean-up workers, Dr. Porokhnyak and Mr. Kuzma hope to work with the conference organizers and their Marshallese hosts to develop long-term strategies for more comprehensive health screening, nuclear decontamination and economic development.

"This conference provided a unique opportunity to learn from the experiences of many nations and communities that have suffered the effects of nuclear and military testing," said Dr. Porokhnyak. "Only by unifying our efforts and by gaining full disclosure of scientific data can the world community truly overcome the consequences of these nuclear tragedies and build a brighter future for our children."

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