{"id":45562,"date":"2019-04-22T08:24:23","date_gmt":"2019-04-22T13:24:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=45562"},"modified":"2019-04-22T08:24:30","modified_gmt":"2019-04-22T13:24:30","slug":"chernobyls-deadly-effects-estimates-vary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=45562","title":{"rendered":"Chernobyl\u2019s Deadly Effects Estimates Vary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/2019\/04\/22\/chernobyls-deadly-effects-estimates-vary\/\">Chernobyl\u2019s Deadly Effects Estimates Vary<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">April 26 marks the 33rd anniversary of the 1986 radiation disaster at Chernobyl reactor Number 4 in Ukraine, just north of Kiev the capital. It is still nearly impossible to get scientific consensus on the vast extent of the impacts. The explosions and two-week long fire at Chernobyl spewed around the world something between one billion and nine billion curies of radiation \u2014 depending on whose estimates you choose to believe. The accident is classified by the UN as the worst environmental catastrophe in human history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chernobyl\u2019s radioactive fallout has been blamed for hundreds of thousands of deaths, but the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) acknowledges only 56 deaths among firefighters who suffered and died agonizing deaths in the disaster\u2019s immediate aftermath. However, the IAEA\u2019s officially chartered mission is \u201cto accelerate and enlarge the contributions of nuclear power worldwide.\u201d Because of its institutional bias, one can dispute nearly everything the IAEA says about radiation risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Also on the low-end of fatality estimates is the World Health Organization which has to have its radiation studies approved by the IAEA! In 2006, the WHO\u2019s \u201cExpert Group concluded that there may be up to 4,000 additional cancer deaths among the three highest exposed groups over their lifetime (240,000 liquidators; 116,000 evacuees, and the 270,000 residents of the Strictly Controlled Zones).\u201d The WHO added to this 4,000 the estimate that \u201camong the five million residents of areas with high levels of radioactive cesium deposition\u201d in Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine\u201d predictions suggest \u201cup to 5,000 additional cancer deaths may occur in this population from radiation exposure\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alternately, Ukraine\u2019s Minister of Health Andrei Serkyuk estimated in 1995 that 125,000 people had already died from the direct effects of Chernobyl\u2019s radiation. Serkyuk said a disproportionate share of casualties were among children, pregnant women and rescue workers or \u201cliquidators.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chernobyl\u2019s Deadly Effects Estimates Vary April 26 marks the 33rd anniversary of the 1986 radiation disaster at Chernobyl reactor Number 4 in Ukraine, just north of Kiev the capital. It is still nearly impossible to get scientific consensus on the vast extent of the impacts. The explosions and two-week long fire at Chernobyl spewed around [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[4448,5493,10986,10987,12087,12792,579,2142],"class_list":["post-45562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-chernobyl","tag-counterpunch","tag-iaea","tag-international-atomic-energy-agency","tag-john-laforge","tag-nucelar-radiation","tag-nuclear-power","tag-radiation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45562"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45563,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45562\/revisions\/45563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}