Chernobyl Nuclear Accident Congressional Hearings Transcript

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11
If you look at standardized rates by age group, for all ages, in
Gomel Oblasts, in Belarus, thyroid cancer rates are about four
times the rate they were in the 7 years prior to and after the event.
I have tried to standardize by age group, to keep it an equal comparison.
Thus, there has been a real increase.
In terms of leukemia, there has been very little, according to
published accounts. In part, that's because the USSR Ministry of
Health ordered physicians not to record it as chronic radiation sickness,
or acute radiation, in the immediate period. Therefore, much
of the leukemia was classified as something else, because physicians
were not allowed to diagnose it as radiation sickness.
However, we're now going to begin to see, I believe, a large increase.
We're seeing it, for example, from the Center of Radiation
Medicine in Kyiv, which has reported a large increase in cases of
leukemia among those aged 65 years of age and older. Thus, it is
not just among the younger people, unless they're just among the
so-called liquidators, or among the children.
There was some exaggeration, however, when it was claimed by
one physician that one out of every three persons in the republic
whether it be Belarus, Ukraine, it makes no difference—had leukemia.
Well, that's clearly just too much. But there is, undoubtedly,
many more cases of leukemia than we're aware of, because I think
they re hiding it under another coding of the classification of diseases.
It really has no meaning. But, within that, clearly is leukemia.
So we have to do more research.
Now, with lung cancer, as I indicated, we should see a major increase,
over and above the "normal" rate of lung cancer, some of
which is probably associated with cigarette smoking. But another
cause is pollution within the republics or countries, as the case
may be.
In addition, a friend of mine brought to me evidence from Philadelphia,
literally Philadelphia, where a lot of former Ukrainian
some of whom have black teeth. The
Jewish emigres have settled,
teeth look black, not from lack of cleaning, but undoubtedly from
the enamel being affected by radiation. This is just a classic case,
which is not normally seen, certainly, in the country, but you have
to look for evidence like this to determine that there was something
special about what happened.
The Israelis probably have a lot more information about which
one should inquire. But one source tells me that 40 percent or more
of recent emigres had enlarged nodules on their thyroid glands.
Among the children who came to the country as part of the immigration
from this region were low vitamin levels and high numbers
of endocrine diseases. This, of course, was differentiated between
those that came from contaminated and non-contaminated areas.
Now, to cut it a little bit shorter, one has to deal also with the
official statements versus all the other evidence. For example,
there is a Dr. Ilyin, who is a gentleman who represents the classified
section of the prior medical establishment. He says that the
Chornobyl sarcophagus is
totally secure—no cracks, or no holes in
it, or anything like that, totally contradictory to all other evidence.
He wrote in a brand-new article. Well, it just is mind-boggling in
many ways.