Consequences of the catastrophe of Tchernobyl in France

The Conséquences of the catastrophe of Tchernobyl in France constitute a whole of physical effects, effects medical and public controversies consecutive with the Catastrophe of Tchernobyl.

Reaction of the French authorities

The radioactive cloud reaches the France the April 29th 1986, detected by the systems of the Nuclear plant of Cattenom, close to the Luxembourg border . The French government estimates whereas no particular measure of Sécurité is necessary.

The Central service of Protection against the Ionizing rays (SCPRI), placed under the direction of Professor Pierre Pellerin and under the supervision of the Ministère of Health, announces the April 29th 1986 by a first official statement that “no significant rise in the Radioactivité was noted”. The May 2nd 1986, Professor Pellerin diffuses an official statement according to which “the preventive catches of Iode neither are justified, nor convenient” and “it would be necessary to imagine rises ten thousand or a hundred and thousand more important times so that start to pose significant problems of public health”.

The May 6th, a Press release of the Ministère of Agriculture announces that “the French territory, because of its distance, was completely saved by the consecutive repercussions of Radionucléide S with the accident of Tchernobyl” and that “at any time the rises observed of Radioactivité did not pose the least problem of public health. ”

Discusses French on the “radioactive cloud”

The April 30th, the presenter Brigitte Simonetta announces in a weather report of Antenne 2 that France is protected from the “cloud” by the Anticyclone of the the Azores. However it proves that the Anticyclone moved for this period.

A polemic follows, often summarized by “the cloud stopped at the border”. Libération affirms that “the public authorities lied in France” and that “professor Pellerin made the consent”.

Thereafter, professor Pellerin carries felt sorry for slandering against various media or personalities which, to simplify, affirmed that Pr Pilgrim had declared that " the cloud of Tchernobyl stopped at the French border ". Not having never pronounced this sentence, Pr Pilgrim gained all the lawsuits in first authority, call and cassation. However, in a stop of November 7th, 2006, the European Cour of the human rights said that by condemning Mamère by French justice for public slandering towards a civil servant, France violated article 10 (right to freedom of expression) of the European Convention of the Human rights.

Pr Pilgrim is again heard on this business like assisted witness the May 31st 2006.

In the instruction of a lodged complaint in France in 2001 by people having contracted a cancer of thyroid, a report/ratio required by the examining magistrate emits severe conclusions for SCPRI (directed at the time by professor Pellerin); according to this report/ratio, the SCPRI provided inaccurate charts “in several fields” and “did not restore all information which was at its disposal with the authorities décisionnaires or with the public”.

The February 24th 2002, CRIIRAD publishes an atlas which, according to it, would reveal in a detailed way the contamination of the French territory by the cloud of Tchernobyl. By interpolation of the measurements raised between 1988 and 1992, the towns of Melon, Ghisonaccia-station, Clairvaux-The-Lakes or Strasbourg are presented there like having had in May 1986 of the surface activities of Césium 137 exceeding 30 000 becquerels /m ² (more than 200 times higher than the standards, and three times the normal radioactive activity of an human body). In 1992, the measures to certain cities highlighted a rate higher than 3 000 Bq/m ². According to the French authorities, the cesium 137 rate forever exceeded 5 400 Bq/m ².

The April 24th 2003, IRSN publishes a new chart of the contamination of France by the cloud of Tchernobyl, where the values go up up to 40.000 becquerels /m ². Professor André Aurengo, chief of the service of nuclear medicine of the Pity-Salpêtrière, declares dismayed that such results, méthodologiquement such contestable and most probably false, could be diffused without any scientific validation (Le Monde, June 17th 2003).

In 2000, the National Sanitary Surveillance Institute estimated that Tchernobyl was responsible for 7 to 55 Cancer S of the Thyroïde on the east of France.

Epidemiology of cancers

The number of Cancer S of the Thyroïde increased in France regularly approximately 7% on average since 1977, without particular inflection in 1986. This increase was measured in the other countries of Europe, which recommended precautions following the Catastrophe of Tchernobyl, and in North America, which was not subjected to the repercussions of the radioactive cloud.

In the zone of Tchernobyl itself, it was noted an increase in the number of Cancer S of the Thyroïde, for adults, in the same proportions, that is to say a quadrupling in 19 years. In the French areas of the Apple-brandy, one attends the same quadrupling of this number of cancers; in area Champagne-Ardenne, there was only one doubling of this number revealed by an equivalent study, whereas this area received more repercussions than in the West of France.

Cancers of thyroid are very mainly female and the evolution of their number follows the evolution of the number of Cancer S of the Sein. A priori two phenomena concomitant is to be taken into account:

increase in the number of cancers detected by the increase in the sensitivity of the apparatuses to Ultrasound S: the threshold of detection of the nodules passed from a diameter of 10 mm to 2 Misters
Évolution in the female behaviors of catch of Hormone S of pre substitutions to post- Ménopause.

The radioactive Iode is very usually used like darkening agent in controls angiologic S intended to evaluate the Infarctus Myocarde (before and after the infarction). The service of nuclear medicine of a hospital consumes approximately a Curie of iodine 131 per day. It noted forever of increase in the rate of cancers of thyroid on the people subjected to this type of examination. These examinations are not practiced on the children of less than fifteen years, which would be more likely to develop this type of cancer.

It was raised approximately 2 000 cases of cancers of thyroid on children of less than 15 years in the area of Tchernobyl following the explosion of the Nuclear plant of Tchernobyl. The rate of cure was higher than 98% according to UNSCEAR.

Food

The recommendations of WHO on milk recommend an annual activity lower than 100 000 becquerels of radioactive iodine, is an average activity lower than 600 becquerels per liter of milk.

The May 7th 1986, a mail of the the World Health Organization indicates that “restrictions as for immediate consumption milk can thus remain justified”. A note of the May 16th emanating from the ministry for the Interior, at the time directed by Charles Pasqua declares “We have figures which cannot be diffused. (…) Agreement between SCPRI and IPSN not to leave figures”.

The May 16th, a crisis meeting is held with the ministry for the Interior: Corsica ewe's milk in presents a contamination by iodine 131 abnormally raised, of an activity of more than 10.000 becquerels per liter; the statements of the SCPRI of 1986 raise 6 000 becquerels per liter of milk in certain places of the territory, in particular in Corsica and in the East of France. Insofar as the catastrophe which generated pollution with radioactive iodine were a specific event, and which iodine 131 has a short half-life (the activity at the end of two months is not easily detectable), it was judged that the assessment of the radioactive activity over one year would not be affected appreciably, and the authorities did not take of measurement particular.

Criticisms of the position of the authorities

As of the time of the Catastrophe of Tchernobyl, ecologists and scientists denounced contrast between the declarations of the French authorities and the emergency measures taken in the other adjoining countries - in Germany for example, where the consumption of the fresh produce was prohibited.

The book radioactive Contaminations: atlas France and Europe (Editions Yves Michel - 2002), published by CRIIRAD, claim to highlight the “deficiencies and the lies of the French Official Authorities”.

According to an article of Fabrice Nodé-Langlois in Le Figaro of the May 13rd 2005, quoting a report of Special correspondent , it “well would today be established that the SCPRI lied by omission, and did not make public all measurements of radioactivity it had”.

In March 2005, two “independent experts”, Paul Genty and Gilbert Mouthon, submitted a report to the examining magistrate Marie-Odile Bertella-Geffroy. This report/ratio falls under the started legal instruction in March 2001 by the lodge of a complaint against X for “defect of protection of the populations against the radioactive fallout of the accident” by the French Association of the patients of thyroid the and the CRIIRAD.

On the basis of documents seized at the time of searchings in ministries and organizations implied in the prevention of the nuclear risk, they noted that measurements of Radioactivité carried out at the time by the French authorities, EDF, the Cogema or the gendarmerie were much higher than those Communiquée S with the press and the Public opinion.

On the basis of Genty-Mouthon report/ratio, the CRIIRAD currently requires the setting in examination of the pr. Pierre Pellerin for “setting in danger deliberated and of diffusion on false reports likely to mislead the fellow-citizens on the consequences of the Catastrophe of Tchernobyl”, and the hearing of Pierre Galle, Raymond Paulin and Jean Coursaget on “the erroneous elements” contained in their Mise at the historical point on Tchernobyl (article published by the Academy of Science). This article concluded that “in France, the repercussions were much lower than those which could have justified countermeasures (medical) preventive”. The perpetual secretary of the Academy pointed out that this article does not express the official position of the Academy but is only one element of the debate.

Effect of low dose of radiations

The amounts received following the passage of the “cloud” of Tchernobyl on France could be evaluated by certain sources with an average of approximately 0,01 mSv (milli- Sievert), “ correspondent with a stay of a few weeks in mountain ”.

The medical consequences of these low dose are discussed, and two principal assumptions are opposed:

According to one of them, low dose of radiations would not have fatal consequences as regards cancer, and the risk could even decrease in certain cases (phenomenon called hormesis ); it is this thesis which Pr Aurengo defends. If this first assumption is retained, the catastrophe of Tchernobyl would not have caused increase in the number of cancers in France.
According to the other thesis, the cancer risk varies linearly with the amount, without there existing of threshold of disappearance of the risk; it is the latter which take again in particular a report/ratio of the French Academy of Science of 1995, and a more recent report/ratio of the Academy of Science of the United States of June 2005. If this second assumption is retained, the catastrophe of Tchernobyl would involve an addition of cancer death in France.

Legal actions of the patients of the thyroid one

Since March 2001, 400 continuations were committed in France against “X” by the Association of the patients of thyroid the, including 200 in April 2006. These people are affected by cancers of thyroid the or Goiter S, and showed the French government, at that time directed by the Prime Minister Jacques Chirac, not to have correctly informed the population of the risks related to the radioactive fallout of the Catastrophe of Tchernobyl. The charge connects the protection measures of the public health in the adjoining countries (warning against the milk or green vegetable consumption by the children and the expectant mothers) with the relatively important contamination undergone by the east of France and Corsica. Several European studies (whose study of 2006 of IRSN) studied a possible correlation between the catastrophe of Tchernobyl and the increase in the number of cancers of thyroid in Europe without being able to draw up a cause and effect link. The increase in cancers is a continuous phenomenon, former to the catastrophe and which is also observed in the not contaminated zones. New complaints nevertheless are deposited by patients and it remains with justice to come to a conclusion about this phenomenon.

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