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HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT IN UKRAINE: 1 4 YE A R S A F T E R C H O R N O B Y L Statement by Natalia Holovyna (WIT, Ukraine) at the Ninth International Conference on Health and Environment: Global Partners for Global Solutions (United Nations, New York, April 26, 2000) Thank you, Madam Chairperson, for giving me this unique opportunity to describe the current health and environment situation in my country, Ukraine, 14 years after Chomobyl, here at the UN Headquarters. My statement is an eyewitness report of someone who actually lives there and, by virtue of my medical profession and participation in the grass-roots environmental movement, really knows the situation on the ground. Ladies and Gentlemen, the accident at the 4th reactor of the Chomobyl Nuclear Power Plant is justifiably considered to be the worst ever man-made disaster in the history of mankind. This perception is dictated by the scale of its negative social, environ mental and economic consequences, as well as by its influence on the Earth's biosphere and on the human understanding of many aspects of our modem civilization in its development: scientific and tech nical, social and economic, etc. The Chomobyl nuclear disaster caused massive radioactive pollution of the global biosphere in a densely populated part of Europe. In Ukraine, 74 districts in 12 regions are polluted by cesium-137 at a level of more than 1 curie per square kilometer. This area is populated by 5 million people, who are subjected to additional radioactive irradiation day by day. The total area of radioactively polluted agri cultural lands in Ukraine amounts to 4.2 million hectares. Severe pollution with strontium-90 and cesium-137 is observed in an area of more than 340.000 hectares, i.e., .6% of Ukrainian territory. 180.000 hectares of arable land has been lost for agriculture; 157,000 hectares of forests are massively polluted and cannot be used by people. In one third of Ukrainian territory, there is a considerable increase in radioactive background against natural levels. Almost all branches of the Ukrainian economy were severely damaged by the disaster. In general, the total monetary value of socio-demographic and purely economic damage before the year 2000 has been estimated at USD 125 billion. 44% of this amount represents direct damage to the population in terms of poor health, low productivity and early deaths. The Ukrainian Institute of Sociology polled some 10,000 victims of the disaster. 60% of the respondents raised concerns about the safety of their daily food and reported frequent panic attacks, feeling of helplessness, insomnia and irritation. 30% responded that they had lost interest in their lives. Every second respondent suffers from low spirits, hypo-activity and general anxiety. When asked what they were going to do in order to get back to normal life, 45% answered "Nothing". The disaster is still being perceived by the victims as a personal tragedy: a destruction of the customary axioms of life, habitual daily routines, plans for the future, and instead, a spread of pessimistic perception of their lives as irrevocably destined to eternal suffering. All victims show a very low level of activity, initiative, enterprise, willingness to have contacts with other people, readiness to change. In this context, a community of the doomed is taking shape -- those whose only hope is God and a lifetime of state welfare. 90% of the victims are obsessed with their own health and the health of their families. Children, who were victimized by Chomobyl, show an increase in morbidity and mortality, personal problems and conflicts, lack of energy, depression and unwillingness to work. Schoolchildren in polluted areas rate initia tive, career development, education and professio nalism as 5th to 7th among other priorities. Relocated populations suffer from distorted social, cultural and spatial cognition; they have difficulties with orien tation and adaptation in new environments. Half of them would like to return, if permitted, to the now contaminated areas where they lived before the disaster. Economic well-being of the relocated groups has also dramatically dropped as a result of forced relocation and lack of suitable employment. But the most unexpected result of the survey relates to the fact that the victims' relations with their co-workers and family members have become 6 to 7 times worse than 14 “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ЧЕРВЕНЬ 2000 Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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