Ignoring the Problems
At the IAEA conference, the problem of insulin-dependant diabetes has not been quoted among the diseases caused by Chernobyl, although it was described after the bombing in Hiroshima. The technique for evading this issue during this pronuclear conference is worth telling. During the discussion, I asked whether there existed any link between diabetes and ionizing radiation. The chairman of the session spoke before the speaker could answer, and said: “You have here experts from all over the world, the best specialists in this field. The fact that none of them has raised his hand to answer your question proves that the ionizing radiation cannot cause this type of disease”.
In connection with this answer of the chairperson, Prof. Viel (17) exposed methods, used by those who do not want to show a link between ionizing radiation and pathological findings. He quoted similar answers or statements to the one I heard: “The experts were unanimous in the view that... there is no association between radiation and any health”. Prof. Viel added that such experts may “conduct inadequate epidemiological researches by integrating epistemological errors”. A classical method was to select mortality instead of morbidity, e.g.: to stop the investigations too early when studying cancers, as it was the case after Chernobyl.
The results of such studies show no statistically significant differences. The hypothesis has therefore not been proved. Promoters conclude that it is false, which allows them to pretend that everything is in order and the atomic industry safe.
The dismantlement Gomel Institute
Lesions of the immune system in organisms contribute to the development of cancers in younger subjects. We must keep in mind that cancers are only the visible part of the iceberg, represented by the totality of the diseases caused by Chernobyl. That is why the scientific world was extremely interested by the research of Professor Bandazhevsky [22], which allow to discover or imagine the true dimension of the iceberg. The systematic studies of this research group allowed characterizing new diseases due to cellular damages caused by the accumulation of radionuclides.
Bandazhevsky studied also other radionuclides, e.g. Sr-90, which accumulates in the bones, close to the blood-producing cells, erythrocytes, including mother cells of the immune system. Sr-90 is much more stable in the human organism than Cs-137. Internal contamination of the organism may also be due to particles of plutonium fixed in the lungs, lymphatic or other tissues. Bandazhevsky considers the synergy between the toxicity of the different radionuclides as a complementary problem.
The arrest of Yury Bandazhevsky, Rector of the Gomel Medical on July 13, 1999, shocked those who knew him and his publications. This dynamic teacher and highly motivated researcher devoted himself totally to his work, which he considered to be his debt to his country, and in particular, to the victims of Chernobyl. Bandazhevsky created the Gomel Medical Institute and designed its scientific and research work on the causes of the diseases of the population living in the contaminated areas.
Amnesty International reacted at once, considering Bandazhevsky as a potential prisoner of conscience [26]. This opinion was reinforced when the Prosecutor, Oleg Bozhelko, said 9 months after his arrest that he held no proof for his accusation.
Now the Institute has been placed under the direction of a rector “of a follower”, who rejected the previous direction of research. This is one of the most brilliant victories of the pronuclear lobby over.
The international solidarity was able to release the prisoner. However Professor Bandazhevsky lost his job, his research instrument, his data, the teaching activity and his income. He is in need of help. His health has been seriously undermined; he has lost 20 kg due to extremely severe conditions in jail. Our solidarity should now allow him to find the way and means to continue his research and to publish his findings. It is also necessary to find money to pay the services of a lawyer
Mutagenic and teratogenic effects
From the ethical point of view, the genetic and hereditary damages are the most disturbing consequence of the radioactive pollution The impact on the genome, i.e. the change in chromosomes or genes, which cause an increase of genetic diseases and birth defects in the coming generations is threatening the workers of the nuclear industry. At all stages of the uranium cycle, from the uranium mining to the management of wastes, including the maintenance of “normally functioning” nuclear facilities, radionuclides are released, in the as gazes or particles, liquids or solids. Radiation lead to an increase of a number of genetic. These were the warnings expressed by the experts invited by the WHO in 1956, when the nuclear industry began to develop [9].
After Chernobyl, changes of the genome were found not only in rodents close to Chernobyl or in Sweden. Children living in contaminated regions, in a radius of 250–300 km from Chernobyl show an increase in mutations; [27]. Dominant mutations may be apparent at birth, or become manifest during life. However most of them are not compatible with survival and can cause abortions. Recessive mutations induce genetic diseases and congenital deformities in the next generations. Thus, it will be necessary to wait up to the third to fifth generations of affected by the Chernobyl fallout to observe the full extent of the damage caused by the Chernobyl catastrophe in the families.
Genetic anomalies in fishes, swallows and rodents
A. Slukvin, a former USSR fishing expert, compared two industrial fish farms for carps. The first was situated 200 km from Chernobyl in a zone with a relatively low level of contamination (about 1 Curie per square km), the second, 400 km away from Chernobyl, in a zone of very low contamination. Since 1988 up to 70% of the fertilized eggs did not produce larvae, and after 6 months, the young fishes in the area where the muddy bottom was contaminated with Cs-137 major deformities were observed in 10 to 20% of the carps, depending on the radiocontamination of the pond [28]. The normal development of carps was still possible 400 km from the exploded nuclear power plant. Prof. Rose Goncharova directed Dr. Slukvin’s thesis.
The generations of rodents and birds around Chernobyl follow much quicker than in man. This allows already studying the increase in deformities, caused by recessive genes in animals living in contaminated areas.
A group of Swedish researchers compared a population of swallows, nesting in Chernobyl, with swallows from uncontaminated regions in the Southern Ukraine and a region of Italy. They studied the DNA structure of the minisatellites of adult and young swallows, as did Dubrova in human [27], in chromosomes in the adult swallows and their offspring. The Swedish researchers discovered a statistically significantly higher mutation rate in Chernobyl swallows compared to those living in clean area [29]. Furthermore, they observed an increase of recessive genetic abnormalities in the Chernobyl swallows. Mutants had white spots on their feathers; they had also a much lower chance to survive. Year after year, observations showed a progressive increase in those disorders in the contaminated areas compared to the Southern Ukraine or to the control zone in Italy. The differences were statistically significant.
A number of studies were devoted to rodents living in more or less contaminated areas [30, 31, 32]. The habitat, where these wild rodents (bank voles) live, has a decreasing radioactivity rate, since Caesium-137 is seeping in the soil with rainwater. One could have expected a positive reaction of these animals to these improving radiological conditions. Yet, genetic abnormalities increased from one generation to another [30, 31]. Goncharova and Ryabokon consider this as a kind of reverse adaptation to radioactivity, an increased fragility of the genome.
Baker and his colleagues [32] studied the DNA in one of the genes, transferred to baby bank voles exclusively from their mothers. They observe various mutations from generation to generation, i.e. an alteration of the base of the studied chromosomes, which overpasses 100 times the mutation rate observed until today in any animal species.
For geneticists point of view, human beings and rodents may well be compared. Commenting the publication of Dubrova & al. and that of Bax
ter & al, Prof. Hillis, from the Texas University, concluded his editorial in Nature (April 25, 1996) as follows: “We know now know that the mutational effects of nuclear accidents can be much greater than suspected and that evolutionary rates in at least parts of n eucariotic genome can be raised well beyond levels previously considered possible” (33).
The article by Y. Dubrova & al. was published in the same issue Nature [27]. This team working with Prof. A. Jeffreys, Nobel laureate examined children and their parents, living in the contaminated areas 250 -300 km north from Chernobyl. Compared with children in uncontaminated regions. These children of Belarus showed suffered a doubling of mutations in minisatellite loci. The mutation rate decreased with the degree of radioactivity in their parents residence place. A control group was selected in the United Kingdom due to the overall contamination of the Belarusian territory.
Experts think that a low, but chronic dose of radioactivity, is very dangerous thing for the human genome.
In May 1997, the WHO annual report, published on the occasion of the World Health Assembly (WHA) attested that the number of cases of cancers will double within the next ten years. However, this report says that this is due to the growing life expectancy [34]. Such an analysis does not distinguish between the cancers in very old people and those in children and in young adults, which increases most in the Chernobyl regions.
The same publication of the WHO (34) shows an important increase in the number of cases of diabetes. In rich countries, Type II concern people with excessive food intake. Without further explanation, this report indicates that the number of insulin-dependent type I diabetes will also increase in young people. Here we should recall the report of Mr. Korolenko, Ukrainian Minister of Health at the WHO conference in 1995, which was not published [6]. He underlined the 25% increase in the number of cases of diabetes after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in a population where excessive food intake is rare.
Birth defects in children
At the IAEA conference in Vienna, 1996 [7], the speaker reporting on teratology as a consequence of the Chernobyl accident, made use of the same argument as the lawyers of the chemical industry that produced in the sixties a tranquilizer, Thalidomide, which appeared to be extremely teratogenic, i.e. provoking a number of birth defects in children whose mothers had absorbed it; This drug caused also birth defects in monkeys, birds and insects [35]. The speaker asserted: “The absence of any register proves that the development of birth defects is not caused by the Chernobyl accident”.
Of course, the absence of a register is not a proof of the absence of a causal relationship between the increase of birth defects and Chernobyl. But the falsity of this statement is more shocking when Belarus is concerned. Since 1982, i.e. 4 years before Chernobyl, Belarus had a national register of birth defects, developed by the Belarusian Institute of Birth Defects and Inherited Diseases, under the leadership of Professor Gennady Laziuk [36]. This Institute records and checks the cases of birth defects, observed in the country. It is compulsory to report ten birth defects, to be detected in children up to 7 days after birth, or in fetuses in case of spontaneous or therapeutic abortions. Following anomalies must reported in any case: anomalies of the development of the central nervous system as major brain damage, dysraphia of the face or spina bifida, polydactylism, absence of limbs or serious defects in their development, rectal stenosis, mongolism and multiple birth defects.
The incidence of birth defects have increased in Belarus in a direct proportion to the contamination by Cs-137 in the regions, where the mother was living during her pregnancy [36]. Rates of birth defects of probable dominant genetic origin, e.g. polydactylism and multiple deformities, compatible with survival, have considerably increased [37]. Deformities probably caused by the teratogenic property of radionuclides are also increasing.
There is practically no region spared from radioactive contamination in Belarus, as 90 % of the contamination is caused by the ingestion of contaminated food. No region of the country can be considered as a control area. That is why the findings registered from 1982 to 1985, constitute the best control data available.
During the WHO conference of November 1995, Dr. Smolnikova from Gomel, in charge of the health of 46 thousand children living in an area contaminated by 40 Curies of Cs-137/km2, had already mentioned a high perinatal death-rate and an alarming increase of birth defects in the region [6].
Despite all these reports, the experts from IAEA denied in 1996 any increase of birth defects, related to the Chernobyl catastrophe.
After the epidemic of birth defects caused in Europe by the drug thalidomide (Contergan), and in spite of the fact that thalidomide is not mutagenic, the pharmaceutical industry was forced to exclude, all over the world, substances with mutagenic and teratogenic properties. The fact that similar measures do not apply to the nuclear industry may well be connected with the Agreement signed between the IAEA and other UN organizations, including the WHO. The radionuclides released in the environment by this industry, have mutagenic, teratogenic or cancerogenic properties.
The destruction of scientific structures in Belarus
As long as the World Health Assembly, the governing body of the WHO, does not amend the Agreement, concluded in 1959 with the IAEA, which holds it hostage to the nuclear lobby with regard to the radiation induced health effects, there is no hope for independent research groups to receive any substantial support.
The most efficient structures that study in Belarus the health consequences of the Chernobyl accident are being progressively dismantled.
Professor Nesterenko was one of the physicists, who came immediately to the place of the accident. As an expert and, sometimes, he acted as a fireman, flying with a helicopter within the radioactive cloud, pouring containers of liquid nitrogen in the burning reactor. It is incredible that he survived. The three other passengers of that helicopter have died owing to the irradiation. Together with his colleagues, Nesterenko established the map of the radioactive contamination of all the territory and formulated proposals for the protection of the people.
He continued his work, until his data and his recommendations were considered as unsatisfactory, he was considered as an “alarmist” and lost his Institute, his functions and his sources of income. Due to the help of Alex Adamovich, Andrej Sakharov, the chess champion Karpov, the Foundation for Peace, the Northern Ireland Foundation Adi Roche, and others, Nesterenko founded a state-independent research Institute “Belrad”, which works to assist victims of Chernobyl, teaching them the best possible methods of self-defense, when they are forced to live in contaminated territories, and tries to rehabilitate children.
The Minister of Health, Dr. Dobrishevskaya, who supported the most efficient research groups in this field, according to a joint report published in 1996 [24], was also not maintained in her function.
Professor Okeanov witnessed the same disorganization of the research structure he was in charge. It was a most valuable instrument, aimed at revealing the true dimensions of the epidemic of cancer diseases caused by the Chernobyl accident. The coincidence with his reports at the conference of the WHO (1995), the NGO conference in Minsk (1996), and his nonobservance of the required silence at the conference of the IAEA in Vienna (1996), shows clearly who wanted get rid or to achieve the destruction of this working instrument.
The removal of Professor Bandazhevsky is the last strike in this destructive series. This pioneer of research of health consequences of the Chernobyl accident has revealed the mechanisms of the action of chronic low dose radiation by incorporated radionuclides in organisms: after iodide-131, Cs-137 and Sr-90. With his group of young researchers from the Gomel Medical Institute and numerous volunteers, Bandazhevsky has described typical diseases occurring in a large proportion of the population and almost all the children living in the highly contaminated regions.
These systematic and repeated strikes, which negatively influence the we
llbeing of the country and its population, are, sometimes supported by western scientists perhaps jealous these discoveries. However, those who gain the greatest satisfaction and benefit of such actions, are the richest countries with the most advanced nuclear industry, and the nuclear lobby
It is necessary that the WHO recover its independence, in order to be able to act again in this field according to its Constitution. Epidemiological research should start without delay. Who will study the genetic damages in children in the five coming generations?
Who will devote himself to the rehabilitation of the victims, to their treatment and to the most effective protection of children and pregnant women? Rich nuclear states should come to the aid of victims of Chernobyl in Belarus and in other suffering countries.
It is also necessary to remove the present mandate of the IAEA to promote commercial nuclear industry. This Agency has much more important problems to solve: to keep under surveillance plutonium, uranium and all the fissionable materials, from dismantled nuclear warheads, military and commercial nuclear facilities. The IAEA must also control the problems of the safe storage of the radioactive waste, which humanity managed to produce in only two generations, since the beginning of nuclear age. This surveillance must unfortunately continue for centuries and millenaries.
The bibliography
1) Belbeoch B. and Belbeoch R. : Tchernobyl, une catastrophe. Quelques elements pour un bilan. Edition Allia, 16 rue Charlemagne, Paris IVe , pp 220. 1993.
2) Schtscherbak J. : Protokolle einer Katastrophe (Aus dem Russischen von Barbara Conrad) Athenaum Verlag GmbH. Die kleine weisse Reihe. Frankfurt am Main, 1988.
3) Tribunal Permanent des Peuples. Commission Internationale de Tchernobyl : Consequences sur l’environnement, la sante, et les droits de la personne. Vienne, Autriche, ECODIF- 107 av. Parmentier, 75011 Paris, ISBN 3–00–001533–7, pp 238, 12–15 avril 1996.
The Crime of Chernobyl- The Nuclear Gulag Page 80
