UNICEF SAYS IODINE COULD HAVE PREVENTED CANCER AMONG CHERNOBYL VICTIMS

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UNICEF SAYS IODINE COULD HAVE PREVENTED CANCER AMONG CHERNOBYL VICTIMS

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 13:01:01 -0400

 

UNICEF SAYS IODINE COULD HAVE PREVENTED CANCER AMONG CHERNOBYL VICTIMS

New York, Apr 19 2006 1:00PM

Ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident, the United

Nations Children’s Fund (< " http://www.unicef.org/media/media_33470.html " >UNICEF)

said today that iodized salt could have significantly lowered the numbers of

exposed children who developed thyroid cancer and called for the supplement to

be widely used throughout the affected region.

 

“For the 4,000 children in question, iodized salt could have made all the

difference,” said, Maria Calivis, UNICEF Regional Director for Central and

Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States. “Many would have been

spared from thyroid cancer,” she said, calling for universal salt iodization.

 

“And amid all the other vast numbers - 400,000 people uprooted from their homes;

5 million still living in contaminated areas; 100,000 still dependent on

humanitarian aid - it is too easy to overlook what is small: a drop of iodine

costing just a few cents.”

 

The explosion in the Chernobyl nuclear reactor on 26 April 1986 spread radiation

over a wide swathe of land, mainly in Belarus, Ukraine, and the Russian

Federation. The areas affected by Chernobyl were iodine deficient before the

disaster, and are still iodine deficient today, according to UNICEF. Despite

many efforts to get legislation passed on universal salt iodization in Belarus,

the Russian Federation and Ukraine, the issue is still being debated.

 

“After twenty years, there can be no excuse for further delay,” said UNICEF

Regional Ambassador chess Grand Master Anatoly Karpov. “Universal salt

iodization is the most effective way to ensure that every child gets enough

iodine. It is also the cheapest way – costing only 4 cents per person, per

year.”

 

Iodine deficiency disorders are the world’s leading cause of mental retardation

and can lower the average IQ of a population by as much as 15 points. Even mild

iodine deficiency during pregnancy can affect foetal brain development and, as a

result, up to 2.4 million babies are born each year in Central and Eastern

Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States with mental impairment.

 

Meanwhile, in Minsk today, the Associate Administrator for the UN Development

Programme (UNDP), Ad Melkert, conveyed a message of remembrance of the human

casualties and vast damage caused by Chernobyl twenty years ago, but also said

there is cause for hope in the region for the future.

 

“We are confident that Chernobyl has entered the right development path,” he

told an international conference marking the 20 year anniversary of the

accident. “It is already delivering practical solutions that, applied

consistently, hold the prospect of restoring to millions the ‘normal life’ that

Chernobyl so brutally curtailed 20 years ago.”

2006-04-19 00:00:00.000

 

 

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