UKRAINE: Greenpeace research shows major food staples are still contaminated by radioactive fallout from Chernobyl, 25 years on

Record ID: 215802

  • Title: UKRAINE: Greenpeace research shows major food staples are still contaminated by radioactive fallout from Chernobyl, 25 years on
  • Date: 6th April 2011
  • Summary: CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR POWER PLANT, UKRAINE (APRIL 4, 2011) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR POWER PLANT WITH 4TH REACTOR COVERED BY SARCOPHAGUS MONUMENT IN FRONT OF SARCOPHAGUS GREENPEACE ACTIVISTS AND JOURNALISTS IN FRONT OF SARCOPHAGUS RUSTED SARCOPHAGUS GREENPEACE CAMPAIGNER MEASURING RADIATION LEVEL CLOSE UP OF RADIATION METER GAUGE SHOWING EXCEEDING LEVEL OF R
  • Embargoed: 21st April 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ukraine
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes,Environment / Natural World
  • Reuters ID: LVAKB5WILHYPKF462SYYGL4V21Z
  • Story Text: The environmental organisation Greenpeace has recently published the findings of a field investigation ahead of a Ukraine-hosted international conference on Chernobyl, which has taken on added significance with the nuclear crisis in Japan.
    Environmentalists said radioactivity levels still remained high in food chain of Chernobyl area in Ukraine, 25 years after the world's worst nuclear disaster.
    The investigation, carried out by Greenpeace researchers earlier this month, focused on contamination from Caesium-137, a radionuclide carried around the region by prevailing winds at the time, in locally-produced foodstuffs.
    Their findings showed varying degrees of contamination in food products such as milk and milk products, mushrooms, berries and root vegetables like beet root and potatoes, which are staples of the regular diet in rural areas of Ukraine.
    In many cases the presence of Caesium-137 was well above acceptable levels for children and adults.
    "Twenty five years have passed, but yet the conclusion is very clear that the radiation exists here. In our recent visits we even found radiation quite far away from this center. We traveled for 300 km and yet radiation existed even there in the food chain," said Greenpeace campaigner in nuclear energy Aslihan Tumer said on Monday (April 4).
    With the consumption of contaminated food low levels of radiation accumulate with years and cause health problems in longer terms.
    The Greenpeace report was especially critical of the Ukrainian government for suspending regular monitoring of food contamination from Chernobyl two years ago.
    "What we would like to see improved, is that the monitoring of the situation needs to be improved and there needs to be a scientific analysis, thorough scientific analysis that hasn't been quite done yet about the situation 25 years after. Because a lot of the contamination still exist, and we have to ensure that people don't live in that contaminated areas, and people can get clean food," said Aslihan Tumer.
    The investigation was carried out in three areas outside the so-called Exclusion Zone, a circle around the Chernobyl plant with a radius of 30 km (19 miles) that has been deemed unsuitable for living.
    Meanwhile a few hundred mainly elderly residents of Chernobyl exclusion zone, who have been evacuated in 1986 but returned back some years after, said they did not see any threat of radiation and preferred to stay where they grew up.
    "This is our Motherland. Nothing can replace it to me. Would you trade you mother for me for example? No! So I can't trade my Motherland. We live well. If my life is bad here, I would have asked to move me. They gave me an apartment (in other region of Ukraine) but I said I didn't want it! I want to live in my Motherland," said Hanna Zavorotnya, 78, from an abandoned village of Kupovate inside the 30 km exclusion zone.
    She added she was happy with the quality of locally grown food
    "We grow everything here. Garlic, onions, potatoes, everything. We grow everything. I would say, let God help you to live till my years without taking any medicine."
    Ukraine is seeking 600 million Euros (840 million U.S. dollars) in additional funding for construction of a massive new shell over a reactor at the Chernobyl plant which blew up in 1986, spewing radioactive debris across neighbouring Belarus and other parts of Europe.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register