BELARUS - POST-CHERNOBYL EROSION OF NATION'S HEALTH: INFERTILITY, BIRTH DEFORMITIES, GENETIC CONCERNS

Tony Wesolowsky (freelance writer based in Prague), "Low Exposure, High Risk; E.U. study finds radiation riskier than previously thought", In These Times, June 9, 2003

The aftermath of Chernobyl is being felt 17 years later. The head of an Irish charity helping the victims of Chernobyl has warned of a spike in thyroid cancer among children in neighboring Belarus. "What we are witnessing in Belarus is the erosion of the nation's health," says Adi Roche, founder of the Chernobyl Children's Project. Roche, whose group recently brought $ 3.2 million in aid to Belarus, speaks of "soaring" infertility rates, and warns genetic mutations are now being passed on to a new generation. "Many of those who were children at the time of the explosion are now beginning their own families, and we are seeing the effects of radiation being passed on to the next generation and into the gene pool. The rate of congenital birth deformities is frighteningly high," she told Agence France Presse.