Witnessing Death: Chernobyl Continues To Kill

In April 1986, technicians at the Chernobyl nuclear power-plan, located
80 miles north of Kiev, started an experiment that would spiral out of
control into an explosion releasing a cloud of radioactivity into the
atmosphere. It is, according to the United Nations, "the greatest
environmental catastrophe in the history of humanity." In 2000, I spent
a month traveling with representatives of various Ukrainian and
international health organizations, recording my impressions for New
Mass Media's chain of weekly alternative papers in New York and
Connecticut. I learned that no matter where one goes in most of
Ukraine, Belarus, and parts of southern Russia, one is surrounded by
the residual radiation from the Chernobyl disaster. That radiation is
in the background of everything and can be traced as the cause of
everything from Ukraine’s energy shortage to the rootless hopelessness
of much of its dislocated population; every economic, social, and
especially health problem: the burden of increasing birth defects,
mutation, and cancer. Over 9 million people have been affected directly
or indirectly by the accident at Chernobyl and the full effects of this
exposure will not be measurable for another 50 years. As the world
marks the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, have the
necessary lessons been learned? Russian nuclear officials are still
taking the risk of importing nuclear waste from around the globe and
domestic and international agencies argue about estimates of the
damage. Much of my work was published in 2000 as a three-part series
called "Culture of Cancer." But there is one story that still haunts me
in 2006 – a story I still need to tell: the trip to Korosten to
discover why Ukraine and Belarus, the two countries surrounding the
Chernobyl station, are experiencing negative population growth. Why a
scant 5 per cent of the children born in this area are considered
healthy. A new generation is silently dying from the consequences of
the nuclear disaster, as I was able to see myself. I witnessed the
autopsy of one of the silent victims – a 2-day old girl. The place was
Korosten, a small town in the province of Zhytomer, located about 150
kilometers southwest of Chernobyl, Ukraine. Here is the untold story.