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Cancer deaths linked to Chernobyl likely to reach 16,000 by 2065+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)WASHINGTON, April 20_(Kyodo) _ The number of people who will have died of cancer caused by radiation from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster may reach 16,000 by 2065 in 40 countries in the former Soviet Union and Europe, an agency under the World Health Organization said Wednesday. The International Agency for Research on Cancer tallied the figure, which was larger than similar projections by other organs, by widening survey areas and factoring in the health damage to more people who were exposed to low-level radiation after the accident. The survey was conducted by a team of experts from countries such as the United States, Japan and some in Europe. The team was led by Elizabeth Cardis, a radiation expert at the agency. The team estimated that radioactive materials from the doomed facility will cause about 16,000 people to suffer from thyroid cancer and about 26,000 others to develop other cancers. Of the combined 42,000, 16,000 are expected to die mostly in Ukraine, Belarus and parts of Russia, all of which have been contaminated by high-level radiation, according to the research team. But the projection did not cover other areas in Russia that were been hit by a massive amount of radioactive materials from the plant but where contamination levels were relatively low. Previously, some international organs projected the death toll would be 4,000 or 9,000. But these past figures were compiled based on research that only covered areas in and around Ukraine. The Chernobyl disaster began April 26, 1986, in a civilian nuclear power station in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union. The plant's No. 4 reactor exploded while on a test run, releasing massive amount of radioactive materials into the atmosphere. |