The International Atomic Energy Agency, however, says that health studies on liquidators have “failed to show any direct correlation between their radiation exposure” and cancer or other disease. In Belarus, 40,049 liquidators were registered to have cancers by 2008 along with a further 2,833 from Russia. Most – 63% – were reported to be suffering from cardiovascular and circulatory diseases while 13% had problems with their nervous systems. In 1988 68% of them were regarded healthy, while 26 years later just 5.5% were still healthy. Disability among the liquidators has also soared. In Ukraine, death rates among these brave individuals has soared, rising from 3.5 to 17.5 deaths per 1,000 people between 19. A similar register in Belarus recorded 99,693 clean-up workers, while another registry including included 157,086 Russian liquidators. In 2015 there were 318,988 Ukrainian clean-up workers on the database, although according to a recent report by the National Research Centre for Radiation Medicine in Ukraine, 651,453 clean-up workers were examined for radiation exposure between 20. The Ukrainian authorities, however, kept a registry of their own citizens affected by the Chernobyl accident. Many of the figures in the report, however, were disputed by scientists in the West, who questioned their scientific validity. They estimated that between 112,000 and 125,000 of these – around 15% – had died by 2005. Official registries indicate that 600,000 people were granted liquidator status.īut a contentious report published by members of the Russian Academy of Sciences indicates that there could have been as many as 830,000 people in the Chernobyl clean-up teams. These people – who became known as “liquidators” due to the official Soviet definition of “participant in liquidation of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident consequences” – were given a special status that meant they would receive benefits such as extra healthcare and payments. In the weeks and months that followed the Chernobyl disaster, hundreds of thousands of firefighters, engineers, military troops, police, miners, cleaners and medical personnel were sent into the area immediately around the destroyed power plant in an effort to control the fire and core meltdown, and prevent radioactive material from spreading further into the environment. “They knew all about which radioactive isotopes had lodged in their organs.” The other 288 women, they told her, had either died or had taken pensions for ill health. “They pointed to different parts of their bodies that had aged more than the rest and where they had health problems,” says Brown. When Brown spoke to the 10 “liquidators” at the wool factory, their stories gave a grim picture of what appears to have happened all across the region as ordinary people who had nothing to do with the clean-up of the disaster were exposed to radioactive material. Brown believes fleeces from some of these animals appear to have found their way to the factory in Chernihiv along with other contaminated wool from farms enveloped in the clouds of radioactive material that spread out across northern Ukraine. Thousands of animals were slaughtered in the area around Chernobyl as it was being evacuated. On 26 April 1986 reactor number four at the power plant suffered a catastrophic explosion that exposed the core and threw clouds of radioactive material over the surrounding area as a fire burned uncontrollably.īut Chernihiv was regarded to be well outside the exclusion zone that was hastily thrown up around the stricken plant and readings elsewhere in the town had shown it to have comparatively low levels of radiation. How plants have reclaimed Chernobyl’s poisoned landįifty miles away was the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.The bunkers built to survive an apocalypse.The bold plan to give Chernobyl a new life.Anyone exposed at these levels would exceed the total annual dose considered to be safe in many parts of the world today in less than a minute. When the authorities were called to investigate, they found radiation levels in the factory of up to 180mSv/hr. Some suffered nosebleeds, others complained of dizziness and nausea. The workers pulled 12-hour shifts as they sorted the piles of raw fleece by hand before they were washed and baled. The April and May of 1986 were no exception. More than 21,000 tons of wool passed through the factory from farms all across the country during the annual sheep shearing period. Springtime was always the busiest time of year for the women working at the wool processing plant in Chernihiv, northern Ukraine.
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