The Crime of Chernobyl- The Nuclear Gulag
Page 53
Chapter XI
KLIAPIN
205 km from Chernobyl, 5–15 Ci/km²;
7 km from an area with contamination levels above 40 Ci/km².
1. THE BORISSOV FAMILY
Q.—Does your son complain about anything?
The mother.—He often has headaches. He needs to take pills.
Q.—Since when?
The mother.—I don’t know. Since he was very young. They said it was his blood pressure. They said he has intracranial hypertension and there were problems with the heart. Later on they told me that it was due to his growth, that he was growing up, and that because of his heart…he would never be able…what was it…?
Q.—He wasn’t developing properly?
The mother.—Yes, that’s it. He complains of headaches.
Q.—And what about you, anything in particular?
The mother.—I’m alright…Except my head, because of low blood pressure.
Q.—We were at the sanatorium where all the children from Kliapin and Volyntsy were measured. They are on this list…
The mother.—How much did Stassik measure? Is Stassik on the list of levels of contamination?
Q.—182.
The mother—180!
The father.—He had less.
The mother.—Why is it so high?
In the spring, his levels of radioactivity were normal.
Q.—Who measured him?
The mother.—The Germans.
Q.—The difference in the contamination depends on what he has been eating since.
The father.—In general, we collect berries in the wood, cowberries, blueberries, girolle mushrooms…
Q.—Did you have the mushrooms tested?
The father.—The girolles were good but the ceps and the white mushrooms were very high in radioactivity…We do collect them from time to time, but in general we don’t eat them. Rarely. Otherwise, it’s the vegetable garden. Our vegetable garden is there, just next to us: potatoes, gherkins, tomatoes, onions, it’s all ours.
Q.—The milk?
The father.—The milk is ours. We had it tested.
Q.—Your cow?
The father.—Yes.
The mother.—The Germans tested it and said there was no radioactivity at all.
Q.—Absolutely none?
The mother.—Zero…
Galina Bandazhevskaya’s conclusions for Stanislav, born in 1987: aged 15.
- contamination before taking pectin: 182.7 Bq/kg;
- contamination after 16 day pectin treatment; 123 Bq/kg;
- heart: complains of headache, shooting pains in the heart;
- ECG (before taking pectin) Partial right bundle branch block, Arrhythmia;
- ECG (after pectin treatment)… …………. Arrhythmia.
2. THE LEBEDENKO FAMILY
Q.—How is the milk?
The mother.—It’s our milk. The milk from our cow. We test it. It’s clean.
Q.—Do you know how many becquerels per litre it contains? Do they tell you?
The mother.—They don’t tell us, but they say it can be given even to young children.
The father.—We used to have a collective farm here. They closed it and annexed it to another, on the other side of the river. Now, we aren’t useful to them, they’re not interested in us.
Q.—But you say that you take more care here with what you eat than the families at Volyntsy. Why is that? Are they poorer than the people here?
The mother.—There are as many poor people in Volynsty as Kliapin.
Q.—According to our list, there many more contaminated children in Volyntsy than in Kliapin.
The mother.—That’s because they eat more game there.
Q.—Why is that?
The mother.—We don’t know.
Q.—Are there more hunters?
The mother.—Maybe. The forest surrounds us as much at Volyntsy as at Kliapin.
Q.—Have you measured the food products?
The mother.—We eat the produce of our garden. We haven’t measured the potatoes or the beetroot, nothing. We don’t test it, we just eat it.
The father.—Who knows?...The workers receive at least one meal at work. But, at home, people haven’t got anything to eat. Because, as I’ve told you, we’ve been forgotten and abandoned…No money. Our son is going to university, he has enrolled at university, but there’s no money for his lodgings. And then he needs money to feed himself. I don’t know where to get it from. So he’ll have to come home. But what will he do here? It’s a vicious circle. All that’s left is the game in the forest. .. And anyway, we don’t know. If we moved to Korma, beyond the Sozh, we could get jobs, but everything hangs on the question of housing. Before, the State Committee for Chernobyl allocated housing, people rented houses. Some people left for the towns. But now, that’s all finished. Now, if you want a house, you have to buy it.
Q.—Is that expensive?
The father.—Of course: about 1000 dollars. Where would we get that?
Galina Bandazhevskaya’s conclusions for Yulia, born in 1988: aged 14.
- contamination before pectin treatment: 67.7 Bq/kg;
- contamination after 16 days of pectin treatment: 39.9 Bq/kg;
- heart: complains of headaches;
- ECG (before): Partial right bundle branch block;
- ECG (after): Partial right bundle branch block.
Chapter XII
VOLYNTSY
210 km from Chernobyl, 5–15 Ci/km²;
5 km from an area with contamination above 40 Ci/km².
1. SOBOLEV-KRESTINSKY FAMILY
Zinaida Sobolev holds her new born baby on her knee while we talk.
Q.—What can you tell us about Natasha’s health. Does she complain?
Sobolev.—Yes, she has something…she has something here (She touches her throat). Her glands are a little swollen…she has colds all the time. And her heart is a bit…
—The heart?
—Yes, I don’t know what it is, pain…
—When she runs, does she get out of breath?
—I wouldn’t say so. Our son Rouslan on the other hand, when he does gymnastics, if he runs a lot, his heart hurts. He has a problem with his heart. The oldest one, Victoria, when she was still quite young, they said she had a heart murmur. Something like that. But now I don’t know. It’s she who complains the most. She says: “Mummy, my heart hurts, My heart hurts”.… Why? Have you tested them also at the sanatorium?
—It’s the heart that they measure at the sanatorium. That’s why we wanted to ask what you have observed. For how long have they been complaining of these symptoms?
—Every time they run or walk fast… But, sit down…
—Has anyone explained to you how to prepare food in order to take in fewer radionuclides? Mushrooms for example…
—They explain, but we have to live, we have to eat something. Our salaries are so low nowadays. We have no money.
—Do you eat mushrooms?
—Of course we do.
—Do you know what to do to reduce the radionuclides in the mushrooms?
—Boil them several times and then throw out the water.
—Not boil, but soak them in salt water. Didn’t they explain?
—No, just soak them in salt water?
—Two spoons of salt per litre of water. Soak them for two hours, throw out the water, do it again, and throw out the water again. That way, the radioactivity is reduced by 80%, they are almost clean and you can cook them. If not, they are very contaminated. Do they come here often to measure you?
—Twice a year. In May and in September. It’s the Germans from the Julich institute.
—Do they examine you?
—Well, they measure the radioactivity, and that’s all�
��
Leaflet distributed by Julich
What you need to know about reducing the risk of incorporating radioactive elements in food.
The following products can be considered safe:
—grains and cereal products;
—vegetable and fruit from fields and gardens;
—milk and other dairy products;
—meat produced at home (for example: beef, pork, lamb, mutton, goat)
—non-carnivorous fish.
The consumption of the following products should be limited:
—mushrooms and berries from the forest (if they are not contaminated, it is not dangerous to eat them, if they come from the forbidden zone, they must not be eaten at all);
—game (in particular boar) and carnivorous fish (pike, perch etc) can be eaten once or twice a month maximum.
Commentary.—Reading these instructions at the end of our investigation in nine villages under Nesterenko’s supervision is devastating. Readers can analyse the text themselves, formulate their own hypotheses on the basis of the information we collected and ask themselves if they would entrust their own children to Julich, if they feel they would be protected by its judicious advice—certainly inspired by the precautionary principle (apparently someone is interested in knowing how people can live with these levels of contamination in order to manage the next accident). Julich154 says that there is no danger in eating the fruit and vegetables grown in gardens or gathered from the fields, but we know that these food products must be contaminated, because the levels of radioactivity in the soil here are between 5–15 Ci/km2; likewise for the milk and for meat raised locally; as for the boar and the carnivorous fish, which, according to the advice given by Julich, can be eaten twice a month, these are extremely contaminated.
154 In 1993 Julich was financed by the German government and instructed not to include villages. Now they are included; are they still publicly financed? See Part Two, chapter IX, 2, p. 160.
Contempt for the victims reaches its height with this simple statement of truth on the yellow card according to which mushrooms and forest berries do not present any danger if they are not contaminated. Let’s see now! Five to seven kilometers from Kliapin, is an enormous area where levels of radioactivity are from 15 to 40 curies per square kilometer. The berries there are really succulent!
After filming this precious document, we continue our conversation.
Q.—Is there any government organisation from the Ministry of Health that comes here to make measurements?
Sobolev.—No, no. It’s at Korma that they test the radioactivity. If people want to go there, they can. As often as they want.
You can just imagine a child coming out of the wood and racing to Korma, a little town 15 km from his village, to find out…if he can eat his berries...as often as he wants.
Q.—Do they measure food products regularly?
Sobolev.—It is not a requirement to measure the food. When the Germans come, it’s us who bring our milk, or mushrooms, our jam. We measure them for ourselves.
—And what do they usually say? That all of it’s admissible?
—They say it’s normal. They test it and say “Gut! Gut!”
—Gut, gut?
—It’s good, and that’s it. It’s good.
—How many years have the Germans been taking care of things?
—Goodness me, I’d have to think, certainly five years…maybe four…three at least.
—And they think the situation here is normal? That it’s alright to eat this food?
—Normal. They never said anything negative.
Galina Bandazhevskaya’s conclusions for Sobolev Rouslan, born in 1995, aged 7:
- contamination before pectin treatment: 110.2 Bq/kg;
- contamination after 16 days pectin treatment: 56.9 Bq/kg;
- heart: complains of headaches;
- ECG (before) partial right bundle branch block;
- ECG (after) partial right bundle branch block.
Sobolev Natalia, born in 1989, aged 13:
- contamination before pectin treatment: 178.6 Bq/kg;
- contamination after pectin treatment: 111.1 Bq/kg;
- heart: complains of shooting pains in area of heart;
- ECG (before) partial right bundle branch block; myocardial metabolic problems155;
155 Repolarisation problems, Wave T anomalies.
- ECG (after) partial right bundle branch block; myocardial metabolic problems.
Krestinskaya Victoria, born in 1986, aged 16.:
- contamination before pectin treatment: 121.3 Bq/kg;
- contamination after 16 day pectin treatment: 106.6 Bq/kg;
- heart: sharp pain in region of heart, headaches;
- ECG (before) partial right bundle branch block. myocardial metabolic problems;
- ECG (after): partial right bundle branch block…
2. THE GRANDPARENTS OF NEKRITCH
This child was not included in the group that Galina Bandazhevskaya examined, because he had mumps and was in quarantine. We met his grandparents.
The grandfather.—Our little Yura is not afraid to dive into the stream which is very cold…
Q.—In this village, is the children’s health normal?
The grandfather.—I wouldn’t say that. They are ill too often. Before Chernobyl, it wasn’t like that.
Q.—Are they more fragile now?
The grandfather.—Now, their blood pressure is too high.
The grandmother.—You know, many people are dying here at the moment. What a pity! One man, he was in good health, he was working, all that. He was rich, Pavlovich. He died nine days ago. He was fine, suddenly he said “Oh my head really hurts!” he said to his wife: “Go and get me some pills”. He was outside, sitting on a bench. In the time it took to fetch some pills, it was over. He was already dead. Instantly. The heart.
Q.—Is that happening a lot?
The grandmother.—At present many people are dying like this. We say it’s the easiest death. Otherwise, you could be paralysed, or unable to move for years. That’s worse. A terrible thing. Better to die like that.
Q.—Yura’s parents are not in the village at the moment?
The grandfather.—They left today…
The grandmother.—But the father is dead, our son, he is already dead.
The grandfather.—Also a heart attack. Within a day, gone. He was a forest warden.
Q.—How did he die?
The grandfather.—Well, how…
The grandmother.—He came home one night and he felt ill. They took him to the hospital in Gomel.
The grandfather.—They opened him up.
Q.—Why did they operate?
The grandfather.—The doctors didn’t know. They said: “He’s in pain, we’re going to open up the stomach and we will see”. What are they, these doctors! (Silence). And he died.
Q.—From what? They don’t know?
The grandmother.—You say they don’t know? They wrote lots about it! They wrote reams. But we don’t know what he died of, or why! We don’t know.
The grandfather.—They wrote on the paper: liver. Then, they wrote, burst spleen. They wrote about the heart. A piece of paper this long. (He lifts his hand above his head)
Q.—Did he eat a lot of contaminated food?
The grandfather.—No, why?
Q.—He was simply poisoned.
The grandfather.—Noooo! How could he have been poisoned?
Q.—By the radioactivity! It damages the liver, the heart, the kidneys, everything! If you have a high level of becquerels, it destroys all the vital organs.
The grandfather (suddenly thoughtful).—That’s what they wrote… yes…
Yury, born in 1994, aged 6:
Contamination bef
ore pectin treatment: 348.4 Bq/kg;
Contamination after pectin treatment: 237.0 Bq/kg.
3. THE KONSTANTINOV FAMILY
We did not meet this family, whose three children were measured by the Belrad team and examined by Galina Bandazhevskaya.
Galina Bandazhevskaya’s conclusions about:
Anastassia, born in 1991, aged 11:
- contamination before pectin treatment: 98.4 Bq/kg;
- contamination after 16 days of pectin treatment: 46.3 Bq/kg;
- heart: complains of headache, nose bleeds. Systolic heart murmur at apex;
- ECG (before): partial right bundle branch block. Repolarisation problems;
- ECG (after):……………………………………. Repolarisation problems.
Valentina, born in 1988, aged 14:
- contamination before pectin treatment: 82.3 Bq/kg;
- contamination after 16 days of pectin treatment: 49.8 Bq/kg;
- heart: complains of headache. Muffled rhythmic murmurs, systolic murmur at the apex;
- ECG (before) rhythm problems;
- ECG (after) rhythm problems.
Sergei, born in 1987, aged 16:
- contamination before pectin treatment: 160.5 Bq/kg;
- contamination after 16 days of pectin treatment: 99.1 Bq/kg;
- heart: complains of headache, sharp pains in heart region, systolic heart murmur at the apex;
- ECG (before): partial right bundle branch block. Myocardial metabolism problems;
- ECG (after): partial right bundle branch block.… …………………………………..
4. THE ROMANENKO FAMILY
Yulia’s father is busy in front of the house. We are greeted by the young blonde mother, holding little Ruslana, who is three years old, in her arms. Slim and sporty, she is dressed like someone who lives in the city. In this poverty stricken village, where the family faces a terrible and apparently inescapable destiny, the elegance of this beautiful woman appears to us as a tribute she pays to maintain her dignity as a person: an implacable determination to live despite the betrayal of the state that has abandoned them into the care of cynical foreign occupiers in the poisoned territories of the Sozh river.