Chernobyl Nuclear Accident Congressional Hearings Transcript

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Attachment 1
Re: Question 1
What is the "synergenetlc* investigation whose results have never been released
which you referred to in your oral testimony? What were the findings and the
importance?
I regret that I could not find exactly the statement alluded to. However,
I believe that the question stems from my views about the "synergistic"
effects of global financial assistance rather than the limited effects
that purely scientific, health care or humanitarian assistance achieve if
rendered separately. This point deserves elaboration because it relates
to the letters of support concerning my previous deposition to the U.S.
Senate.
It is self-evident that in Ukraine there is an abundance of highly
qualified scientists and professionals. There is also broad recognition
that existing Ukrainian administrative structures reflect the failures of
the "centralized planning" characteristic of the former USSR. As shown in
the letters of support (Attachment 2), there is broad agreement that new
structures need to arise. Specifically, the possibility of creating
AMERICAN-UKRAINIAN MEDICAL SCIENCES CENTERS, to provide stable long term
"platforms" for rapid and effective introduction of American "know how"
was warmly received. As such "centers" grow in number, the idea of
amalgamating the "centers" into an "AMERICAN-UKRAINIAN CHILDREN'S
CENTER(S)" was also enthusiastically received. Achieving such goal would
be a monument to U.S. solidarity, to the emerging democracy of Ukraine and
to the victims of Chornobyl
Each "center" would pursue limited and well defined goals. Specific
"American-Ukrainian Task Forces" would seek to "synergistically" address
issues of education, training, health delivery and research in well
defined medical domains. For instance, in Ukraine there are scientific
reasons to expect a growing number of individuals exposed to the
radioactivity from the Chornobyl fallout to develop leukemia. An
"AMERICAN-UKRAINIAN CANCER-LEUKEMIA CENTER(S)" can be developed rapidly
with relatively modest financial resources (about 25% of the equivalent
cost in the U.S.). It must be underscored that a large proportion of such
expenditures would be for the support of U.S. scientists, U.S. suppliers
and other U.S. participants. In fact, I estimate that less than 50% of
such assistance would be for expenditures in Ukraine.
Currently, the causes of leukemia remain unknown. There are strong
scientific reasons to believe that radiation induced leukemia may reflect
different molecular alterations than "sporadic" leukemia. This view is
supported by the most eminent U.S. cytogeneticists. These highly
respected scientists strongly believe that there is an urgent call to
initiate immediately such investigations. There are no other human
populations that can be studied to answer such questions. The potential
discoveries may have tremendous scientific and economic implications.
However, because of the rapidly deteriorating social and medical
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