The TORCH report (The Other Report on Chernobyl) was a health impacts report requested by the

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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

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such as

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. In 2006, German

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, commissioned two

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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

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, 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, ''

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'' 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

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mutation rate".

Evacuations

Some 116,000 people were evacuated from contaminated areas initially, and later 230,000 people were relocated and resettled.

References