Both Ukraine and Belarus have experienced negative population growth in recent years. By 1995, according to the Belarus information agency, the lung cancer rate among Chernobyl evacuees in Minsk, capital of Belarus, was four times the average of the rest of the capital's population. The deputy chief of a children's hospital in Minsk told me recently that there has been a dramatic increase in congenital diabetes. There is no known or previously suggested link between childhood diabetes and radiation or the consumption of irradiated products. Yet the largest number of cases come from the most heavily contaminated region.
Birth defects appear to have risen significantly, following the contamination patterns.
But a study begun in 1991, like many others, has been plagued by a shortage of funds. The liquidators, whose ailments might be most clearly linked to radiation exposure, have suffered from such things as skin diseases, heart attacks, loss of libido, and hearing impairments. Of course, the general rise in disease is inevitably linked with Chernobyl. Several studies of heavily exposed workers have found that most suffer from impaired immune response. Surprisingly, leukemia rates have not increased so far.