However, the press reports to date indicate that, despite these findings, the UN is downplaying the accident’s impacts. To dismiss the loss of 4,000 lives, not to mention the non-fatal cancers and other effects, hundreds of billions of dollars in damages and permanent loss of land use, as the report appears to do, is an obscene disregard for human life and wellbeing. And the real consequences, when considering the entire affected population, are likely to be much higher.

Furthermore, the 4,000 fatality estimate appears to be based on a population of only 600,000 exposed individuals. Given that tens of millions of people were exposed to Chernobyl radiation, a study using the standard method of accounting for radiation damage (the “linear no-threshold” method) among the entire affected population would be expected to find far greater casualties.

This is especially significant considering that the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in June 2005 2005 (in a report entitled “Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation, VII”) reaffirmed the “linear no-threshold” model and concluded that there is no safe exposure level to radiation.

NIRS urges full disclosure of the report to the public. Until this happens, the scant information made available to date clearly is insufficient to provide knowledgeable analysis on the report, nor does it allow for peer review of the report’s findings and conclusions.”

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