In a recent article on the work of Dr. Cham Dallas, an environmental toxicologist from the University of Georgia, he states that after investigating the genetic effects of very high levels of exposure to environmental radioactivity for the past 10 years, he finds no genetic damage in the Chernobyl animal population. He further States that he finds this very disconcerting and fears long-term genetic changes in the form of a mutation time bomb.
    Notwithstanding the recent questions as to the degree of potential health damage from Chernobyl’s legacy, WIT’S discussions with the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund (Ukrainian spelling) indicate that the impact on children’s health has been severe. In some areas, thyroid cancer increases 80-fold, birth defects have doubled and many children have been stricken with immune deficiencies known as “nuclear AIDS”. The two nations most effected by Chernobyl, Belarus and Ukraine, report tens of thousands of premature deaths and a significant decline in tlie population growth.
    The current speculations regarding the lack of genetic defects or deformities in the local human and animal populations bring into focus the need for further study of this phenomenon. Following the Chernobyl explosion, the greater contamination covered several regions of Ukraine and Belarus where the population received many times the recommended lifetime dose of radiation. Everyone who lived 160 km south and downwind of the explosion received 7 rems of exposure in the first three days, whereas 5 rems per year is allowed by US nuclear power workers. The findings that the most radioactively contaminated living organisms are thriving – cattish, carp, and other fish species examined near chernobyl show levels of radioactive contamination three to five times higher, and rodents show levels that are 10 times higher than in the US. – indicate the importance of further extensive research for the benefit of humanity.
    SOURCE: Science Spectra. “In Hot Pursuit”, Issue 15, 1999
    Oksana, with her mother on the left and Roma Havryliuk WIT’s Regional Director, was born after Chernobyl without arms and one leg. She is being refitted for limbs by a fund from WIT to assist her in school where she is a top student.
    SOURCE: WIT Regional Office, Lviv, Ukraine