KIEV, Ukraine – Greenpeace said Tuesday in a new report that more than 90,000 people are likely to die of cancers caused by radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, countering a United Nations report that predicted the death toll would be around 4,000.
A reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine exploded on April 26, 1986, spewing radioactive clouds over much of Europe. The fallout was particularly severe in the northern reaches of Ukraine, western Russia and Belarus.
Areas immediately around the plant remain off-limits, but people in other areas that received significant fallout are anxious about their health.
A report by the Chernobyl Forum, a group comprising the International Atomic Energy Agency and several other U.N. groups, last year said fewer than 50 deaths could be confirmed as being connected to Chernobyl.
It also said the number of radiation-related deaths among the 600,000 people who helped deal with the aftermath of the accident would ultimately be around 4,000.
The increase in cancer deaths among the 5 million people exposed to lower levels of radiation would be so low as to be statistically difficult to identify, the report’s authors said, estimating it could be around 5,000.
But Greenpeace, in a report citing data from the former Soviet republics of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, harshly disagreed and suggested the Chernobyl Forum report was deliberately misleading.
“It is appalling that the IAEA is whitewashing the impacts of the most serious nuclear accident in human history,” Ivan Blokov of the environmental group’s Russia office said in a statement.
The Chernobyl Forum report suggested that many of the health problems and complaints in the regions around Chernobyl were connected with unhealthy lifestyles, including heavy drinking and smoking.
Volodymyr Bebeshko, a professor at the Ukrainian Center for Radiation Medicine, said he participated in the forum but refused to endorse the findings. “Quite honestly, it doesn’t reflect reality,” he said. “They are very clearly trying to minimize the consequences.”
Bebeshko said studies have found increases in thyroid cancer, breast cancer and leukemia and other blood disorders.
Greenpeace said statistics from Belarus indicate that 270,000 cases of cancer will be attributable to Chernobyl radiation throughout the region and that 93,000 of those are likely to be fatal.
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