The TORCH report (The Other Report on Chernobyl) was a health impacts report requested by the
European Greens
The European Green Party (EGP), also referred to as European Greens, is the European political party that represents national parties from across Europe who share Green values. The European Greens works closely with the Greens–European Free ...
in 2006, for the twentieth anniversary of the
Chernobyl disaster
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. It is one of only two nuc ...
, in reply to the 2006 report of the
Chernobyl Forum which was criticized
by some advocacy organizations opposed to
nuclear energy
Nuclear energy may refer to:
*Nuclear power, the use of sustained nuclear fission or nuclear fusion to generate heat and electricity
* Nuclear binding energy, the energy needed to fuse or split a nucleus of an atom
*Nuclear potential energy
...
such as
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...
.
In 2006, German
Green
Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...
Member of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament.
When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...
Rebecca Harms
Rebecca Harms (born 7 December 1956) is a German politician who served as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2004 until 2019. She is a member of the Alliance '90/The Greens, part of the European Green Party. From 2010 until 2016 she serv ...
, commissioned two
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
scientists to write an alternate report (TORCH, The Other Report on Chernobyl) as a response to the 2006
Chernobyl Forum report.
The two British scientists that published the report were radiation biologist
Ian Fairlie
Ian Fairlie, Ph.D., is a U.K. based Canadian consultant on radiation contamination, radiation in the environment and former member of the three person secretariat to Britain’s Committee Examining the Radiation Risks of Internal Emitters (CERRIE) ...
and David Sumner.
Both are members of the
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) is a non-partisan federation of national medical groups in 63 countries, representing doctors, medical students, other health workers, and concerned people who share the goal of c ...
, an organization awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985.
In 2016, an updated TORCH report was written by Ian Fairlie with support of Friends of the Earth Austria.
Themes
The summary of the 2006 TORCH report said, in part:
Contamination range
The 2006 TORCH Report stated that:
"In terms of their surface areas, Belarus (22% of its land area) and Austria (13%) were most affected by higher levels of contamination. Other countries were seriously affected; for example, more than 5% of Ukraine, Finland and Sweden were contaminated to high levels (> 40,000 Bq/m² caesium-137). More than 80% of Moldova, the European part of Turkey, Slovenia, Switzerland, Austria and the Slovak Republic were contaminated to lower levels (> 4000 Bq/m² caesium-137). And 44% of Germany and 34% of the UK were similarly affected."
The 2016 report said that 5 million people still live in areas highly contaminated by radiation, in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. 400 million people still live in areas which are less contaminated.
Iodine and thyroid effects
The TORCH 2006 report "estimated that more than half the iodine-131 from Chernobyl
hich increases the risk of thyroid cancerwas deposited outside the former Soviet Union. Possible increases in thyroid cancer have been reported in the Czech Republic and the UK, but more research is needed to evaluate thyroid cancer incidence in Western Europe". It predicted about 30,000 to 60,000 excess cancer deaths and warned that predictions of excess cancer deaths strongly depend on the risk factor used; and predicted excess cases of thyroid cancer range between 18,000 and 66,000 in Belarus alone depending on the risk projection model.
By 2016, 6,000 cases of thyroid cancer had been diagnosed, with another 16,000 expected. More generally, 40,000 fatal cancer cases are expected across Europe.
Health effects other than cancer
The TORCH report also stated that "two non-cancer effects,
cataract induction
A cataract is a cloudy area in the lens of the eye that leads to a decrease in vision. Cataracts often develop slowly and can affect one or both eyes. Symptoms may include faded colors, blurry or double vision, halos around light, trouble w ...
and
cardiovascular diseases
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels. CVD includes coronary artery diseases (CAD) such as angina and myocardial infarction (commonly known as a heart attack). Other CVDs include stroke, ...
, are well documented with clear evidence of a Chernobyl connection."
Quoting the report, ''
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...
'' wrote that: "it is well known that radiation can damage genes and chromosomes"; "the relationship between genetic changes and the development of future disease is complex and the relevance of such damage to future risk is often unclear. On the other hand, a number of recent studies have examined genetic damage in those exposed to radiation from the Chernobyl accident. Studies in Belarus have suggested a twofold increase in the
germline
In biology and genetics, the germline is the population of a multicellular organism's cells that pass on their genetic material to the progeny (offspring). In other words, they are the cells that form the egg, sperm and the fertilised egg. They ...
minisatellite
A minisatellite is a tract of repetitive DNA in which certain DNA motifs (ranging in length from 10–60 base pairs) are typically repeated 5-50 times. Minisatellites occur at more than 1,000 locations in the human genome and they are notable for ...
mutation rate".
Evacuations
Some 116,000 people were evacuated from contaminated areas initially, and later 230,000 people were relocated and resettled.
See also
*
Chernobyl disaster
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. It is one of only two nuc ...
*
Effects of the Chernobyl disaster
The 1986 Chernobyl disaster triggered the release of radioactive contamination into the atmosphere in the form of both particulate and gaseous radioisotopes. , it was the world's largest known release of radioactivity into the environment.
...
*
List of Chernobyl-related articles
This is a list of Chernobyl-related articles.
Disaster and effects
* Comparison of Chernobyl and other radioactivity releases
** Comparison of the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear accidents
* Chernobyl disaster
* Effects of the Chernobyl disa ...
*
Nuclear power debate
The nuclear power debate is a long-running controversy about the risks and benefits of using nuclear reactors to generate electricity for civilian purposes. The debate about nuclear power peaked during the 1970s and 1980s, as more and more reac ...
References
{{Chernobyl disaster
Works about the Chernobyl disaster
Aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster
Radiation health effects