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Radiation effects: higher birth defects in Chernobyl area

Higher birth-defect rate seen in Chernobyl area NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Amy Norton Wed Mar 24, 2010 – Rates of certain birth defects appear higher than normal in one of the Ukraine regions most affected by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster, according to a new study.The findings, reported in the journal Pediatrics, stand in contrast to a 2005 U.N. report stating that there is no evidence of an increased risk of birth defects or other reproductive effects in areas contaminated by radiation from the Chernobyl accident.

The results point to a need for continuing research into birth defects in regions affected by chronic low-dose radiation from Chernobyl, according to researcher Dr. Wladimir Wertelecki of the University of Southern Alabama in Mobile.

“There has been a tendency to imply that the question is closed as far as the prenatal effects (of Chernobyl),” Wertelecki said in an interview.

The 2005 position statement from the International Atomic Energy Agency and other U.N. bodies may have had a “chilling effect” on research into congenital defects in Chernobyl-affected areas, Wertelecki notes in his report.

The current findings, he said, “suggest that we should re-evaluate that position.”

For his study, Wertelecki focused on the Ukraine province of Rivne, located about 155 miles from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The northern half of that province, known as Polissia, was designated as “significantly impacted” at the time of the disaster, and soil and food from the area remains contaminated with low levels of the radioactive substance cesium 137.

Higher birth-defect rate seen in Chernobyl area | Reuters

March 25, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, Ukraine | antinuclear, cancer, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive