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International agencies, the nuclear industry and governments ignore important scientific data about the consequences of the 1986 nuclear disaster at Chernobyl. A screw up or a cover up?

Authors of a new book, Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment published by the New York Academy of Sciences say it was a massive cover up. They say that almost a million people worldwide died as a result of Chernonbyl -- not 4,000 as officially claimed by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the World Health Organization. Book co-author, Professor Alexey V. Yablokov, Councilor of the Russian Academy of Sciences and former environmental advisor to Russian President Boris Yeltsin, tells Earth Focus that international organizations are ignoring scientific data published in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, countries most severely affected by the fallout from Chernobyl, because of their links to the nuclear industry.

Professor Yablokov and book editor, US toxicologist Janette Sherman, MD, book note that effects of Chernobyl continue to be felt today by countries as far away as Germany and the the United Kingdom. Wild boars harvested by hunters in Germany continue to be tested for radioactivity and restrictions are still in place on the movement, sale and supply of sheep in parts of the United Kingdom. Book authors say there is evidence that links exposure to radioactivity with diminished human intelligence, as recent studies with schoolchildren in Sweden indicate, as well as breaks in chromosomes that lead to devastating birth defects and mental handicaps. The effects of Chernobyl will last for seven generations or more.

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