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O U R L I F E Monthly, published by Ukrainian National Women’s League of America Vol. M FEBRUARY 1996 Editor: TAMARA STADNYCHENKO E x ec u tiv e O ffice: 278 B a th u rs t S t. T o ro n to , O n ta rio - C a n a d a M 5 T 2 S 3 T el: ( 416 ) 366-4299 Mailing A d d re ss: P .O . B o x 261 - P o sta l S ta tio n T o ro n to , O n ta rio - C a n a d a M 6 S 413 OPENING REMARKS Ladies and Gentlemen: On behalf of the World Federation of Ukrainian Women’s Organizations (WFUWO) I welcome you to our workshop titled “Environmental Disaster and Its Impact on Women and Chidren.” It is a great honour for me to bring you greetings and best wishes for a successful conference from the 30,000 members of 22 organizations operating on four continents that make up the World Federation of Ukrain ian Women’s Organizations. Our federation was established in 1948 and ever since it has supported many cultural, educational, huma nitarian and health programs. One of the federation’s more recent projects is the provision of aid to the vic tims of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster. At 1:23 a.m. on April 26, 1986, experimenting tech nicians at Chornobyl’s No. 4 reactor dropped power to a very low level... major safety systems were disabled so that the reactor would not be shut down automatically. Four seconds before the explosion, the operators realized the mistake they had made...they tried to stop the chain reaction but it was too late...two or three explosions followed. The explosions were so powerful they blew off the reactor’s 1,000 tonne concrete ceiling. Air rushed in and mixed with the reactor gases, causing a further series of explosions and triggering a graphite fire. This shattered the reactor and hurled almost nine tonnes of radioactive material into the night sky. This was about 90 times more than the radioactivity released by the atomic bomb over Hiroshima. The radioactive cloud blew northwest over Ukraine, Byelorussia, Latvia and Lithuania. It then passed over Poland and Scandinavia. Ultimately, the explosion re sulted in raised levels of radioactivity that were detected more than 2,000 kilometers away and in more than 20 countries. Most seriously affected were hundreds of thousands of families living near Chornobyl. Their safety was sacri ficed by the former Soviet government in its initial attempt to cover up the disaster and in its subsequent refusal of aid from the west. Health authorities refused to admit that radiation was causing problems. Evacua tion was delayed and when it was eventually carried out, it extended only to a 30 kilometre radius from the plant. It is estimated that 800,000 to 900,000 children have received significant doses of radiation to date. In Ukraine, there has been a 92 percent increase in general child ren’s cancer, and an 82 percent increase in thyroid cancer. Congenial birth defects have more than doubled. In Canada (the country where I live), seven out of ten children are cured of childhood leukemia. In Ukraine, , the survival rate is less than one in ten. ’НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ЛЮТИЙ 1996 13 С В ІТ О В А Ф Е Д Е Р А Ц ІЯ У К Р А ЇН С Ь К И Х Ж ІН О Ч И Х О Р Г А Н ІЗ А Ц ІЙ W O R L D F E D E R A T IO N O F U K R A IN IA N W O M E N ’ S O R G A N IZ A T IO N S
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