Today is ‘Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day’: 38 years ago the most serious atomic accident in history. An explosion at the Ukrainian nuclear power plant spread the radioactive cloud which caused around 4 thousand victims according to UN estimates, many more according to other sources and 350 thousand people displaced from the surrounding region. A large part of the affected population remained in the contaminated areas, also due to the difficult economic conditions, with disastrous consequences for health and for the environment, ecosystems, flora and fauna.
The amount of radiation released according to Legambiente: “was at least 100 times more than that of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki”. “The nuclear fall-out affected Ukraine, Russia and 70% of it affected Belarus, the most affected country”. “In addition to the lowering of the immune defenses and the increase in numerous pathologies linked to a diet heavily contaminated by radionuclides, a very strong increase in cases of thyroid cancer has been recorded which has especially affected the little ones due to the radioactive iodine leaked from central in the first phase of the disaster. Added to this are a series of serious psychological pathologies linked to the so-called “Chernobyl syndrome”. Many, explains Legambiente, have presented symptoms connected to the awareness of living in a highly contaminated area with no future for themselves and their family.
For this reason, the ‘International Day of Remembrance of the Chernobyl Disaster’ is celebrated every year on 26 April in commemoration of the 1988 disaster.6, following the decision taken on 8 December 2016 by the United Nations General Assembly. Today Chernobyl is inhabited, around 500 people live there and the average age is very high. It lives only in certain areas and access to highly contaminated areas is prohibited. Before the war many of the inhabitants of the area acted as guides for tourists visiting the area.
