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This is an old article I had from 1989 on health effects of Chernobyl, which blew in 1986:

" CHERNOBYL CANCER RATE DOUBLES
Authorities badly underestimate health problems

Portland Press Herald, Feb 1989

MOSCOW (AP) - Three years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, cancer rates have doubled among residents of a contaminated farm region and calves are being born without heads and limbs, a newspaper said Wednesday.
“My daughter recently got married. What kind of grandson will I have? The weekly Moscow news quoted one woman as saying.
It said authorities drastically underestimated the health problems caused by the reactor explosion and fire April 26, 1986, which sent a cloud of radiation around the world.
Moscow news said more than half the children in the Narodichsky region of the Ukraine have illnesses of the thyroid gland, which exposure to radiation can cause.
Elevated levels of Cesium 137 were detected among residents of the region, an agriculturally rich area which is within 30 miles of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and was not evacuated after the accident. Thirty-one people died as the immediate result of the disaster.
“Health officials of the Republic insist there is no health danger for people outside a 30-kilometer (19 mile) zone around the atomic power station,” Moscow News said. The danger zone was declared soon after the accident.
Soviet officials have said repeatedly that radiation levels are safe except in the zone, and generally have discounted warnings from some Western doctors of dramatic increases to come in cancer and some other diseases.
The Moscow News article was the second in the Soviet press this month to suggest growing health problems because of Chernobyl. In a report Feb 9, the official news agency Tass said cancer and other diseases are increasing In Byelorussia, which is just north of the Ukraine. Tass said authorities determined one-fifth of the Byelorussia Republic was contaminated.
It quoted veterinarian Peter Kudin of the Petrovsky Animal farm as saying 37 pigs and 27 calves were born with defects in the year after Chernobyl and the numbers for the first nine months of 1988 were 41 and 35.
“The calves (were) frequently without heads, limbs, eyes, or ribs, the pigs google-eyed or with deformed skulls,” he said. Kudin said only three defective pigs were born at the farm before the accident and no abnormal calves.
According to Moscow News, animals at the farm had been feeding on fields to which winds had carried radioactive particles.
“Clean” meat and dairy products are brought to the region for residents, but some who ignore warnings drink milk from local cows and pick fruit and vegetables from their gardens, the newspaper said."

I love the distorted reporting used by this poster when this site accuses Fox of misrepresenting the truth. A picture of people mourning at a funeral of earthquake and tsunami victims tied into a story on the nuclear power plant.

Current LIes!
Current LIes!
Current LIes!
Current LIes!
Current LIes!
Current LIes!
Current LIes!
Current LIes!

I'm thinking of startting my own media watchdog group called Current Doesn't Matter.

Unspeakable suffering. I am sad for the people but also know of their spirit and hope they hold onto that. I am also sad for this planet because of the residual damage now being done to the ecosystems that will not be known to us for some time. I just don't know what else to say. It is absolutely heartbreaking.

They need to stop this plume ASAP. I always wanted regulations that they would have to color the radiation. That's why the nuke industry has gotten away with so much, radiation is invisible. Chernobyl had yellow rainfall which has also been reported in Japan. They are telling the people it is pollen but one caller into the radio show pointed out that it can't be pollen because it's snowing over there. There is no pollen in the wintertime. Just more lies. Even propane gas is regulated to have a smell so you can tell when it is leaking. There are no protections for us when it comes to the nuclear industry. And I guarantee you all excess build up of gas at all reactors worldwide has been vented since the accident. They use all accidents as a cover to vent as much radiation as they want as each nuke plant can just blame it on the accident.

http://www.llrc.org/

This is his website along with http://www.euradcom.org/ Excellent info, please take a look.

Excerpt: "Friday 18th March
Fallout reaches USA This Associated Press report quotes an anonymous diplomat with a conscience admitting that data usually kept secret shows the fallout has arrived in southern California.
We repeat our advice that the fallout is extremely likely to contain Plutonium and Uranium from the spent fuel rods and possibly from the reactors themselves. Monitoring with Geiger Counters is incapable of detecting these elements yet they pose serious long-term health risks if ingested inhaled or absorbed through intact skin or skin lesions (wounds). The authorities are silent on these matters. In the long term they will neglect their presence in the environment. We recommend that you should collect samples if you are interested in providing hard data to help determine where the fallout has gone. Here's how to do the sampling. This is important if we want researchers to be able to establish the truth of whether the fallout causes genetic disorders like cancer. At this stage in history it's Citizen Science because experience shows the authorities will always deny the possibility."

"We advise that Honshu should immediately be evacuated to the maximum possible extent. Reassurances about radiation exposures issued by the Japanese government can not be believed; they are based on the ICRP invalid risk model which ICRP itself has admitted cannot be applied in accident situations. The basic concept of radiation dose is generally recognised to be invalid for many types of internal exposure relevant to the present emergency. In addition to gamma-emitting isotopes of Caesium and Iodine, there is an extremely high probability that Plutonium and isotopes of Uranium are being released. The use of water in contact with the reactor cores entails the release of Tritium. Carbon 14 is also likely to be present. None of these alpha- and beta-emitters will be included in gamma readings, leading to severe underestimates of the potential genetic damage once they are ingested, inhaled or absorbed into human tissue. The present emergency is therefore exactly similar to the Chernobyl disaster which has had a huge impact on human health.(More on Chernobyl) The French risk agency was right to classify the accident at severity level 6."

______________________________________________

Not only is it Citizen Science but it is also Citizen Experimentation. I hate the nuclear industry. Close down all reactors now. And then there is all the DU from the wars.....
We need intelligent feminine leaders (without male hormones dominating their decisions). All males ever want to do is fight, destroy and make a lot of money doing it. Our planet is screwed.

http://www.infowars.com/listen-on-the-internet/

This is a link to the alex jones podcast. Friday's show was outstanding with Paul Watson interviewing a wonderful researcher into low level radiation and Chernobyl fallout. Professor Chris Busby, I believe was his name, compared the Japan crisis to Chernobyl. He stated in Japan the dose at a 32 km distance is 5 MegaBecquerels which is 10 times higher than Chernobyl readings at a 30 km distance. He said the readings in Japan at 78 km is 1 MegaBecquerels which is two times higher than Chernobyl was at that distance. The people in Chernobyl were evacuated within 3 days to an area not downwind of the accident. Compare this to Japan where the people have still been there, not evacuated for two weeks. Also downwind of this accident is Tokyo, population 36 million. He says as people move off the island, the radiation will spread to other parts of the world. He emphasized that all these external measurements with geiger counters, etc are not comparable to the internal doses, which can be up to 1000 times higher. To figure your internal dose multiply by at least 500 times.

"One property which is a must for control rod material is the heavy absorption capacity for neutrons so that they can carry out the control function effectively. The commonly used materials which satisfy these criteria include cadmium, boron, iridium, silver and hafnium. Another property of control rods is that the material should not start a fission reaction despite the heavy absorption of neutrons. Infact you can imagine the function of a control rod just like a blotting paper which sucks the extra ink that has spilled somewhere but doesn't let it spread in a wider region.

http://www.brighthub.com/engineering/mechanical/articles/2724.aspx

They need to throw in a bunch of control rods. That would help stop the fission process. And it seems covering it with sand might help. I think the sand melts into glass. or use some product to glassify, glassification. I suppose things are too hot and too active to do this now. I'd try control rods or the product inside the control rod.

BIOLOGICAL DAMAGE FROM LOW LEVEL RADIATION …........page 3

Impacts from Civilian Power Reactors:
Radioactivity is routinely released from nuclear power plants into our air and water. (2,,8,12,14,16,17) Because many radioisotopes persist for many years, they are building up in our food chain and elsewhere in the environment. (1,12,14) this is definitely a health risk. (12,14)
A 1987 study of people living near nuclear power plants in England and Wales showed that there were twice as many deaths as expected in this population from leukemia, Hodgkin's disease and multiple myeloma. (12) In some areas incidence of leukemia alone was twice as high as expected. (12, 14)

“In the ongoing age of rampant laissez-faire, when will the stack of bodies in the morgue be high enough and specifically defined enough to warrant action?”
…...................................Harvey Wassserman

A 1987 study in the U.S. by Dr. Sidney Cobb showed similar elevations
in cancer deaths in the population living near the pilgrim plant in plymouth, Massachusetts. (12,13) Dr. Cobb has surmised that airborne radiation may be trapped in coastal fogs and carried back and forth over coastal communities in on-shore, off-shore wind cycles. (13) Two separate studies in England and the U.S. have shown high mortalities in coastal areas near nuclear facilities. (12, 13, 15)
In a study of the area surrounding the Maine Yankee reactor in Wiscasset, Maine, Dr. Theodore Hauschka found a significant rise in radiation-related leukemias in those rural communities in comparison with the rest of the state of Maine, which before Maine Yankee went on line in 1972 had one of the lowest rates for leukemia in the 48 contiguous states. (8,17)

“The only way to avoid further pollution with man-made radioisotopes is to stop the use of nuclear fission both for weaponry and for the production of electricity.”
…..............Maria Holt and Elizabeth King, citizen monitors of Maine Yankee

“The armament consortium
They're selling us plutonium
Now you can make your own H-bomb
Right in the kitchen with your Mom

The nuclear power that costs you more
Than anything you've known before
The half-wit's answer to a need
For cancer, death, destruction, greed

We've got to save the world
Someone's children, they may need it
So far we've seen
The big business of extinction bleed it
We've got to save the world.”
…..................George Harrison

BIOLOGICAL DAMAGE FROM LOW LEVEL RADIATION ….......PAGE 4

References:

1. Shannon, Sara Diet For the Atomic Age, Avery Book Publishing Group, Inc, New Jersey, (1987)

2. Deadly Defense, Military Radioactive Waste Landfills, A Citizens' Guide.
By the Radioactive Waste Campaign, New York (1988)

3. Taylor, Lynda, The Workbook Feature, The Health Effects of Radiation – The
Controversy Continues, The Workbook, Vol. X No. 4, (Oct – Dec 1985)

4. De Sante, David F. Implications of Low Level Radiation on the Health of Birds and
Humans Institute for Bird Populations, P.O. Box 554, Inverness, CA 94937

5. Sternglass, Ernest J. Secret Fallout: Low Level Radiation From Hiroshima to Three
Mile Island New York, McGraw Hill (1981)

6 .Jacobs, Brian W. The Politics of Radiation: When Public Health and the Nuclear
Industry Collide, Greenpeace, July/August 1985

7. Jacobs, Brian The NRC's Presciption: Increasing Our Radiation Dose The Nation
(September 6, 1986)

8. Independent Citizen's Research Foundation, Inc. Confronting Our Nuclear Age,
Ardsley, NY

9. Goffman, John W M.D., Ph.D. Radiation and Human Health: A Comprehensive
Investigation of the Evidence Relating Low-level Radiation to Cancer and Other
Diseases, Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, (1981)

10. Chernobyl Cancer Rate Doubles: Authorities Badly Underestimate Health
Problems, Portland Press Herald Portland, ME (Feb 18th , 1989)

11. Sternglass, Ernest J., Ph. D. The Implications of Chernobyl for Human Health,
International Journal of Biosocial Research, Vol 8 (1): 7-36, (1986)

12. Tye, Larry, Study Reveals More Cancer Deaths Near Nuclear Power Plants,
Boston Globe, May 18, 1987

13. Fredenthal, Stacey Mapping Her Case Against Power Plant. Boston Globe,
August 18, 1989

14. Shutdown: Nuclear Power On Trial, The Book Publishing Company,
Summertown, Tennessee 38483

15. Wasserman, Harvey, Chernobyl's American Fallout, ETA magazine, June 1989

16. State of Maine, 1986-1988 Low Level Radioactive Waste Activity Reports,

17. Maine Low-Level Waste Authority, Public Hearing, December 14, 1987

BIOLOGICAL DAMAGE FROM LOW-LEVEL RADIATION

Compiled and edited for the Midcoast Health Research Group and the Maine Nuclear Referendum Committee by Francene McClintock, P.T., Maria Holt, R.N., and Elisabeth King.

“It is becoming generally recognized that we are living in an age of truth decay, distortion and suppression of fact. This leaves us vulnerable – because ignorant – in personal search for health, and ineffective in service to the country”.

..............Independent Citizen's Research Foundation, Inc.

Whether radiation penetrates us from the outside (gamma and beta) or it is ingested via air, water, milk or other foods (gamma plus beta and alpha), it harms us at the molecular level. (1,2) This molecular damage causes imbalances which have vast ramifications. (1) The probability of developing a cancer or other harmful effect is simply a matter of chance. (2) It takes only one call damaged by radiation to start the process. (3)

“Each electron emitted by a radioactive nucleus of Iodine 131 or other beta emitter possesses a few million electron-volts of energy, sufficient to disrupt millions of organic molecules In living cells. As a result, radioactive isotopes that concentrate in specific organs......are millions of times more dangerous per unit mass than ordinary chemical toxins.”

…................................Dr. Ernest J. Sternglass, Ph.D.

Free Radical Damage:
In 1972, Dr. Abram Petkau discovered that very low doses of radiation can “unzip” or dissolve cell membranes. This “unzipping” is performed by highly reactive “free radical” molecules that are formed when dissolved oxygen captures an electron liberated by the absorbed radiation. These free radicals attach themselves to the phospholipid cell membrane, where an oxidative chain reaction ensues. This destroys the integrity of the cell and the cell function. The more prolonged the dose of radiation, the smaller the total dose required to break the cell membrane. (1,4,5,17)
Free radicals can combine with and deactivate one another. Since increased doses of radiation produce a greater population of free radicals with a consequently greater probability of mutual deactivation, there is a greater probability of cell damage at lower radiation doses.(4,6,7)
Short, intense doses of radiation usually kill a cell outright or alter the DNA (causing mutation). (2) Low, prolonged doses, on the other hand, indirectly harm cells by increasing exposure to free radicals which damage cell membranes. (1,4,8) An individual's risk of contracting a cancer during his or her lifetime increases with each exposure. (9,17)

“Every dose is an overdose.”......
…..............Dr. George Wald, Nobel Laureate
Cancers:
Radiation can cause cancers of the bone, digestive tract, brain, lung, thyroid, breast, stomach, central nervous system, lymph system, blood or skin. (1,2,3,6,9,10,11,12,13) The radiation – related leukemias are the acute myeoblastic, acute lymphoblastic, and chronic myelocytic forms. (8)
Historically, early leukemias take about four years to develop, whereas other cancers take longer – up to forty years for a solid tumor or lung cancer. (3) Radiation appears to be not only a cancer instigator but a cancer promoter. (8,10)

BIOLOGICAL DAMAGE FROM LOW-LEVEL RADIATION...............page 2

Effects of “Internal Emmitters”
Strontium 90 can be ingested in milk, leafy green vegetables, and other supposedly health – giving foods. It is taken up by the body in the same manner as calcium, which it chemically resembles. (1,2,9,11,14) Deposited in the bones in the same manner as calcium, it is situated close to the bone marrow in which blood cells are formed. By impairing the action of white blood cells, radiation can damage the immune response system, opening the way to a wide spectrum of diseases and infections (1,2,4,8,9,11), especially in vulnerable populations such as the invalid and elderly. (11,15,17) Damage to the immune system may linger for the duration of a lifetime, resulting in chronic poor health. (4,8)
Iodine 131 is ingested in milk, which is heavily consumed by expectant and nursing mothers, infants, and young children. The iodine 131 settles in the thyroid, disrupting the production of growth hormone, which can lead to spontaneous abortion, low birth-weight babies, hyaline membrane disease and generally poor growth and development. (4,11)

Demographic Evidence:
In 1970, Dr Alice Stewart completed a study of over 16,000,000 children born in England and Wales, which showed that fetuses and infants are 1000 times and 100 times, respectively, more sensitive to radiation than adults. (3,4,11)
In the three years since the Chernobyl accident, Down's syndrome has doubled in West Germany (15) and in the Ukraine, the cancer rate in the area immediately around the plant has doubled and calves have been born without heads, limbs, eyes or ribs. Pigs have been born google eyed or with deformed skulls. (8,10)

“There were at least 40,000 more deaths than normal in the U.S. in the eight months after the arrival of the Chernobyl cloud. There was also a highly significant drop in live births, especially on the west coast and in New England, where rainfall brought down the fallout which then concentrated in the milk. This concentration lead to miscarriages and spontaneous abortions which caused the birth rate to plummet. What we had was a four-month long radiation epidemic.”
….................Dr .Ernest J. Sternglass, Ph.D.

Impacts from DOE and Military Activities and Facilities:
Mental retardation, decreased intellectual ability, birth defects, hypothyroidism, abnormal blood clotting, and premature aging have all been associated with radiation exposure, as have other diseases such as arthritis, heart disease, and diabetes.(1,2,3,8) Impaired intellectual functioning as a result of radiation exposure is suggested by a study of SAT scores of college applicants from the area downwind of the Nevada above-ground test. (4,15) 20,000 children may have been affected by releases in the late 1940's from the Hanford site in Washington. (8)
24 out of the 28 families who settled near the Hanford site in 1957 have been affected by cancer, serious birth defects, thyroid problems and early deaths. (8) Similar effects have been noted around the weapons plants at Rocky Flats. Fabricators of nuclear warheads suffer excess deaths from cancer of the brain, lungs, central nervous system and lymphatic system. (3, 14) Their brain tumor deaths are nearly five times as high as are expected for the general public.
Uranium processing workers suffer from lung and brain cancers, respiratory diseases, and a 36% excess rate of digestive tract cancer. (3) The DOE is now candidly admitting for the first time that they have deliberately, knowingly been releasing toxic radioactivity into people's back yards, essentially creating a gigantic experiment. They have been killing the very people they are supposed to protect. (8)
“How can we feel secure when we are the victims of deliberate government experiments?”
…................................Millie Smith, Seattle Post Intelligence 10/22/88

It is so sad to see people suffer this way. I am praying for the people, and a solution to the radiation problem..

This situation just keeps getting worse. It's frightening to even think of the ecological damage, over and above the suffering the Japanese people are going through. I think we'd better buckle up - this ride could get awfully rough.

That's some scary sh*t.