In Polissia's contaminated north country, village life continues despite health concerns (04/23/06)

THE 20th ANNIVERSARY OF THE CHORNOBYL NUCLEAR DISASTER

In Polissia's contaminated north country, village life continues despite health concerns

by Alexander B. Kuzma

ZARICHNE, Ukraine - The village of Zarichne is located in one of the most remote corners of northern Ukraine, where the woodland bogs and vast unbroken tracts of birch and boreal pine forests of the Rivne region blend into the unmarked border with Belarus.

In wintertime, the area is reminiscent of the rugged backwoods of the Allagash wilderness in Maine, with deep snowdrifts and road signs warning of moose crossings and logging trucks carrying fresh cut timbers to local sawmills. The woods here can be inviting and vaguely menacing - "lovely, dark and deep," in the words of Robert Frost, and travelers have reason to worry about icy spin-outs or mechanical breakdowns, as there are few passers-by to stop for help.

One can drive for miles without seeing any signs of civilization. The first hints of an approaching settlement are often the Ukrainian equivalent of a classic scene from Currier and Ives: a horse-drawn sledge, or "britchka," plowing through the ice-crusted shoulder of the highway, shaggy ponies snorting steam and shaking their manes in a frothy canter, as an old codger in a sheepskin hat slaps the reins and skeptically eyes the car with city plates as it passes by.

This northern Polissia region was significantly contaminated by radioactive fallout after the 1986 accident at the Chornobyl nuclear plant. However, unlike the evacuated city of Prypiat and many of the ghost towns in and around the 30-kilometer Chornobyl exclusion zone, the old settlements of the Zarichnianskyi and Rokytnynskyi districts of northern Rivne remained inhabited and vibrant. The residents here live off the land much as their ancestors did before the automobile. They heat their homes with wood, harvest oats and raise dairy cattle, supplement their diets by hunting deer and rabbit and moose, and in late summertime they gather wild mushrooms and cranberries ("zhuravlyna") in the marshes.

The woodlanders of Polissia, or "Polischuky" as they call themselves, take pride in their self-sufficiency, their determination to overcome hardships, to keep up their humor, even in the dead of winter. They take pride in their region's rich history as the birthplace of the Ukrainian Partisan Army (UPA) and can recount vivid stories of their forefathers' resistance to the Nazis and the Soviets. While the International Atomic Energy Agency has tried to promote a stereotype of Chornobyl survivors as hypochondriacs wallowing in self-pity and "radiophobia," the Polishchuky are more likely to impress visitors with their gritty optimism and their community spirit.

Traditionally, the residents of this area raise large families of five children or more. With a strong presence of Baptist and evangelical churches, families here reject abortion as a reproductive choice, and local communities are seeking to build new schools and maternity hospitals for a growing population.

The needs of the northern Rivne communities pose a number of challenges for Oksana Zalipska, who last year was appointed to serve as the director of the provincial government's Office of Chornobyl Consequences. Prior to her appointment, Ms. Zalipska lived in Kyiv where she served on the National Board (KPS) of the Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization. The organizational skills she developed in coordinating hundreds of Plast chapters from Lviv to Kharkiv to Crimea helped to prepare her for the myriad projects she is now implementing for the Chornobyl survivors in the Rivne Oblast.

"Rivne received a huge amount of radiation from the Chornobyl disaster," said Ms. Zalipska. "In fact, there were chunks of the exploded reactor core that were discovered in the woods, making this area highly contaminated." The worst problem local farmers face is the poor quality of the soil. Unlike the rich black earth or "chornozem" of Kyiv and Zhytomyr provinces to the east, here the soil is sandy, acidic and boggy. In the absence of key nutrients they need to survive, plants readily absorb radionuclides in their root systems. Among the most dangerous is cesium-137 which mimics potassium and can easily be absorbed into the human body.

In her first months in office, Ms. Zalipska devoted a great deal of energy to training local farmers in new planting techniques, introducing new strains of crops that were more resistant to radiation uptake and working with local geologists to identify tracts of land that were uncontaminated and safe for farming.

She also fought for the allocation of 97 million hrv (about $19 million U.S.) for the distribution of clean food products among children in the contaminated villages. Prior to her tenure, this money was squandered, if not siphoned off by government officials and local racketeers who provided substandard food to the children. Ms. Zalipska hired new staff and implemented tough new anti-corruption measures to assure quality controls and accountability for the program, and personally visited each community to ensure that the food was actually reaching the children.

These extraordinary measures are needed to provide clean food and protect public health, said Ms. Zalipska. Local veterinarians in Zarichne District are reporting that milk from local cows is contaminated with low levels of radiation, and 75 percent of the dairy animals in some settlements suffer from bovine leukemia. The Chornobyl administration in Rivne had to replace dozens of heads of cattle last year.

Even in small doses, cesium and other radioactive particles that slip into food products can settle in bone and soft tissue and create hot spots that can result in cancer in children and adults. Last year, through bulk purchases, Ms. Zalipska's office secured 700,000 hrv in discounts on cancer medication for Rivne's Radiation Health Dispensary, where two out of three children undergoing treatment for leukemia are from the less populated, but more contaminated districts of northern Rivne oblast. In the contaminated areas of the Zhytomyr Oblast, doctors have established an increase and a link between acute lymphoblastic leukemia and radiation exposure in a study funded by the U.S. Naval College.

Unlike other rural areas of Ukraine where the young people flee to cities or move abroad, the towns in the northern Rivne Oblast have had greater success in keeping their youth, and young professionals who went elsewhere to complete their education are moving back to help improve the quality of life in their hometowns.

Among the Zarichne natives who returned is the chief doctor of the Zarichnianskyi District Hospital, Dr. Andrii Lototsky, who received his medical degree in Uzhhorod.

Dr. Lototsky is deeply concerned about the number of unusual birth anomalies that have appeared in newborns and older children. "We have seen an increase in congenital heart defects, blindness or severe ocular disorders and deformed limbs."

During our visit to the Zarichne hospital, we met a talented 10-year-old boy who suffers since birth from a life-threatening aortic valve defect and a severely clubbed foot. The Ukrainian American Association for the Prevention of Birth Defects under a grant from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been tracking anomalies in the 14,000 infants born each year in Rivne and 12,000 in Volyn (104,000 over the past four years). The association found an epidemic of spina bifida at rates four times higher than European averages, and many other severe birth defects which would occur rarely, if at all, even in a much larger population. Researchers identified cataracts, microcephaly, babies born without abdominal walls, and documented the first photographed case of otocephaly (an infant born without a lower mandible).

Despite the lack of adequate funding, local government officials and medical officers are working to improve the quality of health care and diagnostic services for local residents.

In the nearby town of Volodymyrets, local leaders capitalized on the success of the Orange Revolution to obtain funding for a new maternity hospital which is now completed. Volodymyrets is located within the 30-kilometer zone of the Rivne Atomic Energy Station in Kuznetsovsk, which has also experienced radioactive releases, exposing local residents to multiple sources of radiation. Obstetricians are hoping to bolster their hospital's resources to treat pregnancy complications and newborns with respiratory distress. Here too, local doctors are concerned about the lack of fetal heart monitors and other diagnostic equipment for identifying cardiac defects that need immediate surgical intervention.

Another critical problem is the lack of ambulances or intensive care equipment to transport infants from remote towns like Zarichne to the provincial capital of Rivne. Even without snowy or inclement weather, this requires a six-hour round-trip on unlit back roads from Rivne to the remote villages, making it virtually impossible to save a child with emergency needs.

The energetic new medical director of the Rivne Regional Children's Hospital, Dr. Anatolii Boiko, is also a strong advocate of strengthening the medical infrastructure of his region. Until last June, he served as Dr. Lototsky's predecessor in the Zarichne District Hospital, and he appreciates the critical health care needs of his entire province.

In his first six months in his new position, Dr. Boiko has established partnerships with First Lady Kateryna Yushchenko's foundation Ukraine 3000 and the Amosov Institute of Cardiac Surgery in Kyiv. His hospital has also received aid from the Children of Chornobyl Relief and Development Fund and the John Wood Medical Ministries from Waco, Tex.

Dr. Boiko is designating several of his most promising doctors to study English and German so they can take full advantage of training opportunities in the West, and then help to train other physicians throughout their province in their respective disciplines.

With a network of young, progressive health care workers and a dynamic regional coordinator in Ms. Zalipska, the Chornobyl-impacted communities in northern Rivne Oblast are developing a common vision and a strategic plan to give their children the best health care possible.

* * *

On April 20, the Children of Chornobyl Relief and Development Fund was planning to deliver a large shipment of aid to Rivne as part of its airlift commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster. Among other supplies and technology, the fund will deliver a Fresenius blood cell separator that will greatly enhance the treatment of children with leukemia at the Rivne Regional Children's Hospital.

To further support these hospital partnerships, tax deductible contributions may be sent to: CCRDF, 272 Old Short Hills Road, Short Hills, NJ 07078. For more information call Alexa Milanytch at 973-376-5140 or visit the CCRDF website at www.childrenofchornobyl.org.

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