Sir, - Philip Walton's letter (September 26th ) about the health effects of Chernobyl is misleading in a number of important respects. It attempts to play down the effects of radiation on the population. By stating that the World Health Organisation noted only an increase in childhood thyroid cancers and psychological problems is to understate the case. The increase in thyroid cancers is dramatic. In 1995 in the children's cancer ward in Minsk there were 91 new cases; before Chernobyl there was an average of one a year. The level of TB has increased 45 per cent between 1990 and 1995. All infectious diseases rates have heavily increased, particularly measles. Leukaemia cases have increased dramatically.
As regards the children of Chernobyl and birth defects, Professor Walton implies that there is no change. I find it hard to believe he believes this. At the launching of the Internet Website for the children of Chernobyl over a year ago, one of the invited guest speakers stated that in the most affected areas near Chernobyl the overall incidence of birth defects was a colossal 42 per cent of all births and that an American study envisaged this figure to go very much higher, possibly up to 90 per cent, within another generation. People nearly always marry within the area as to marry an outsider from an area with less contamination from radiation opens massive areas of guilt in the event of the child being born with a birth defect. This sad scenario reflects a reality which flies in the face of Professor Walton's thesis.
In April 1996 I was one of two doctors that travelled overland with a convoy to Belarus on the 10th anniversary of the nuclear accident in Chernobyl. I had access to the management and staff in all of the hospitals in Minsk and Gormel that we were dealing with, also the many orphanages. I had worked in North America, Europe and the Middle East but nothing prepared me for what I saw there. The evidence of the detrimental effects of radiation was overwhelming. It was a very sobering experience for one who has had nearly 30 years' experience as a general practitioner and as an emergency room physician.
I have or never have had any connection with Irish CND. I came to admire Adi Roche and her close colleagues on the convoy. Unlike what I have read about her in the past two weeks from disaffected CCP workers I found the opposite to be true. Unbelievable levels of organisation diplomacy and competence are needed to succeed at this work and she gets it done. There was a huge pride among the Irish in that convoy in being Irish and being led by a formidable lady. When I came home I noted that reporting of the area's problems was subtly biased, particularly in programmes with American origins. These all tended to play down the effects, as Prof Walton does. - Yours, etc.,
Kimoganny, Co Kilkenny.