by admin on 30. Apr, 2011 in Cancer, Chernobyl, Environmental Health
EnviroVideo presents Enviro Close-Up with Karl Grossman. Dr. Sherman is interviewed on the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl meltdown.
http://blip.tv/envirovideo/chernobyl-a-million-casualties-4940000
The video is also available with Japanese subtitles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRO0wXjblJc
by admin on 27. Apr, 2011 in Cancer, Chernobyl, Environmental Health, Fukushima, Japan, Nuclear Power, Radiation
San Francisco BayView, April 27, 2011
by Janette D. Sherman, M.D., and Alexey V. Yablokov, Ph.D.
Editor’s note: The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists asked Dr. Sherman, recognized worldwide for her expertise on Chernobyl, to write this article last year, then rejected it just before deadline, probably considering it too alarming. In it, she reports the widespread expectation of another nuclear power plant failure and the catastrophic consequences. Now, a few months later, the world commemorates the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl while watching the Fukushima meltdown.
For more than 50 years, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have abided by an agreement that in essence allows them to cover each other’s back – sometimes at the expense of public health. It’s a delicate balance between cooperation and collusion.
Signed on May 28, 1959, at the 12th World Health Assembly, the agreement states:
“Whenever either organization proposes to initiate a programme or activity on a subject in which the other organization has or may have a substantial interest, the first party shall consult the other with a view to adjusting the matter by mutual agreement,” and continues: The IAEA and the WHO “recognize that they may find it necessary to apply certain limitations for the safeguarding of confidential information furnished to them. They therefore agree that nothing in this agreement shall be construed as requiring either of them to furnish such information as would, in the judgment of the other party possessing the information, interfere with the orderly conduct of its operation.”
The WHO mandate is to look after the health on our planet, while the IAEA is to promote nuclear energy. In light of recent industrial failures involving nuclear power plants, many prominent scientists and public health officials have criticized WHO’s non-competing relationship with IEAE that has stymied efforts to address effects and disseminate information about the 1986 Chernobyl accident, so that current harm may be documented and future harm prevented.
by admin on 27. Apr, 2011 in Cancer, Chernobyl, Environmental Health, Fukushima, Japan
Natalia Manzurova, one of the few survivors among those directly involved in the long cleanup of Chernobyl, was a 35-year-old engineer at a nuclear plant in Ozersk, Russia, in April 1986 when she and 13 other scientists were told to report to the wrecked, burning plant in the northern Ukraine.
It was just four days after the world’s biggest nuclear disaster spewed enormous amounts of radiation into the atmosphere and forced the evacuation of 100,000 people.
Manzurova and her colleagues were among the roughly 800,000 “cleaners” or “liquidators” in charge of the removal and burial of all the contamination in what’s still called the dead zone.
She spent 4 1/2 years helping clean the abandoned town of Pripyat, which was less than two miles from the Chernobyl reactors. The plant workers lived there before they were abruptly evacuated.
Manzurova, now 59 and an advocate for radiation victims worldwide, has the “Chernobyl necklace” — a scar on her throat from the removal of her thyroid — and myriad health problems. But unlike the rest of her team members, who she said have all died from the results of radiation poisoning, and many other liquidators, she’s alive.
AOL News spoke with Manzurova about the nuclear disaster in Japan with the help of a translator.
by admin on 26. Apr, 2011 in Chernobyl
Twenty-five years ago, the core of Nuclear Reactor #4 exploded at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant on April 26, 1986 in Soviet Ukraine. The horrific disaster was the worst in history causing fires, a nuclear meltdown, and sending out a radioactive cloud that blanketed Ukraine, Belarus, Scandinavia and Western Europe. The official Soviet death toll was 31 people; however the more truthful toll is over a million worldwide and well over 2.4 million Eastern Europeans are still suffering various health problems from exposure that is most probably linked to this disaster.
The daily horrors of Chornobyl are experienced firsthand by the few now elderly villagers who returned after the explosion to live in their contaminated irradiated homes surrounding the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Their testimonies are the heart of our documentary film project, Life in the Dead Zone, which we continue to create so that the world may never forget nor yet again repeat the horrible mistakes of Chornobyl.
Sadly, in light of the growing devastating radiation fallout the people of Japan are now experiencing after the earthquake and tsunami there, we feel our film project is needed more than ever.
Thanks to generous donations by YOU, our supporters, we have progressed far in our documentary project, and we are pleased to share our latest trailer on our website at www.lifeinthedeadzone.com and on YOUTUBE and Vimeo. We are also connected on Facebook and Twitter.
Contributions are still needed for our next film shoot this summer. Please take this moment to remember the Chornobyl tragedy by helping us return to the Zone to film the remarkable people who are still suffering from the radiation fall-out Chornobyl perpetrates to this day.
Please visit our updated website at: www.lifeinthedeadzone.com and make a contribution online or make out your checks to our non-profit sponsor organization:
AWAKENING/Art and Culture
Wheat Street Productions, Inc.
P.O. Box 898, Apopka, FL 32704-0898
Please earmark the check as: CHORNOBYL FILM. All donors will be listed on our website and on the film credits.
Thank you in advance for your generous support in helping us reach a global audience and spreading awareness about the daunting lessons of Chornobyl and the intrepid women defiantly living in the shadow of the world’s worst nuclear power accident.
Diakuyu! Thank you!
Irene Zabytko
Producer, Co-Director, Writer
Please send correspondence to: info@lifeinthedeadzone.com
by admin on 26. Apr, 2011 in Cancer, Chernobyl, Environmental Health, Fukushima, Japan, Radiation
Dr. Sherman is interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!
Chernobyl Catastrophe: 25th Anniversary of World’s Worst Nuclear Accident
Considerations on the 25th Anniversary of the Chernobyl Disaster in the context of current events [Fukushima Disaster]
Each is a major public health and environmental disaster, and while Chernobyl occurred 25 yeas ago, it is not over, nor will Fukushima be over any time soon. Unless the laws of biology, chemistry and geography change, what we have learned from Chernobyl will apply to people exposed to the radioactive emissions from Fukushima.
1. Radiation was distributed around the entire northern hemisphere, with “hot spots” in some areas.
2. There will be a marked increase in thyroid diseases in general and thyroid cancer specifically.
3. There will be an increase in birth defects in humans and in animals.
4. There will be an increase in heart disease, brain damage, and other illnesses, especially among the clean-up workers (called “liquidators” at Chernobyl.)
5. The onerous agreement between the WHO and IAEA, signed into effect in 1959, remains a barrier to information and to protection of public health.
6. There was a delay in declaring an evacuation zone.
7. There has been an attempt to minimize the effects of the radiation, emphasizing whole-body external doses, while ignoring the more important exposure to radioactive isotopes that are absorbed by inhalation and ingestion. These include I-131, I-129, Cs-137, Sr-90, various isotopes of plutonium and uranium as well as other radioactive emissions.
8. The governmental and industry spokespersons have ignored the BIER report that there is no safe level of exposure to radioactivity. Every exposure is cumulative and can result in genetic damage, cancer, and other damage to health.
by admin on 19. Apr, 2011 in Environmental Health, Fukushima, Japan, Radiation
A WVVH-TV News Special. Karl Grossman is interviewed following the earthquake and meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
by admin on 15. Apr, 2011 in Cancer, Chernobyl, Environmental Health, Fukushima, Japan, Radiation
Is the Fukushima nuclear plant breakdown worse than Chernobyl?
Dr. Sherman writes for the San Francisco BayView Newspaper
A little over six months ago I wrote: “Given profound weather effects (earthquakes, floods, tsunamis etc.), human fallibility and military conflicts, many believe that it is only a matter of time before there is another nuclear catastrophe. Nuclear fallout knows no state or national boundaries and will contribute to an increase in illnesses, decrease in intelligence and instability throughout the world. The economic costs of radioactive pollution and care of contaminated citizens are staggering. No country can maintain itself if its citizens are economically, intellectually, politically and socially impoverished.”
(My submission, which had been requested by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, was ultimately rejected … too alarmist?)
While thousands of miles and 25 years separate the sites and the events that led to the catastrophes at Fukushima and Chernobyl, the effects will be very similar – and will remain so for years to decades to centuries.
by admin on 15. Apr, 2011 in Chernobyl
Lesson From Chernobyl: 25 Years Later
Thursday, April 21, 2011
2:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Reception to follow 6:00 PM to 7:30PM
Embassy of Ukraine
3350 M Street Northwest
Washington D.C., DC 20007
Global Green USA and the Embassy of Ukraine, in cooperation with Physicians for Social Responsibility, invite you to analyze the significant challenges people continue to face in the aftermath of the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1986, one of the major tragedies of the 20th century. The meeting will also discuss how recent events in Japan are a stern reminder that the international community has disregarded many of the important lessons from Chernobyl.
The event will include expert speakers and participants from a variety of relevant fields including nuclear engineering, environmental affairs, public health, arms control and nonproliferation, government, academia, private industry, and the NGO community.
Introductory remarks by:
Ambassador Olexander Motsyk (Embassy of Ukraine)
Paul Walker (Global Green USA)
Speakers:
Arjun Makhijani (Institute of Energy and Environmental Research)
Jeffrey Patterson (Physicians for Social Responsibility)
Janette Sherman (Editor of Chernobyl – Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment)
Natalia Mironova (Movement for Nuclear Safety, Russia)
Edwin Lyman (Union of Concerned Scientists)
Sharon Squassoni (Center for Strategic and International Studies)
Damon Moglen (Friends of the Earth)
Thomas Cochran (Natural Resources Defense Council)
For Meeting Agenda please visit http://www.globalgreen.org/events/170. Seating is limited. Please RSVP by Tuesday, April 19, to Caitlin Doughty at ggusadc@globalgreen.org. Provide: Your Name, Title, Affiliation. Bring your picture ID with you.
Global Green USA, headquartered in Santa Monica, California, is the US affiliate of Green Cross International founded by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1993. The “Security and Sustainability Program” (known formerly as the “Legacy of the Cold War Program”) is an international partnership with Green Cross Switzerland and Green Cross Russia to facilitate the safe and timely elimination of weapons stockpiles and related systems globally and to promote international nonproliferation efforts.
by admin on 14. Apr, 2011 in Cancer, Chernobyl, Environmental Health, Japan, Nuclear Power, Radiation
EnviroVideo has expedited release of the program that is based on the book recently published by the NY Academy of Sciences concluding 985,000 people died as a result of the catastrophe. Karl Grossman interviewed Dr. Janette Sherman, its contributing editor. Taped a week before the nuclear disaster in Japan, it was to be aired with the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl next month. That’s been expedited because the consequences of the catastrophe provide a baseline for the Japan disaster.
Chernobyl: A Million Casualties
PRESS RELEASE
Chernobyl: A Million Casualties
Karl Grossman’s interview to be broadcast nationwide this Saturday, April 16.
A television program investigating what could be the baseline for how many people are killed from the radioactivity being discharged from the Fukushima nuclear plant complex will be broadcast nationwide on Free Speech TV this Saturday, April 16.
Chernobyl: A Million Casualties presents the findings of a book recently published by the New York Academy of Sciences which determines that based on medical data now available 985,000 people have died as a result of the radioactivity released worldwide by the accidentand more can be expected to die. Interviewed is Dr. Janette Sherman, a toxicologist and contributing editor of Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for the People and the Environment. The study was authored by Dr. Alexey Yablokov, Dr. Vassily Nesterenko and Dr. Alexey Nesterenko.
The interviewer is Professor Karl Grossman of the State University of New York/College at Old Westbury, a specialist in investigative reporting on nuclear technology. His books include: Cover Up: What You Are Not Supposed to Know About Nuclear Power.
Professor Grossman commented that with this week’s elevation of the Fukushima disaster to Level 7—the highest level for a nuclear power disaster—and with radioactivity from Fukushima being found all over the world, “what this study reveals about the Chernobyl disaster is critical.” Moreover, noted Grossman, with this week Tokyo Electric Power Co., the owner of Fukushima, saying that the radioactive discharges could ‘exceed’ those at Chernobyl, we could be looking at even more than a million people dying worldwide from Fukushima.”
The program was initially produced before the Fukushima disaster began so Professor Grossman added a commentary to it in which he states that the Chernobyl and now Fukushima disasters demonstrate that nuclear power is a “clear and present danger to life on earth” and “all nuclear plants should be shut down and no more built.”
April 26, 2011, marks the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster.
Chernobyl: A Million Casualties was produced by EnviroVideo (www.envirovideo.com) and will be broadcast on Saturday at 6 a..m., 10 a.m. and 9 p.m, EDT, on Free Speech TV (www.freespeech.org) on 200 cable TV systems in 39 states and on the DISH Network (Channel 9415) and DIRECT TV (Channel 348). The 30 minute program was directed by Emmy Award-winner Steve Jambeck. Joan Flynn is the executive producer.
by admin on 08. Apr, 2011 in Environmental Health, Radiation
Written by Kevin Kamps and Michael Leonardi for CounterPunch
The Great Lakes of North America make up 20% of the Earth’s fresh surface water. Their dynamic ecosystems have been considered by many Native American tribes to function as the heart of the interconnected ecosystems that make up the North American continent known to many of the Indigenous peoples here as Turtle Island. The Great Lakes are known world wide for their biodiversity, beauty, fishing, and trade and shipping routes. These fragile and beautiful ecosystems along with the human populations that live along their shores are under constant threat from the Nuclear Industry that has been slowly and quietly irradiating the heart of the Turtle for decades.
Spent fuel pools of highly radioactive wastes sit dangerously on the shores of lakes Erie, Huron, Michigan and Ontario. Aging and dysfunctional reactors continue to operate as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Department of Energy and their Canadian counterparts push to allow these dangerous behemoths to function for decades more, prioritizing corporate profits ahead of public health and safety and the protection of the natural environment. This series of articles will detail this Nuclear Nightmare on the Great Lakes of North America as it has transpired and continues to unfold.
Kevin Kamps specializes in high-level waste management and transportation; new and existing reactors; decommissioning; Congress watch; climate change; and federal subsidies for the Nuclear watchdog Beyond Nuclear. He can be reached at kevin@beyondnuclear.org.
Michael Leonardi is a writer and activist that is currently splitting time between Toledo, Ohio and Italy. He can be reached at mikeleonardi@hotmail.com
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