Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The women living in Chernobyl's toxic wasteland
uk telegraph ^ | 6:30AM GMT 08 Nov 2012 | Holly Morris

Posted on 11/09/2012 10:25:42 AM PST by BenLurkin

Hanna was among some 1,200 returnees, called 'self-settlers’, most over the age of 48, who made their way back in the first few years after the accident, in defiance of the authorities’ legitimate concerns. For despite the self-settlers’ deep love of their ancestral homes, it’s a fact that the soil, air and water here in what is now known as the Exclusion Zone, or Zone of Alienation, are among the most heavily contaminated on earth.

Instead, she and her neighbours were relocated to a hurriedly constructed housing project outside Kiev, on land where many people had died in the 1930s during the Holodomor, the massive genocide-by-famine that the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin instigated in order to subjugate Ukraine and move peasant farmers on to state farming collectives or into factories...between three and-a-half million and five million Ukrainians died during this period, and many of the babushkas lost their fathers. Some almost died themselves since, during the Holodomor, starving villagers sometimes resorted to cannibalism, slaughtering one child to save the rest.

Dosimeter readings, which indicate accumulated radiation exposure, varied wildly, and sometimes the Soviet authorities took bribes to alter them...Alexander Anisimov, who spent his career studying the self-settler community, claimed that the women who returned to their ancestral homes in the zone outlived those who left by a decade.

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Science
KEYWORDS: chernobyl; russia

1 posted on 11/09/2012 10:25:44 AM PST by BenLurkin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin

You know what they say...

A little bit of Radiation a Day, keeps the government beurocrats away....

Could be a paradise....


2 posted on 11/09/2012 10:30:26 AM PST by GraceG
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin

3 posted on 11/09/2012 10:43:22 AM PST by KC_Lion (Build the America you want to live in at your address, and keep looking up.-Sarah Palin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GraceG
"A little bit of Radiation a Day, keeps the government beurocrats away...."

Reminds me of: "The Hiding Place" by Corrie Ten Boom about living in a Nazi concentration camp - the lice infestations kept the guards away.

4 posted on 11/09/2012 10:44:50 AM PST by Psalm 73 ("Gentlemen, you can't fight in here - this is the War Room".)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: GraceG

Lol! Strange, isn’t it?


5 posted on 11/09/2012 10:46:36 AM PST by Amberdawn
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: GraceG
They show up then too.


6 posted on 11/09/2012 10:49:42 AM PST by KC_Lion (Build the America you want to live in at your address, and keep looking up.-Sarah Palin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin
"However, WHO now considers the psychological impact to be at least as detrimental as the physical. Being depressed and unmotivated, pursuing an unhealthy lifestyle and clinging to a victim mind-set, it says, has proved to be the worst fall-out for the 'Chernobylites’. Other organisations, such as Greenpeace, contend that Chernobyl is responsible for tens of thousands of illnesses and deaths, even though these cannot yet be scientifically linked to the accident."

I wonder how a psychological finding like above would apply to conservatives who may be subject to long-term subjugation in Obama's Marxist America?

7 posted on 11/09/2012 10:52:40 AM PST by Truth29
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin
pursuing an unhealthy lifestyle and clinging to a victim mind-set,

Just wait until the gay lobby gets a hold of this author. One ticket to re-education camp, coming up!

8 posted on 11/09/2012 10:54:59 AM PST by Teacher317 ('Tis time to fear when tyrants seem to kiss.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin

The take away is that the plume has produced many thyroid cancer cases. These were avoidable, since you have to ingest dairy products, which could have been tested. But this is a poverty stricken area. The Russian victims said they fear starvation more than radiation. They still die from stroke primarily, as they have in the past.


9 posted on 11/09/2012 11:28:34 AM PST by cicero2k
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: cicero2k

These cancers can be avoided even if the dairy products are consumed. Taking iodine pills immediately can saturate the thyroid so that radioactive iodine won’t accumulate; the nuke plants around here maintain a stockpile for that purpose.


10 posted on 11/09/2012 11:42:18 AM PST by Squawk 8888 (True North- Strong Leader, Strong Dollar, Strong and Free!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin
Alexander Anisimov, who spent his career studying the self-settler community, claimed that the women who returned to their ancestral homes in the zone outlived those who left by a decade.

There is a much-challenged concept called "radiation hormesis," in which low doses of radiation actually have a tonic and health-promoting effect. This is as opposed to the "no safe dose of radiation" standard model.

I'm not a radiation scientist, but from what I've read the evidence points toward the hormesis group being closer to the truth.

Similar effects have been claimed for many toxins and pollutants.

Which is not to say that the levels of radiation at issue here fall into the hormesis range.

11 posted on 11/09/2012 12:43:06 PM PST by Sherman Logan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: cicero2k

Partly, but not entirely correct.

Radioiodine is concentrated and ingested through dairy products (and to a lesser degree in other foods). However, it can also be inhaled, especially in the midst of the release from the reactor. It is a gas and inhalation uptake is a big concern during a General Emergency. It is why prophylactic KI is distributed.


12 posted on 11/09/2012 12:47:46 PM PST by SargeK
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Sherman Logan
Similar effects have been claimed for many toxins and pollutants.

That is what the Nurses' study found with second hand smoke.
13 posted on 11/09/2012 1:06:47 PM PST by PA Engineer (Liberate America from the Occupation Media.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: PA Engineer

Did not know that. Very interesting.

I have known for a long time that the hysteria over second-hand smoke is profoundly unscientific. SHS is unpleasant, and I’m the first to admit I don’t miss having to breathe it in the bar. But it is very doubtful it ever posed much of a risk for anyone other than those with extreme exposure levels. (Such as those working in the smoky bars and restaurants 40 or 50 hours a week.)

Tobacco smoke isn’t inherently any more risky to inhale than any other smoke. It’s just that people don’t inhale massive amounts of smoke voluntarily under other circumstances.


14 posted on 11/09/2012 1:34:13 PM PST by Sherman Logan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Sherman Logan
There are links to the studies here. You need to dig into the studies to find the actual results.
15 posted on 11/09/2012 2:04:51 PM PST by PA Engineer (Liberate America from the Occupation Media.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: PA Engineer

Thanks, that is hilarious.

People tend to develop a fixation that certain things, such as tobacco smoke and radiation, are “bad,” and become utterly impervious to contrary evidence.


16 posted on 11/09/2012 2:15:23 PM PST by Sherman Logan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson