http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060418/ap_on_re_eu/chernobyl_greenpeace
Number of Chernobyl-Related Deaths Debated
By MARA D. BELLABY, Associated Press Writer Tue Apr 18, 7:25 PM ET
KIEV, Ukraine - The
United Nations health agency said Tuesday that about 9,300 people are likely
to die of cancers caused by radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster,
while a report from Greenpeace put the potential toll 10 times higher.
The radically differing conclusions underline the contentious uncertainties
that remain about the health effects of the world's worst nuclear accident as
its 20th anniversary approaches.
A reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine exploded on April
26, 1986, spewing radioactive clouds over much of Europe. The fallout was
particularly severe in the northern reaches of Ukraine, western Russia and
Belarus.
Areas immediately around the now-inoperative plant remain off-limits, but
people in other areas that received significant fallout are anxious about
their health.
The
World Health Organization issued a study Tuesday estimating the affected
areas would suffer approximately 9,335 deaths over the decades attributable
to contamination from the disaster. It said 405 of those deaths took place in
the first decade after the explosion.
The report stressed the numbers were not precise predictions, because
"considerable uncertainty surrounds such estimates, as the radiation doses
are mostly inadequately quantified."
But WHO added that the study's findings "do not substantiate earlier claims
that tens or evens hundreds of thousands of deaths will be caused by
radiation exposures from the Chernobyl accident."
Another U.N. study last year — done by the
International Atomic Energy Agency and several other U.N. groups — came to a
similar conclusion, predicting that the disaster would cause about 9,000
deaths.
Before WHO's study was released, Greenpeace harshly disagreed with last
year's report, suggesting it was deliberately misleading. Citing data from
the former Soviet republics of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, the environmental
group predicted 93,000 excess deaths.
"It is appalling that the IAEA is whitewashing the impacts of the most
serious nuclear accident in human history," Ivan Blokov of Greenpeace's
Russia office said in a statement. "Denying the real implications is not only
insulting to the thousands of victims but it also leads to dangerous
recommendations and the relocation of people in contaminated areas."
The Chernobyl Forum report suggested many of the health problems and
complaints in the regions around Chernobyl were connected with unhealthy
lifestyles, including heavy drinking and smoking, and with a culture of
victimization. The WHO report also noted the region has a higher mortality
rate than most Western nations.
Volodymyr Bebeshko, a professor at the Ukrainian Center for Radiation
Medicine, said he participated in the Chernobyl Forum study but refused to
endorse the findings.
"They are very clearly trying to minimize the consequences," he told The
Associated Press.
Bebeshko said studies have found increases in not only thyroid cancer, but
also breast cancer in the wives of men who cleaned up after the explosion and
big increases in leukemia and other blood disorders.
Greenpeace cited a report by the Center for Independent Environmental
Assessment of the Russian Academy of Sciences that found a sharply increased
mortality in western Russia over the past 15 years, suggesting the rise was
due to Chernobyl radiation.
"On the basis of demographic data, during the last 15 years, 60,000 people
have died additionally in Russia because of the Chernobyl accident and
estimates of the total death toll for Ukraine and Belarus could be another
140,000," Greenpeace said in a statement.
___
On the Net:
World Health Organization:
http://www.who.int/ionizing_radiation/chernobyl/who_chernobyl_report_2006.pdf
Greenpeace International: http://www.greenpeace.org/international
Chernobyl Forum: http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/News/2004/consequences.html
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這暴露了一個世界道德上深刻的墮落
這個世界賴以立足的基本點，是回歸不存在
因為在這個世界裡，一切都預先被原諒了，一切皆可笑地被允許了
----米蘭 昆德拉
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※ 編輯: dejen 來自: 140.114.133.122 (04/24 22:35)