Radioactive Berries

English researcher John Urquhart says that deaths anddeformities caused by fallout from the 1986 Chernobyldisaster, the world worst nuclear accident, may extendbeyond the Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. The radioactivecloud it sent over Europe could have increased infant deathsand birth defects in England and Wales in the three yearsafter the accident. Urquhart thinks that at least 200 morechildren than normal died during those three years. “We’veprobably been too complacent about the health effects fromChernobyl in western Europe,” he says. He thinks the falloutmay have caused more than 600 extra cases of Down’sSyndrome, spina bifida, cleft palate and other abnormalities.

He studied the deaths and birth defects in children born in15 health regions of England and Wales between 1983 and1992, and found that most of the increased deaths anddeformities occurred in just five regions, spread throughoutthe two countries. “Death rates fell every year except for1986, with the extra deaths mostly occurring in four of thefive same regions. The odds that the overlap occurred bychance are 1 in 200,” he says.

However, studies carried out by the National RadiologicalProtection Board after the disaster show that theradioactive plume which reached the U.K. did not even reachsouthwest England, although it did pass over north Wales,Cumbria and southern Scotland. Dr. Michael Clark, of theNRPB, says, “The assertion that the U.K. received 40% of theradiation dose of the Ukraine is simply not true. Otherstudies, in Hungary and Germany, and even in Ukraine itself,have found no link between the disaster and infantmortality. There have been other health effects in Ukraine,such as an increase in thyroid cancers, but not infantmortality.”

Meanwhile, a large shipment of radioactive blueberries wasseized in Moscow last week in an effort to stop the annualinflux of fruit infected by the Chernobyl disaster. Theradioactive berries came from Ukraine and Belarus, the areaswhich were worst hit by the 1986 explosion at the Chernobylnuclear power plant. The blueberries tested high forradioactive cesium-137 and were found in 10 markets in Moscow.

All of the berries were found before they went on sale,since ever since Chernobyl, markets have had to test foodbefore it?s sold. The danger comes from unofficial dealerswho are not subject to this kind of control, especiallyfarmers in the affected regions who still want to sell theirproduce.

With India and Pakistan, as well as terrorists, threateningto use nuclear weapons, we may have to begin testing our ownberries soon.

There?s evidence in ancient Hindu tests of nuclear warfarein the past. To learn about it, read ?A Hitchhiker?s Guideto Armageddon? by David Hatcher Childress,click here.

To read about the spread of radiation,clickhere.

To read a refutation of these findings,clickhere.

To read about radioactiveberries,clickhere.

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