Death and disease

In the immediate vicinity and surrounding regions of Chernobyl, radiation levels of 1,000 millisievert were measured in the thyroid of some parts of the population and of 100 millisievert in others. Several patients displayed significantly higher levels.

The containment measures undertaken could not prevent there being an average annual radiation level of 5 millisievert in many local villages, even years after the accident. This means that some parts of the population received very high doses of radiation in a very short period of time; higher than the amounts normally accumulated over an entire lifetime. Worldwide, the average annual level of radiation an adult accumulates from natural radiation is 2.4 millisievert.

According to a report issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), 56 people died as a direct result of the explosion of the Chernobyl reactor. The approximately 4,000 people who have died in the region from radiation-related cancer since can be regarded as long-term fatalities. This figure is supported by medical examinations of the hundreds of thousands of people who were directly and indirectly involved in containing the nuclear accident.

Independent organisations such as Greenpeace claim that significantly higher numbers of people were involved in the recovery work than has been stated in official sources. There are reports that up to 860,000 people were brought into the disaster area.

Approximately 4,000 people have been identified as suffering from thyroid cancer. In the vast majority of these cases, however, the cancer will not be fatal. Other reported diseases could not be directly attributed to radiation, or they could not be adequately categorised. According to the official 2002 Ukrainian statistics and subsequent projections based on them, 15,000 to 50,000 people are estimated to have died. The suicide rate is also claimed to have risen drastically.

In Ukrainian, the word “chornobyl” means “mugwort” (Artemisia vulgaris), and is synonymous with the term “polyn zvychajnyj” (common polyn). The term “wormwood” belongs to the same genus of plants and in Ukrainian translates to “polyn hirkyj” (bitter polyn or Artemisia absinthium). Although many dispute this connection some Ukrainians have come to view the reactor meltdown of Chernobyl, which in Ukrainian is “Chornobyl”, as a confirmation of Revelation 8, 10-11:

“And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.”