Chernobyl power station and the sarcophagus around the exploded reactor. Ukraine, September 1996

In the run up to the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl catastrophe (26 April), Greenpeace today issues a major study on the consequences of the accident on human health.

The report, drawing on the contributions of more than 50 research scientists, including research never before published in English from Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, seriously challenges official estimates about the number and scale of human casualties resulting from the disaster.

Despite wide variations in available data, results of recent studies included in the report estimate that over a quarter of a million additional cancers will be caused by the accident, or which nearly 100,000 will be fatal. Epidemiological data from the Russian Academy of Sciences suggests that some 60,000 people have died in Russia alone as a result of Chernobyl and that including the other highly affected countries of Ukraine and Belarus would take the total death toll to date to 200,000.

The report condemns earlier claims, most notably that of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in last September's Chernobyl Forum report which predicted 4,000 additional deaths attributable to the accident, as a 'gross simplification of the breadth of human suffering'.

Twenty years after the explosion at Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant which discharged radiation more than 250 times that released by the Hiroshima bomb, several million people, by various estimates from 5 to 8 million, still reside in contaminated areas closest to the disaster site in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.

Although early casualties from the immediate blast were relatively small - 31 plant workers, firemen and rescuers or 'liquidators' as they came to be known were killed in the days following the explosion, hundreds of thousands of people have suffered repeated ill health and many more have died earlier than they might have done had the accident not occurred.

In addition to causing cancer, radiation also impacts on the body's immune and endocrine systems, leads to accelerated ageing, cardiovascular and blood diseases, causes respiratory and digestive problems ,chromosomal aberrations and an increase in foetal abnormalities and birth defects. Studies included in this report acknowledge that as well as the direct impact of radiation, health conditions in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia were also seriously affected by a complex set of socio-economic factors resulting from the loss of land, relocation of 300,000 people, economic crisis, lack of access to information and political factors.

Greenpeace recognises that the wide range of estimates into this 'excess mortality and morbidity' resulting from the Chernobyl accident spans an extremely wide range depending upon precisely what is taken into account. It concludes that rather than being a time to close the book on the disaster, more and better coordinated research into the longer-term health consequences needs to be carried out.

Key findings from the report include:

• Cancer has increased sharply in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. Between 1990 and 2000, there was a 40% increase in all cancers in Belarus and a 52% increase in the Gomel region. In Ukraine there was a 12% increase and in the Zhytomir region morbidity increased almost 3-fold. In the Russian Bryansk region, cancer increased 2.7 times.
• It is estimated that the Chernobyl accident will cause some 270 000 excess cancers worldwide, of which 90,000 will be fatal. Some 14,000 of these deaths will be from thyroid cancers, 8,000 from leukeamias and 71,000 from solid cancers.
• Thyroid cancer has seen the most dramatic increase of all cancers with far more and far more aggressive cases than originally predicted. It is expected to peak for youngsters in the period 2001-2006 but new cases are expected to appear for the next 30 years.
• Chromosomal aberrations have increased by a factor of 2-6 in the higher contaminated regions of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia

Blake Lee Harwood, campaigns director at Greenpeace UK says

"This Greenpeace report shows that there is a very wide range of fatal casualty estimates for the Chernobyl disaster with credible scientific observers giving figures that number in the hundreds of thousands. It's clear from the wide range of estimates, the many holes in the data set and the variability in potential health effects that no hard and fast conclusions can be reached at the moment. However, it's likely that the true human cost of the Chernobyl disaster will be many times greater than that estimated by the International Atomic Energy Authority.

"It is shocking that the IAEA should have attempted to end the debate over Chernobyl impacts by claiming a final figure of four thousand cancer deaths. The IAEA should be stripped of its responsibilities in relation to civil nuclear power and there should be a coordinated international scientific effort to establish a better assessment of the true impacts of Chernobyl."

The Greenpeace report is issued as a new photography exhibition opens in London to mark the 20th anniversary of Chernobyl. Fallout: The human cost of nuclear catastrophe held at the Oxo Gallery on London's South Bank, features poignant images of individuals and families whose lives have been devastated by Chernobyl and other nuclear disasters.

Lee Harwood continued: "These photographs are a timely reminder that behind the statistics are human lives, families and individuals, who have paid the ultimate price in the name of nuclear power. Anyone unconvinced about the dangers of nuclear power as a solution to our future energy needs should see this show, and then make up their mind."

Notes

The full report and executive summary of 'Chernobyl Catastrophe: Consequences on Human Health' can be downloaded here.

Or contact the Greenpeace press office on 020 7865 8255.

Radiation Barrels are Presented to Iraqi Administration in Iraq

Greenpeace activists today brought the head of the US civil administration in Iraq, Paul Bremer, a container of radioactive uranium 'yellowcake', found abandoned in the community outside the Tuwaitha nuclear facility. Greenpeace are urging Mr Bremner to allow the return of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to carry out a full survey and decontamination of Iraq.

Activists brought the 'yellowcake' to the Office of Rehabilitation and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) - now located in one of Saddam Hussein's palaces in Baghdad - and challenged Mr Bremer to accept responsibility for it and for the rest of the radioactive material that is contaminating the environment and threatening public health.

The US Administration insists there is no danger or health risk to the villagers, despite evidence of widespread radioactive contamination in the area, after the facility was left unsecured at the end of the war and was subsequently looted.

"The radioactive material we have brought to Paul Bremer is just a fraction of what the people of Tuwaitha have had to live with for months," said Mike Townsley of Greenpeace. "Bremer is responsible for public health in Iraq, he must immediately step aside and allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to do its job."

The US Administration allowed the IAEA into Tuwaitha last month, but only to make an inventory of uranium inside part of the nuclear facility, not in the surrounding communities. They were refused permission to inventory any of the 400 highly radioactive sources known to have been at Tuwaitha before the conflict.

Greenpeace has been surveying the villages around Tuwaitha for the past three weeks and has found frightening levels of radioactivity including:

• A huge uranium 'yellowcake' mixing canister with about 4-5 kilos of powder still inside, left open and abandoned on a field near a village
• Radioactivity in a series of houses, including one source measuring 10,000 times above normal
• Another source outside a 900 pupil primary school measuring 3,000 times above normal
• Locals who are still storing radioactive barrels and lids in their house
• Another smaller radioactive source abandoned in a nearby field
• Consistent and repeated stories of unusual sickness after coming into contact with material from the Tuwaitha plant
• Numerous objects, carrying radioactive symbols, discarded in the community

None of this nuclear material is prohibited by UN resolutions or is usable for nuclear weapons.

"This community is suffering a nuclear disaster that would be tolerated nowhere else in the world," said Townsley. "Even the US military's own radiation expert in Iraq agrees that a major decontamination and health screening programme is urgently needed (1) as does the Iraq Atomic Energy Commission (2). The 'yellowcake' sample we have given Bremer today is safely contained - but who knows how much is still left unsecured and unsafe in the community," he said.

Notes to Editors:

(1) "I would recommend the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the World Health Organisation get involved and do an assessment. They've got involved in other instances like in Brazil where sources have ended up being distributed in the community and they actually assessed the risks from that. The faster it happens the better." Lt. Col Mark Melanson - radiation expert and head of the US Military Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine unit in Iraq, interviewed by Greenpeace, 24th June 2003

(2) "To deal with this crisis and to solve this problem and pass through this mess we need all the help from the United States as the occupying force, and the international organisations like the IAEA and the WHO. If these efforts are united that will solve the problem as quickly as we hope." Dr Emad Aldin, Health Physicist, Iraq Atomic Energy Commission, interviewed by Greenpeace July 1st 2003

Two members of the Greenpeace team are maintaining a weblog diary of their mission to Iraq. You can review a history of the expedition to date and monitor live developments at: http://weblog.greenpeace.org/iraq

For more information, please contact the Greenpeace press office on 020 7865 8255

Greenpeace team members decontaminate eachother

Baghdad June 24 2003: A US military health physicist and radiation expert in Iraq today endorsed the call from Greenpeace for the UN nuclear experts, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to be given a full mandate to search, survey and decontaminate towns and villages around the Tuwaitha nuclear facility near Baghdad.

The call, made by the head of the US Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventative Medicine, Lieutenant Colonel Mark Melanson, came after Greenpeace activists returned a large cannister containing uranium 'yellowcake' to the Tuwaitha facility this morning. The cannister, the size of a small vehicle, had been left abandoned in an open field in a nearby village.

When they invaded Iraq, the US and UK failed to safeguard dangerous nuclear material, secured at Tuwaitha while under Saddam Hussein's regime, and highly radioactive materials have ended up in local communities where they are threatening people's health and environment.

"I would recommend the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the World Health Organisation get involved and do an assessment. They've got involved in other instances, like in Brazil, where sources have ended up being distributed in the community and they actually assess the risks from that," said Lt. Col. Melanson of the US military. "The faster it happens the better".

His comments came the same day the IAEA were due to leave Iraq, having only been allowed by the occupying powers to return to Iraq to carry out a limited inventory inside the Tuwaitha nuclear plant. The Greenpeace team, that has been in the country for only a week conducting surveys in the local community living near the plant, has found a number of radioactive areas including one in a house that measured 10,000 times above normal levels and another outside a 900 pupil primary school that measured 3,000 times above normal levels.

Today, having returned one radiation source to the US military, Greenpeace took them to the radioactive house where troops verified the levels of contamination at 10,000 higher than normal, removed the source and took it back to the Tuwaitha complex for storage.

"The military has rightly taken back both these highly dangerous radiation sources," said Mike Townsley of Greenpeace. The action Greenpeace took today merely serves to highlight a much larger radioactive crisis. The US and UK must accept full responsibility for this situation and allow the UN nuclear experts to return to Iraq as soon as possible and do a full investigation without interference from the occupying forces," he added.

For more information please contact Greenpeace press office on 020 7865 8255

Greenpeace scientist Dr Rianne Teule measures radioactive levels

A team of Greenpeace radiation experts has discovered nuclear material and high levels of radioactivity in villages surrounding the looted nuclear site at Tuwaitha, south of Baghdad.

The Greenpeace team found high radiation levels in a series of houses including one source measuring 10,000 times above normal. Another reading 3000 times background levels was taken just outside an Iraqi primary school. The team also retrieved a canister the size of a small car containing significant quantities of mined uranium or 'yellowcake' that had been dumped on a busy section of open ground. Despite the military being aware of its presence, locals say it has been left open and unattended for more than 20 days.

To highlight the US and UK's failure to safeguard the nuclear site, a convoy of vehicles bearing Greenpeace banners, along with a single activist bearing a white flag today, (Tuesday 24th June), returned the yellow cake canister to the US military guards stationed at the heart of the nuclear plant.

Speaking from outside the plant Greenpeace nuclear campaigner Mike Townsley said,

"If this had happened in the UK or the US, the villages around Tuwaitha would be swarming with decontamination teams and the people given immediate medical check-ups. The people of Iraq deserve no less from the international community. Ignoring them is a scandal."

In just a weeklong survey Greenpeace has found abandoned radioactive sources scattered across the community. Much of the material was looted by villagers who are using it for house building and storage for food and water without realising the potential danger. There are consistent and repeated stories of unusual sickness after coming into contact with material from the Tuwaitha plant.

The UK and the US have so far refused to allow the UN nuclear experts, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to carry out proper documentation and decontamination in Iraq. The US authorities in Baghdad have insisted upon retaining responsibility for protecting human health but consistently deny there is a risk to the local population. (2)

Stephen Tindale, Greenpeace UK executive director said,

"Tony Blair needs to face up to his responsibility. Having invaded Iraq, he now has a moral obligation to protect the Iraqi people. Instead he and Bush are actually hampering the UN's efforts to find and clean up nuclear material."

Notes
1. The Tuwaitha nuclear storage facility south of Baghdad was left unsecured by occupying forces and was heavily looted. In contrast, oil pipelines and the oil ministry was immediately secured. Just days after the cease-fire, British Museum officials were brought in to reclaim stolen artifacts. It was nearly two months before IAEA inspectors were allowed to return, and then with an inadequate remit.
2. Washington Post - June 6th 2003 - "The U.S. military has conducted an initial radiation survey in the villages, and a health study is set to begin in coming days. "There is no health risk to the population or the soldiers guarding the site," said Mickey Freeland, part of the U.S. team involved in the hunt for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

For more information please contact Greenpeace press office on 020 7865 8255

Publication date: June 2003

Summary
A Greenpeace briefing on health and radiation in Tuwaitha