The Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine, milk in parts of Ukraine has radioactivity levels up to five times over the country’s official safe limit, the worst contamination is in existence even after the decades of the incident. children still drink the milk and the problem could persist for decades to come, researchers reported on Friday.
In villages as much as 140 miles from the Chernobyl nuclear plant, radioactivity readings in milk are up to five times the Ukranian government’s official limit for adults, and more than 12 times the limit for children, according to scientists from the Greenpeace Research Laboratories at the University of Exeter, in Britain, and the Ukrainian Institute of Agricultural Radiology.
Without large-scale intervention, the radiation will remain above the adult level until at least 2040 and above the child threshold even longer, they predicted. They reported their findings in the journal Environment International.
“More than 30 years after the Chernobyl disaster, people are still routinely exposed to radioactive caesium when consuming locally produced staple foods, including milk, in Chernobyl-affected areas of Ukraine,” said Iryna Labunska, at the University of Exeter in the UK.
“Many people in the area we studied keep cows for milk, and children are the main consumers of that milk,” said Labunska.
“Though the level of soil contamination in the studied areas is not extremely high, radioactive caesium continues to accumulate in milk and other foods, such that the residents of these villages are chronically exposed to radioactivity that presents health risks to almost every system in the body – especially among children,” she said.
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The researchers examined samples from 14 villages in the Rivne region, in northwest Ukraine, where the milk is consumed by the farmers and their neighbours. They found wide variations in radiation levels, depending on soil conditions and other factors, and it is not clear that the same results would hold true for the large-scale commercial farm.
The experts warn that milk contamination will continue to exceed the 100 Becquerel per litre adult limit in parts of Ukraine until at least 2040.
“This situation should also act as a warning and a reminder of just how long the legacy of nuclear accidents can be,” said Labunska.
“Without adequate countermeasures, what may now seem a purely historical event will remain a daily reality for those communities most impacted,” she said.
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