One decade after Chernobyl: Summing up the consequences

During the week 8-12 April 1996, an international conference summing up the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster after one decade took place in Vienna. Organizers were the European Commission (EC), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) (EC/IAEA/WHO 1996). One of the authors, A. Kaul, presented the outcome of the conference as given below to the IPRA 9 congress which was held in Vienna the following week. Two caveats have to be mentioned here: firstly, only facts actually reported and reviewed at the conference can be accounted for, and, secondly, according to the groundrules of the conference, the deadline for the background papers of the conference was the 9 February 1996, meaning that facts materializing after that time are not covered in this paper. The same applied to information given at the conference that was not properly reviewed and published. Reports, for example, given at the conference on an observed increase of thyroid cancers and leukemia among liquidators and of diabetes mellitus among children are not yet substantiated and are, therefore, not yet recognized as consequences. If corroborated, and it is obvious that all higher exposed groups should be closely monitored in the future, an update on the consequences will have to take this into account. 2 refs., 1 fig., 4 tabs