This is followed by a few … For reference, about 400 Americans are estimated to die on the highway over Memorial Day weekend.”, Michael Shellenberger is the best-selling author of Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All (Harper Collins), a Time Magazine “Hero of the Environment,”. Atomic bomb survivors and Chernobyl cleanup workers were exposed to the same kind of radiation, so the findings from Japanese survivors could shed some light on the expected effects after the Chernobyl accident. Then 19 more died over the next 20 years. Unexpectedly, we also showed that radiation to the thyroid gland from ingesting radioactive iodine within two months after the Chernobyl accident by children and adolescents could lead to development of non-cancer thyroid diseases, such as thyroid follicular adenoma, thyroid benign nodules, and hypothyroidism. UC San Francisco’s Lydia Zablotska, MD, PhD, grew up in Ukraine, trained as physician in Belarus, and has studied the long-term health impacts of radiation exposure on the Chernobyl cleanup workers, local children and others in the region. How did they know? Gale used a novel treatment method, which he tested on himself. How did they know? Here's why watching HBO's 'Chernobyl' is difficult for her. “Chernobyl” suggests strongly that the event actually occurred, I noted in my last column, to which a number of readers emailed or tweeted to claim that the event did, in fact, occur. Gale writes, “the effects are portrayed as something horrendous, unimaginable. Is this actually how radiation works? But our bodies cannot distinguish between dietary iodine, from salt or fish, and radioactive iodine. Ignorance is dangerous.”. Sadly, 29 died but we could rescue 175 (86 percent). “The problem was the Soviets didn’t want the Chernobyl victims to be the first humans to receive a new therapy. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. ", “Most radiation contamination was superficial and relatively easily managed by routine procedures. Based on what we know, at Chernobyl, there were also no effects on children who were exposed to radiation in utero. “But she had cirrhosis of the liver. So do radiation therapists. The study of atomic bomb survivors did not show any increase in major birth defects or other untoward pregnancy outcomes among children of survivors, nor there were any indications of hereditary effects. Such a release could expose people and contaminate their … Following the release of Chernobyl, a US doctor who actually treated radiation victims in Chernobyl shut down the show’s depiction of the health effects of radiation. Microsieverts, one millionth of a sievert and abbreviated as uSv (1,000,0… “More importantly, risk to a fetus from an exposure like this is infinitesimally small.”, Even high levels of radiation result in few birth defects, Gale notes. Gale, who worked for UCLA at the time of the accident, says that the firefighters who suffered from Acute Radiation Syndrome were not contagious, as they are portrayed as by HBO's "Chernobyl. Radioactive contamination and radiation exposure could occur if radioactive materials are released into the environment as the result of an accident, an event in nature, or an act of terrorism. Fear-mongering, Gale noted, resulted in many women unnecessarily terminating their pregnancies. The Emmy-nominated HBO mini-series Chernobyl, which is a dramatized account of the 1986 nuclear power plant disaster, has rekindled conversation about the accident, its subsequent cleanup and the long-term impacts on people living near the power plant.. UC San Francisco’s Lydia Zablotska, MD, PhD, grew up in Ukraine, trained as physician in Belarus, and … This caused an estimated 9,000 to 16,000 deaths across Europe plus 3.5 million radiation-exposure-attributed cancers, birth defects, and other serious maladies just in … The latest report from the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effect of Atomic Radiation found 134 first responders who were diagnosed with acute radiation syndrome (ARS) after the Chernobyl accident. in “The Cancer Letter,” a subscription-based newsletter. In reality, writes Gale, there were “synchronous injuries” that “make people more susceptible to radiation damage [and] can kill people even if you successfully reverse the radiation-induced damage.”. Such false logic was used to isolate, terrify, and stigmatize people not only in Chernobyl, but also in places like Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and more recently in Fukushima. The whole body is essentially collapsing. In his article, Gale takes issue with the portrayal of Soviet authorities as reluctant to seek outside help. "If someone has contamination on their outside – on their skin and clothing – prudent practice would be … “The radiation would have killed the mother,” says HBO's fictional scientist-hero played by Emily Watson, “but the baby absorbed it instead.”. Patients with ARS could develop a bone marrow syndrome, which suppresses their immunity, or a gastrointestinal syndrome, which could lead to damage to the lining of the intestines and associated infection, dehydration, and electrolyte imbalance. This is inaccurate. "In doing haematopoietic cell transplant, we commonly expose people to much higher radiation doses than received by any of the Chernobyl victims. © 2021 The Regents of The University of California, University Development & Alumni Relations, Langley Porter Psychiatric Hospital and Clinics, The Real Chernobyl: Q&A With a Radiation Exposure Expert, COVID-19 Variant First Found in Other Countries and States Now Seen More Frequently in California. ", “Although the 31 immediate Chernobyl-related deaths are sad,” he concludes, “the number of fatalities is remarkably small compared with many energy-related accidents, such as the Benxihu coal mine disaster in China 1942, which killed about 1500 miners, and the 1975 Banqiao dam accident, also in China, which killed about 250,000 people.”. Sargramostim had been tested in dogs and monkeys to increase granulocytes, but had not given! Their radioactivity to others, as the firefighters were in real life, can! 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