Chernobyl Nuclear Accident Congressional Hearings Transcript

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bombardment of low-level radiation into human tissue, just by con-
and potatoes, and cabbage, and
suming the standard foods—^beets,
so form—that in the near future could result in an explosion of
gastrointestinal cancers similar to what we've seen with thyroid
disorders and cancers. I would echo what Ambassador Martynov
said, regarding the importance of diagnostic equipment. It's
really
got to come in.
This is a unique disaster, where we can anticipate the worst that
is yet to come, unlike the disasters of famine in Somalia, or wherever,
where the international community really was caught
offguard. Here, we know it's coming, and so it's very important for
us to provide gastroscopes, ultrasounds, basic diagnostic equipment.
We've put a lot of energy into that, in terms of blood
diagnostics.
So that, if there is an explosion in leukemia, or Hodgkins disease—and
we have seen it, in several areas, we need to be ready.
But, again, we're not an epidemiological team. We can't make those
assessments, as Dr. Feshbach can.
We think, regardless of whether or not these are radiationcaused
problems, the United States can provide an extremely valuable
service in just upgrading the quality of the medical infrastructure
in that country. God willing, maybe we'll be proven wrong. Maybe,
down the road, the impact of Chornobyl won't be as great as we
suspect it is or will be. Yet, we will still have delivered a precious
resource to these people, by helping them rebuild their medical infrastructure.
That is worth everything, from our perspective.
Mr. Smith. To the best of your knowledge, is the circle around
Chornobyl drawn too tightly, or should it be expanded?
Mr. KuzMA. Well, it should be expanded, and, in the best of
worlds, I'm sure that the Ukrainian Government and the
Belarusian Government would make those efforts. But, again, in
these brutal economic times, in these two republics, I don't know
that it's
So that the best fall-back option is
itoring,
possible for them to expand that.
really to provide better mon-
and better food monitoring and then diagnostic work, and
very intensive screening.
I think, frankly, Mr. Chairman, that it's going to be very important
for the public research community to begin to take a very hard
look at the highest risk populations.
Our suspicion has been—and I think it was borne out somewhat
by the aftermath, with thyroid cancer—that the research communities
were not looking hard enough, and not looking in the right
places. I think the thyroid cancer explosion could have been identified
by IAEA quickly, because a lot of those cases were being funneled
into the key endocrinological institutes in Kyiv and Minsk.
Had they wanted to find the problems, I think they would have
found them.
As a matter of correlation, I think if there's an intensive effort
launched in some of the regional hospitals in the Chornobyl region
over the next 3 to 5 years, to look at cancer rates in those areas
I hope we're wrong. But I think we will find those cases. That can
help us to shape the quality of the medical relief that we bring into
the affected region.