Chernobyl Health Article

Name: Una and Haley L.
Read the article, Chernobyl’s effects linger on (http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_743000/743879.stm) and answer these questions.

1. When was this article published?

This article was published on May 10, 2000.

2. Why will restrictions on some food continue in the United Kingdom and former Soviet Union for another 50 years?

Restrictions on some food will remain for another 50 years because the environment is not cleaning itself nearly as fast as was predicted.

3. Where have high levels of radioactive cesium been measured?

Abnormally high levels of caesium were measured in Norway and Cumbria.


4. What happened to the levels of radioactive cesium during the first five years after the Chernobyl accident?

Its half-life rose between 1 and 4 years after the Chernobyl explosion.

5. Describe why levels of radioactive cesium are not decreasing anymore.

Levels of radioactive ceasium are not decreasing because of diffusion.

6. Why is diffusion of radioactive cesium back into the environment occurring? Explain the physical principle behind this diffusion.


When the balance between the radiation in the soil and water and the radiation absorbed in the soil changes, the gradient levels itself out and the difference between take-up and release alters.


7. How long will the United Kingdom have to continue restrictions on sheep from the Cumbria region as a food item for humans?

The sheep from the Cumbria region will need to continue to be restricted for another 10-15 years which is 100 times longer than predicted.

8. How long will forest berries, fungi, and fish from parts of the former Soviet Union remain restricted?

Forest berries, fungi, and fish from the former Soviet Union will remain restricted for another half century.

All rights reserved. Science NetLinks Student Sheets may be reproduced for educational purposes.Chernobyl’s Effects – E-Sheet Questions

Lesson Title: The Chernobyl Disaster Page 2 of 2
Name:__________________________
Now read Chernobyl Children Show DNA Changes http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1319000/1319386.st and answer these questions.

1. Who are the children that this article is about? To whom were they born?

The children in this article were born into the liquidator's families.

2. What are “liquidators”?

Liquidators are the people who cleaned up Chernobyl and were exposed to the most radiation.

3. Why are scientists studying the children?

The children had the highest doses of any children.

4. What are the controls in this study?

The siblings of the children tested were the controls in this study.

5. Describe what scientists discovered about the children’s DNA.

Scientist discovered that the children’s DNA was contaminated from their exposure to radiation and not their parents.

6. Describe the factors that may be linked to the number of DNA changes observed in children.

The factors linked may be the time between exposure and conception and the amount of contamination from the liquidator.

Read Nuclear Energy Agency: Health Impact http://www.nea.fr/html/rp/chernobyl/c05.html and answer these questions.

1. Describe what happens to DNA, cells, and organs after low and high doses of radiation.

High Doses- Cell death cannot be accommodated and may lead to organ failure.
Low Doses- Cell death can be accommodated by the mechanisms that regenerate cells.

2. Describe the acute health effects of the Chernobyl disaster.

499 people were admitted for observation and 237 of those were diagnosed with acute radiation syndrome.

3. Describe the chronic or late health effects of the Chernobyl disaster.

The chronic or late health defects of the Chernobyl disaster were known as "stochastic effects" which were cancer induction and hereditary defects and their frequency was dose dependent.

Conservation for the People notes

• In 2004 the World Conservation Union placed three vultures—the long-billed, the slender-billed and the Oriental white-backed — on the critically endangered list.
• For a long time, observers did not know what was causing the vultures’ decline. Some speculated the culprit was habitat loss or pollution. Several years ago researchers discovered that the birds were being killed by an anti-inflammatory drug, diclofenac, commonly administered to cows.
• The cows would take the medicine and then the vultures would eat their dead carcases, because the cows had that anti-inflammatory drug in the system and the vultures ate it then they would become sick, with more dead cows every where wild dogs, and domesticated dogs started to eat the cows, the population of the dogs flourished so much and then more dog spread disease would become common and more people would die from that. DOMINO EFFECT.
• Preserving biodiversity is very important especially in hot spots.
• If we protect the hot spots then we can ensure that people are a priority.
• biodiversity hot spots- small areas that harbor a great variety of endemic, or native and geographically restricted, plant species.
• Only around 30% of people have heard of biodiversity
• harbor life raft ecosystems that are conservation priorities for the people and scientists. Such ecosystems are ones whose conservation and restoration would dramatically improve people’s lives. These countries include India, Laos, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Burundi, Haiti, Guatemala, Liberia, and The Gambia.
• Human health is also threatened when ecosystems and natural cycles break down.
• Almost two million people die every year because of inadequate or unclean water supplies. Conserving wetlands and forests would reduce these deaths
• One quarter of a million people join the planet every day. More forests and wetlands will be cleared for agriculture, and more ocean species will be fished to depletion.
• conservationists should collaborate more closely with development experts.
• In California, the nonnative European honeybee is the most important pollinator from an economic perspective. If the European honeybee population were to become dramatically reduced (and it has recently been threatened by introduced mites), some of the less abundant native bees might increase and fill the vital economic role of crop pollinators.
• The World Bank is also encouraging nations to embrace green accounting methods in which economic assets and national productivity assessments include measures that credit environmental and ecosystem services and subtract degradation that results from pollution or destructive extraction.