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World Health Organisation counts only thyroid cancer in Chernobyl radiationeffects

.independent studies conducted since 1986 in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and other countries show that the consequences of exposure to low-level radiation are much more alarming than the global community is willing to accept…”Today, 25 years after Chernobyl, numerous studies in different countries show that the frequency of congenital malformations in children of parents exposed to radiation increased five to seven times,” 

On the Trail of a Deadly Chernobyl Killer, 25 April 2011, The Moscow Times, By Alexandra Odynova “…….Many people diagnosed with radioactive-linked illnesses in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia get insufficient medical help, or none at all.

What’s more, thyroid gland cancer is the only direct consequence of the 1986 disaster recognized by the World Health Organization, which rejects a growing number of independent studies indicating that the aftereffects of protracted exposure to low-level radiation might be much more far-reaching.

Makarova is one of 105,000 people who will be screened this year by the mobile lab as a part of the Red Cross’ Chernobyl Humanitarian Assistance and Rehabilitation Program in contaminated areas. Many of those people have not been screened for thyroid gland cancer in recent years — if ever………About 70 percent of people in areas near the exclusion zone turn out to have symptoms upon examination, with the figure decreasing to a still-dismal 50 percent in regions further away from Chernobyl, Khomenko said…….Hidden Problems

The Red Cross program focuses mainly on thyroid screening and psychological assistance, which are globally and officially recognized effects of the Chernobyl disaster. But independent scientists say there might be more to cure.

“Today thyroid cancer is the only officially confirmed disease caused by [Chernobyl] radiation,” Nagorny of the Red Cross said in an explanation of the screening program’s goals.

Nearly 5,000 cases of thyroid cancer have been diagnosed among children aged under 18 at the time of the meltdown, according to WHO figures. The trend is still on the rise, and the Red Cross expects no reversal in the foreseeable future.

The global health body does not officially recognize the link between other forms of cancer and Chernobyl radiation. The organization said in 2006, for example, that abundant leukemia cases diagnosed in the wake of the meltdown were limited to liquidators who worked in the vicinity of the reactor, not residents of contaminated areas……….independent studies conducted since 1986 in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and other countries show that the consequences of exposure to low-level radiation are much more alarming than the global community is willing to accept, said Alexander Glushchenko, a nuclear physicist and author of three books about Chernobyl.

“Today, 25 years after Chernobyl, numerous studies in different countries show that the frequency of congenital malformations in children of parents exposed to radiation increased five to seven times,” Glushchenko said in an interview in Moscow.

But the WHO linked a “modest but steady increase in reported congenital malformations” to “improved [statistical] reporting,” not higher radiation levels.

Glushchenko, a co-author of a Russian study on the subject, said that even small exposure to radiation can result in genome instability for several generations, leading to oncological diseases, primarily among children of those exposed.

“The fiendish thing about catastrophes like Chernobyl is that their effect is strengthening, not weakening, as the years go by,” he said……..http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/on-the-trail-of-a-deadly-chernobyl-killer/435640.html

April 25, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | health