Title: Two-year follow up study of stress-related disorders among immigrants to Israel from the Chernobyl area.
Author: J Cwikel, A Abdelgani, J R Goldsmith, M Quastel, and I I Yevelson
Reference: Environ Health Perspect. 1997 December; 105(Suppl 6): 1545–1550.
Keywords: stress disorders, immigrants (from Chernobyl-affected areas), Israel
Abstract: [We report on findings from a 2-year follow-up study of immigrants originating from exposed areas around the site of the 1986 Chernobyl accident matched with comparison subjects emigrating from other republics in the Confederation of Independent States. In the initial study of 708 immigrants, the samples were matched by age, gender, and year of immigration. We assessed two exposure groups–high and low–by estimating levels of ground cesium contamination from the International Atomic Energy Agency maps. We reinterviewed 520 immigrants from the first wave of data collection (a reinterview rate of 73%), 87 from high-exposure areas, 217 from low-exposure areas, and 216 comparison subjects. This study examined the prevalence of symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorders (PTSD), depression, somatization, anxiety, and physical effects (high blood pressure, acute symptoms, and chronic illness)…]
Title: Chernobyl’s Legacy: Health, Environmental and Socio-Economic Impacts and Recommendations to the Governments of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine
Author:
Reference: The Chernobyl Forum: 2003–2005, Second revised version
Keywords: health effects, socio-economic impacts, environment, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine
Abstract: The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986 was the most severe in the history of the nuclear power industry, causing a huge release of radionuclides over large areas of Belarus, Ukraine and the Russian Federation. Now, 20 years later, UN Agencies and representatives of the three countries have reviewed the health, environmental and socio-economic consequences.
Title: Chernobyl’s Sixth Sense: The Symbolism of an Ever-Present Awareness
Author: Sarah D. Phillips
Reference: Anthropology and Humanism, Volume 29, Issue 2, pages 159–185, December 2004
doi: 10.1525/ahu.2004.29.2.159
Keywords: Chernobyl, Ukraine, memory, symbol, museum
Abstract: [This article examines the symbolic life of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. I argue that Chernobyl symbols serve as a set of resources: they produce memory, and they are the grounds for making a new society. My analyses are based on representations of Chernobyl in academic and popular discourse, literature, and museums. Through discussions of embodiment and collective memory, I argue that Chernobyl has produced a sort of sixth sense or “awareness-plus” among those who share the experience of the disaster.]
Title: Nuclear Bashing in Chernobyl Coverage: Fact or Fiction?
Author: Friedman, Sharon M.; And Others
Reference: Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (72nd, Washington, DC, August 10-13, 1989)
Keywords: Broadcast Television, News, Nuclear Energy, Media Coverage, USSR
Abstract: Critics of coverage of nuclear power have charged that the media overemphasize the importance of nuclear accidents, encourage public fear, and omit information vital to public understanding of nuclear power and risk. Some also feel there is an anti-nuclear bias among reporters and editors. A study was conducted to determine if such charges were supported in the first two weeks of coverage of the Chernobyl accident. Coverage was analyzed in the “New York Times,” the “Washington Post,” the “Philadelphia Inquirer,” the “Wall Street Journal,” the Allentown (Pennsylvania) “Morning Call,” and on the evening newscasts of CBS, NBC, and ABC. Findings showed that (1) despite heavy coverage of the accident, no more than 25% of any newspaper’s or network’s coverage–often far less–was devoted to information on safety records, history of accidents, and current status of nuclear industries in various countries; (2) even though such information would be background information for a breaking news event, not enough was provided to improve the public’s level of understanding of nuclear power or put the Chernobyl accident in context; and (3) articles and newscasts balanced use of pro- and anti-nuclear statements, and did not include excessive amounts of fear-inducing and negative information, indicating that these newspapers and networks did not take advantage of the accident to attack or “bash” the nuclear industry or nuclear power in general. (Four tables of data and 20 notes are included.)
Reference: Український медичний часопис (Ukrainian Medical Magazine), 2001
Keywords: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Metabolic Syndrome X, liquidators, the Chernobyl accident, channelopathy, membranopathy, effects of ionising radiation
Abstract: Frequency, the trends of development, and outcomes of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and Metabolic Syndrome X (MSX) in clean-up workers of the consequences of the Chernobyl accident (liquidators) were studied as well as an attempt was made for consideration of a community of these syndromes pathogenesis in the light of the current data in radiobiology and radiation medicine. During 1990–2001 there were examined randomly selected 367 liquidators of 1986–1987. It was established that CFS frequency significantly (p<0,001) decreased (from 65,5% in 1990–1995 to 10,5% in 1996–2001) and MSX frequency significantly (p<0,001) increased (from 15 to 48,2%). CFS and MSX are considered to be the stages of another neuropsychiatric and physical pathology development, and CFS can transform towards MSX. A significant role of channelopathy (including radiation-induced) in the mechanisms of the development of CFS and MSX is discussed. Mitochondrial genome disorders together with changes of transmembrane ionic transport could be the basis of CFS and MSX. Radiation-induced damage of mitochondrial DNA in post-mitotic tissues with low proliferation activity may be a one of the basis of the effects of low doses concerning an increase of non-cancer morbidity and mortality in the Chernobyl accident survivors. Radiation effects launch at the sub-membrane, membrane and post-membrane levels could further integrate in the systemic and intrasystemic levels that, finally, together with genetic predisposition and exposure to other promoter factors lead towards the development of non-specific radiation syndromes, in particular, CFS and MSX.(Full text in Russian on web)
Title: Uncomfortable Heritage & Dark Tourism at Chernobyl
Author: Jose Ramon Perez
Reference: A Reader in Uncomfortable Heritage and Dark Tourism., Edited by Sam Merrill and Leo Schmidt, Department of Architectural Conservation at the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus, 2008-2009
Keywords: memory, essay
Abstract: [Between October 2008 and March 2009 the Department of Architectural Conservation at the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus, hosted a study project entitled “Dark Tourism and Uncomfortable Heritage”. It aimed to build on the recent development of the sub-discipline of Dark Tourism Studies and extend the growing and current emphasis of uncomfortable, difficult or sensitive heritage sites within the discipline of Heritage Studies. …From the essay: ‘The first time I ever heard the name Chernobyl I was 14 years old. As a boy growing up in Mexico, I never heard much of the news from the USSR, let alone Ukraine. It was in a short verse by one of my favorite singer-songwriters. He wrote “dark like the sky of Chernobyl”, among two dozen other verses, making grim comparisons to an out-of-love situation. Doing some research, I learned that the event at Chernobyl had been a terrible explosion in a nuclear power station, with widespread, long-lasting and most appalling consequences…’]
Abstract: On March 11, 2011 came the horrific earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and the escalating crisis at the tsunami-damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. As the Fukushima accident unfolded and the extent of radioactive contamination was revealed (?!), the world wondered: Is this another Chernobyl? A month after the earthquake the Japanese government classified the accident as a Category 7 disaster, the same as Chernobyl. No doubt comparisons with Chernobyl will be elaborated, negotiated, challenged, and rejected as the situation develops at Fukushima Daiichi. For now, the renewed awareness of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident–which coincides with the event’s 25th “anniversary”–provides an opportunity to ponder the multiple kinds of fallout the disaster produced: health, environmental, social, cultural, and political.
