chernobyl and the after effects of radiation damage

[nitrous]

chernobyl nuclear accident happened many years ago, but i have heard that ukraine women in kiev have been having fertility problems, can some one shed some light into this subject thanks.

[Kuna]

chernobyl nuclear accident happened many years ago, but i have heard that ukraine women in kiev have been having fertility problems, can some one shed some light into this subject thanks.

Naah,  don't know about Kiev but my wife is from Dnepropetrovsk and if I look at her the wrong way I know we're going out to buy new nursery furniture.

 

[ECOCKS]

chernobyl nuclear accident happened many years ago, but i have heard that ukraine women in kiev have been having fertility problems, can some one shed some light into this subject thanks.

I know Ukraine and several of the FSU countries have a lower than desired birthrate but have never heard of any significant linkage to Chernobyl.

[Shadow]

Apart from saving on electricity by glowing in the dark, not a major problem. 

[brad5959]

I don't know about Kiev, however in Bryansk Russia there was a lot of fallout of radiation material.  the radiation material spoils the soil for twenty years minimum, causing polution in mushrooms, cows meat and cows milk, etc.  women there have a high incidence of thyroid cancer, and their children have a high incidence of heart problems.

[Daveman]

Apart from saving on electricity by glowing in the dark, not a major problem. 

Now THAT'S hot!    I need to find me one o' nem nair Glowbabes....  :evil:

[ECOCKS]

Higher cancer rates seems to be the reality. Anecdotal conversations show a surprising number of cancer-related deaths given the age of the person you are talking to at the time.

I grew up in a 1M metro area, went to a HS with roughly 2600 students and a university of over 20,000 and have known exactly one person my age who died of cancer. My wife, 8 years younger, grew up in a city of about 140,000, attended a HS of less than 1500 and a college with less than 4000 students. It was sobering when she was able to walk me around her two city cemeteries and identify 13 individuals in her circle of friends who died from cancer.

While teaching at the University I had one student die abruptly after being admitted to the hospital for a blood disorder 3-4 days earlier. Another good friend lost his PA unexpectedly to meningitis one other couple we know well has a 20 year old with malignant testicular cancer. This seems high since as I think back I can recall a few friends who died due to car accidents and two lost from AIDS.

The question though was concerning birth defects and I am not aware of any significant linkage to Chernobyl in that respect. I would be more worried about ground water pollution from the decades of toxic dumping and poor water quality systems.

[kievstar]

I know expats who lived in Kiev for 3-5 years and came back with cancer.  I know families who moved from Kiev to USA back in the early 1990's and their children have numerous side effects including throat cancer.  Were talking 20 year olds with throat cancer.  Did everybody get cancer no.  It is a higher level and women around Kiev do have higher birth defect rates.  You can probably google in Russian and find it in the Ukrainian papers (not English). 

I have made more than 100 flights into Kiev from Europe past 6 years and I have met numerous people on planes studying the impact of Chernobyl.  I use to hire environmental experts prior to buying apartments in Kiev and certain areas more closer to the river have issues.  Most of the rich have built south of Kiev not north.  Wonder why?

The new President even had the river dredged upstream recently which it not smart to disturb soil sediment.  He took some heat for this.  Kiev's water and sewer system is terrible and estimated at over $10 billion usd to fix.  Kiev is contaminated with more than radiation and maybe that is causing the higher rate of illnesses as well.

Ukraine really should move the capital out of Kiev as it is not healthy to live long in that city.  Most of the women men will meet in Kiev are not from Kiev so no reason to worry.  I would stay away from the women born in Kiev or north of Kiev. 

Eastern Ukraine and southern Ukraine were not impacted as the winds went north.  Belarus was hit harder than Ukraine.  Maria Sharopova's mother fled Belarus when pregnant with Sharapova.  Sharopova's #1 charity is related to Chernobyl. 

[Faux Pas]

Higher cancer rates seems to be the reality. Anecdotal conversations show a surprising number of cancer-related deaths given the age of the person you are talking to at the time.

I grew up in a 1M metro area, went to a HS with roughly 2600 students and a university of over 20,000 and have known exactly one person my age who died of cancer. My wife, 8 years younger, grew up in a city of about 140,000, attended a HS of less than 1500 and a college with less than 4000 students. It was sobering when she was able to walk me around her two city cemeteries and identify 13 individuals in her circle of friends who died from cancer.

While teaching at the University I had one student die abruptly after being admitted to the hospital for a blood disorder 3-4 days earlier. Another good friend lost his PA unexpectedly to meningitis one other couple we know well has a 20 year old with malignant testicular cancer. This seems high since as I think back I can recall a few friends who died due to car accidents and two lost from AIDS.

The question though was concerning birth defects and I am not aware of any significant linkage to Chernobyl in that respect. I would be more worried about ground water pollution from the decades of toxic dumping and poor water quality systems.

Pretty much the same with my wife and she is from a city of 1.5 mil a world away from Chernobyl. The question here is mostly the unknown. What was conducted and done in the secret shroud of the Soviets. It is no secret that nuclear energy was a center point of their existence but also, research and development on many different levels. Part of the city is closed to outsiders even today.

[ECOCKS]

It isn't even as exotic as nukes or bio-weapons development.

My wife's home town has/had a very large military helicopter training base, major battery plant, a truck factory, a refinery, a railcar plant and a wheel manufacturing plant. Think about some of the byproducts which occur during the manufacture and processing of these normal, moderately heavy industrial products. Also, remember that there's always something upstream of you in the drainage pattern unless you're in a pristine snowfield on a mountaintop.

Without attention to where you're throwing leftover metal shavings, washdown runoff, servicing crankcases and discarding the trash toxic contamination will take place. Everything drains to the river which, in turn, supplies the water downstream and in various reservoirs. Water treatment facilities were never top quality to begin with and the lack of infrastructure maintenance and development is a problem few want to talk about in the FSU. 

[groovlstk]

Belarus was hit harder than Ukraine. 

HBO aired a documentary a few years ago called Chernobyl Heart, which is a nickname for a heart defect common among children there. I think it even won an Oscar.

Not all agree that these defects are the result of Chernobyl - it's very, very difficult to get any meaningful figures on how it affects the health of residents as there are so many mitigating factors (poverty, substandard medical care, industrial pollution). There are also social complications - one couple, interviewed before their young daughter received corrective surgery from a Doc w/out Borders, claimed that they were ostracized by their neighbors because they received a small government pension to help deal with their daughter's medical problems.

[ECOCKS]

If you want another slice of reality concerning life in the FSU and how it differs from where most of us grew up, try taking someone in a wheelchair onto "public" transportation in Ukraine. Bring your bodyarmor and thickest skin along for the experience though.

If that's too daunting, try following a brave soul on crutches as they navigate the metro and a couple of mashrutka stops. Stay behind them a bit and watch the faces of others closely.

[thompsongunner06]

I saw the HBO special Chernobyl Heart and Battle for Chernobyl(can be seen on you tube),,,very scary,,if they dont re do the tomb it will effect all of Europe. It was done very fast(go figure) and now its falling apart!

[ECOCKS]

Yeah, while the European countries are footing the bill, there seem to be difficulties getting the work going due to their insistence that a European company with nuclear construction experience do it instead of a Ukrainian one. My suspicion is that the Ukrainian government is unhappy they can't skim as much as they wish to and are delaying the project in hopes of wearing them down and awarding the contract to a Ukrainian or Russian firm.

[Shadow]

I remember watching some Russian report showing the numerous side effects and birth defects. As MrsShadow was pregnant at the time, it was wise to change the channel.