NUCLEAR SCARS - THE LASTING LEGACIES OF CHERNOBYL AND FUKUSHIMA

Nuclear Scars - The lasting legacies of Chernobyl and Fukushima

Versione breve del Dossier di Greenpeace 2016

Introduction

To mark the 30th and 5th anniversaries of the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters, Greenpeace commissioned reviews of scientific literature examining radioactive contamination and health effects linked with the accidents. Greenpeace radiation experts also carried out fieldwork to document the contamination of environment in which survivors in Russia, Ukraine and Japan live in. The results of these initiatives are compiled in the report Nuclear Scars: The lasting legacies of Chernobyl and Fukushima. In light of the social, health and environmental scars caused by Fukushima and Chernobyl, the most responsible way forward is to abandon nuclear power and shift to safer and cleaner energy options.

Chernobyl and Fukushima: Human Rights Disasters

A commonality between Chernobyl and Fukushima is the lack of respect for victim rights and involvement of survivors in decisions on what additional risks they are willing to accept. Around both Chernobyl and Fukushima the rights and health of survivors are not being fully acknowledged and protected by governments interested in saving money, while the nuclear industry that caused the disasters pays little to none of the full costs required to help victims recover from a nuclear disaster.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been permanently displaced by Fukushima and Chernobyl. Millions more live in radioactively contaminated areas. Their ability to determine their own personal safety and protect their families has forever been taken away.

· Financial support is being increasingly reduced for Chernobyl survivors, reducing control of contaminated food, decreasing money for protective measures and scientific monitoring. This increases radiation exposure risks for many living in contaminated areas.

· Most settlements in the Bryansk area of Russia that were categorized as an “evacuation zone” due to radiation levels were never evacuated.

· In Japan, 55,000 evacuees will be expected to return to their homes in contaminated areas before March 2017. Financial support will end one year later, effectively forcing many survivors to return to contaminated a

reas.

· The Japanese government has said that evacuees can return to all areas where radiation exposure is below 20 mSv per year. This is 20 times higher than recommended for non accidental situations. It is also 20 times higher than the maximum dose of 1 mSv per year established for living in areas contaminated by Chernobyl.

· Despite the Japanese government’s promise to decontaminate areas before evacuees return home, many areas are either still very contaminated or at risk of recontamination due to neighbouring contaminated areas

· This means large areas that used to be part of communities’ way of life

– forests and other natural areas – won’t be decontaminated.

· The United Nations Special Rapporteur to the Human Rights Council, Anand Grover, has said that Japan’s evacuee return policy is not “in consonance” with the human right to health. He has also stated that the return of evacuees should only be “when the radiation dose has been reduced as far as possible and to levels below 1 mSv/year.”

Health Effects

The health effects of Chernobyl and Fukushima are extensive. Both accidents have led to an overall decline in health and well - being of populations exposed to fallout. Due to the latency period of cancer,  scientific evidence on specific cancers and diseasesare not yet expected around Fukushima after only five years. Nevertheless, a

discernible increase in thyroid cancer has been detected. After thirty years, the following radiation - induced health effects have been observed in Chernobyl affected areas:

· Significant increases in thyroid cancer in both affected children and clean-up workers;

· Leukaemia in clean-up workers;

· Breast cancer was 1.6 times higher among clean-up workers. A two fold increase in breast cancer has been observed in the most heavily contaminated areas of Belarus and Ukraine;

· A decrease in cognitive function in clean-up workers;

· An increase in cataracts among clean-up workers;

· An increase in mortality of clean-up workers and people living in contaminated areas;

· Disability of the clean-up workers and of the population of the contaminated territories.

Until recently, mental health disorders were treated less sympathetically than physical health. However, mental health also impacts physical health. Stress of displacement, the inability return home, social stigmatisation, and concern about radiation exposure impacts mental health and the decline of physical health.

· Both disasters have caused widespread mental health disorders among survivors, including anxiety, depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), alcoholism and suicide.

· These responses occur due to trauma, concern for the future, such as risk of cancer,  genetic impacts on descendants, living in contaminated areas, the inability to return home and unfair compensation and loss of livelihood.

· Five years after Fukushima, incidence of mental health disorders, such as depression, anxiety and PTSD are elevated.

· Thirty years after Chernobyl, mortality is higher among people who live in contaminated areas, birth rates are lower, cancer incidence have increased while mental health disorders are widespread among Chernobyl survivors.

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Link al dossier 2016 completo di Greenpeace 

Nuclear Scars - The lasting legacies of Chernobyl and Fukushima

Fonte: www.greenpeace.org

Data: marzo 2016