Chernobyl is still with us

Disease rampant close to the site, cesium traces in Greece

By Yiannis Elafros - Kathimerini

Twenty years after the worst nuclear accident in history in Chernobyl, Ukraine, thousands of people continue to suffer from disease as a result of the radioactive substances released during the meltdown on April 26, 1986 at Reactor No.4.

In Ukraine alone, about 500,000 people are believed to have died either in the accident itself or of cancer related to the disaster.

Thousands of children have been born with deformities or have cancer. Many suffer from diseases usually found only in the aged, such as osteoporosis. The incidence of breast cancer has increased and a direct link has been shown between the incidence of thyroid cancer and the Chernobyl explosion. In Byelorussia the rate of this disease has increased 100 times. As far away as Wales, 375 farms have been found to be contaminated as a result of the accident.

In Greece — in parts of Thessaly and western and central Macedonia — high concentrations of the radioactive substance cesium (Cs137) are still being recorded. In contrast to other radioactive substances, these concentrations have not decreased, according to the nuclear technology laboratory at the National Technical University of Athens, led by Professor Simos Simopoulos. Recordings as high as 35-150 Kbq/m2 have been found in some places (normal levels are up to 5 Kbq/m2).

Cesium has been traced in surface soil, in bacteria, in plants and in wild mountain fruits. A study carried out by the Greek university in the Polish town of Opole linked high concentrations of cesium in the soil, particularly sandy soil, with leukemia. Other studies have linked cesium to gastroenterological cancers. Yet it may be too early to judge the full extent of the disaster, since these diseases can take as long as 30 years to appear.

This is an extract from an article in the April 16 issue of K, Kathimerini’s color supplement.