Logansport Pharos-Tribune from Logansport, Indiana • Page 32

Page 24 Pharos-Tribune, Logansport, Indiana, Sunday, May 4, 1986 Nuclear Accident Soviet Nuclear Accident Prompts Protests Across Europe More than 14,000 West German protesters demanded Saturday that the nation shut down its 20 atomic power plants, and angry demonstrations against the Chernobyl nuclear disaster were staged across Europe. About 20 people staged a 30-minute protest in Wroclaw, Poland, against nuclear contamination raining on the Soviet bloc nation, a source within the Solidarity labor union said. "Is death from the East different?" said a poster held by the group near an underground passage in the center of the city, the sources from the outlawed labor union said. About 200 people applauded the protesters and police did not intervene. After the Chernobyl accident, about 11 million Polish children were given iodine to keep their thyroid glands from absorbing radiation.

Saturday, a government commission in Warsaw announced the radioactivity in the air had dropped to practically zero. It said radioactivity was highest for a few hours in some regions of Poland between Monday and Friday but added, "The actual contamination of Polish territory and its airspace has proved to be considerably smaller than originally expected." In Rome, angry Italians deposited a basket containing artichokes, lettuce and other banned vegetables outside the Soviet embassy Saturday. "Beware: Radioactive goods containing radioisotopes of iodine, cobalt and hydrogen," a placard said. The demonstrators chose the vegetables as the symbol of their protest because the Italian health ministry announced a 15-day ban on the sale of leaf vegetables Friday as a "strictly precautionary" measure. The peaceful half-hour protest by 50 demonstrators was organized by the regional Environment League organization and joined by a dozen members of the small Radical party, which opposes nuclear energy plants in Italy.

In Germany, police said 8,000 people attended a rally in West Berlin, 4,000 in Stuttgart, 1,200 in Stade, 900 in Frankfurt and 300 in Munich, calling for the closure of Germany's 20 nuclear power RADIOACTIVE ELEMENTS AND THE FOOD CHAIN In view of em.ss.ons from me Chernobyl reactor accident European agricultural and products Oe monitored for ev.cence of raaoact.e for several weeks Poland nas already the saie of m.x ENTRY OF FALLOUT INTO THE FOOD CHAIN Solid radioactive contaminants fall into bodies of water and onto the soil. They are taken up by plants and animals, becoming more concentrated as they move up the ladder of organisms in nature's food chain In man. they move to target organs (see enlargement) delivering large. close-range doses of radiation with possible dire effects EXAMPLE: RADIOACTIVE IODINE lodme-131 from ground to cow MILK to the cow's milk (in concentrated form). the thyroid gland of a human where it increases the nsk of cancer THYROID lodine-131" FALLOUT IN THE BODY Organs targeted by specific isotopes l.kely to be present fallout from Chernobyl.

The risk, in all cases, is that of cancer the targeted organ or related tissues UJNGS Krypton 85 BONE Strontium 90 Ytinum 90 KIDNEYS Ruthen urn 105 OVARIES Iodine-I3r Ruthen j-n 105 Cesium 137" 'These isolopes haa neei by SACG sh mon tors early in the weeK Fallout Hazard United States residents not in danger of contamination No one knows how much radiation Soviets near the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl have been exposed to, but the impact of the accident has been felt around the world. In Poland and Romania, iodine tablets were issued to protect children against airborne radioactive iodine from the disaster. The State Department warned against travel to Poland, and Austria warned children not to play in sandboxes. Meteorologists said other countries threatened by fallout included Italy, Switzerland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Greece, Albania, West Germany and Czechoslovakia. Radiation reached the south coast of Britain but posed no hazard, officials said.

Dr. Frank Young, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said radiation would have reached lethal levels within two to three miles of the plant immediately after the explosion and fire last week. Slightly weaker levels of radiation, still high enough to cause serious health problems, would have registered up to seven miles from the giant reactor, Young told a news conference. Experts said the fallout would probably not reach the United States, but people were concerned nevertheless. "Most of the worries are because of ignorance," said Dr.

Oscar Hunter, a professor of clinical pathology at Georgetown University Medical Center. Normal yearly natural emissions range from 150 to 200 millirems, varying according to altitude and geological formations. Atmosphere protects somewhat against cosmic radiation. "We just feel there is no radiation hazard" to Americans, said Dr. Darrell Mclndoe, director of nuclear medicine at St.

Joseph Hospital in Towson, Md. A rem is unit of radiation measure and a millirem is one one-thousandth of that. A chest X-ray emits about 25 millirems, and the average dental X-ray is 10 millirems. The contamination is expected to have only miniscule impact on the U.S. cancer rate, doctors say.

One way to minimize the danger of thyroid cancer, linked to exposure to radioactive iodine a substance released in the Soviet accident is to take iodine tablets or liquid to prevent the gland from absorbing the radioactive form. Because of side effects this is not advisable or even necessary in the United States, experts said. "Don't go out and get iodine," said Dr. Richard Reba, director of nuclear medicine at George Washington University Medical Center. Taking iodine could be especially dangerous to pregnant women as it could cause growth deficiency or other defects in fetuses.

The Food and Drug Administration said six states stockpile potassium iodide in case of nuclear radiation danger: Alabama, Arizona, California, Kentucky, Michigan and Vermont. Besides iodine, Sweden detected radioactive Neptunium 239, Niobium 95, Ruthenium 103 and 106, Cerium 144 and Cesium 134, experts said. Soviets May Experience Stress WASHINGTON (UPI) The Russian people, who are more sensitive to nuclear dangers than Americans, may experience severe stress reactions for years to come as a result of the Chernobyl accident, say U.S. experts on crisis psychology. Such reactions, including insomnia, hypertension and deep depression, "have effects on the body that could make radiation's impact more intense" by altering "the immune system and the functioning of the liver and kidneys," said Dr.

Andrew Baum. He is a psychiatrist who has studied residents of the area around Three Mile Island, where America's worst nuclear accident occurred. The psychological impact might be alleviated if the Soviet government provided crisis counseling services to residents of affected areas as quickly as possible, Baum reported. But Soviet stoicism rules out the possibility of such counseling, said Dr. Walter Reich, of the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington, even though state-run "neuropsychiatric dispensaries" can dispatch mental health workers where and when they are needed most.

Russians may panic even more because their leaders have in the past intentionally inflamed fears about nuclear dangers, said Reich, an authority on Soviet psychiatry. The state-run news media have repeatedly publicized the threat of nuclear catastrophe from America, and as a result, "Russians are more aware than we are of nuclear dangers in general "There was one public campaign in 1982 that was so successful that it was stopped, because secret government polls revealed that the population was becoming too worried," he said. Now, the Russian people really have something to worry about: as they struggle to cope with the disaster, Reich points out, they must also confront the possibility of future accidents in similar plants. In fact, news about the absence at Chernobyl of containment structures, which are required for nuclear reactors in the United States, may provoke worldwide fear that "the Soviets are reckless and have shown a lack of adequate consideration for Reich said. Baum, who continues to monitor the psychological aftermath of the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in Pennsylvania, says the threat of radiation carries a special trauma because "you cannot see it or detect its presence, and (its) consequences include some of our most feared diseases." Said Reich, "In this situation, lethality is invisible and insidious.

With radioactivity, things you don't understand and can't see can kill you sooner or later." The short-term effects can range from radiation sickness involving vomiting and diarrhea to slow and painful death. The long-term effects include a variety of cancers that might not show up for decades. Faced with the threat of prolonged illness and suffering, residents in the vicinity of a nuclear accident are prey to a syndrome called "posttraumatic distress," says Baum. It is marked by elevated pulse and heart rates, chronic depression, insomnia and hypertension. plants.

Mainly peaceful rallies also were held in a number of other German locations, although three windows were broken in Frankfurt and in Stade, about 12 miles northwest of Hamburg, and some demonstrators tried to break through police lines to an atomic power plant. The rallies were called by the anti-NATO Greens party under the motto, "Today Chernobyl tomorrow us." West German authorities said Saturday radioactivity in the nation has declined considerably, but they advised people to continue to refrain from drinking fresh milk. Shipments of food and trucks from eastern Europe were checked for radioactive contamination. In the German state of Hesse, the Social Affairs Ministry warned people not to go outside if- it rained because of radioactive dust in the air. In London, the National Radiological Protection Board said the radiation cloud from Chernobyl had spread over all of Britain, but levels of con- tamination remained low.

The Italian health ministry stressed that the effects of the radioactive cloud, which raised levels two to four times higher than normal in widely scattered regions of Italy, posed no danger to the population. But the ministry order caused chaos in the central fruit and vegetable markets of Rome, Milan and other big cities. Police turned back scores of trucks laden with thousands of tons of vegetables and milk as they arrived at the markets in the early morning hours. In Salonika, Greece, Stefanos Haralambous, a Professor of Nuclear Physics at Salonika University warned people Saturday not to consume fruits, vegetables, milk and meat imported from areas in the Soviet Union contaminated by radiation. Sweden and Denmark already have banned fruit and vegetable imports from eastern Europe.

Saturday, the Vatican appealed for the broadest possible international collaboration to repeat of the Soviet nuclear disaster anywhere. UPI Graphic Agricultural Impact Minimal WASHINGTON (UPI) A week after the Soviet nuclear plant disaster, analysts believe the impact on agriculture in the Soviet Union and nearby countries will not be great, but say consequences must be monitored over time. The impact is "nowhere near as bad as we first thought," said one government analyst who asked not to be identified. Dairy cows and milk, and water supplies for crops, animals and humans, pose the the most immediate problems. There was general agreement among nuclear and agricultural experts that radiation damage to crops and animals would be dramatic only in the area immediately surrounding the plant at Chernobyl.

That area is unimportant agriculturally. The plant is on the northwest corner of the Soviet Union's major breadbasket. Weather patterns at the time of the initial accident and immediately thereafter carried air-borne radiation only across edges of fall-planted grains now growing and summer grain areas, where about one fourth of the crop has been planted. Experts said it also is too early to gauge the impact op European nations exposed to fallout, but they believe it will be limited. Polish authorities have ordered anti-radiation measures including dumping of milk.

Government analysts were reluctant to talk publicly, especially in view of Agriculture Secretary Richard Lyng's directives. "I think it would be wrong to suggest various possibilities because it would be pure speculation," Lyng told a congressional committee. Only Norton Strommen, the Agriculture Department's chief meterologist, who constantly monitored weather throughout the week after the disaster, spoke on the record. SPECIAI PACK 12 Pieces of Chicken (Combo Only) Pieces of Chicken, Original or Extra Large Side Items, Your Choice Fresh Baked Buttermilk Biscuits limit 2 Coupon Expires 5-17-86 Good at all Duncan Kentucky Fried Chicken Stores $O99 9 Good at all Duncan Kentucky Fried Chicken RACE DAY FANS OPEN 6am -MAY 10th 11th Colonel's Day Every Wednesday $2 49 DUNCAN'S Kentucky Fried Chicken Drive Thru Available 3424 US 24 East, Serving Logansport Surrounding Areas for 25 years. 753-8170.