CCRF and World Information Transfer host conference on 15th anniversary of Chornobyl (04/08/01)

CCRF and World Information Transfer host conference on 15th anniversary of Chornobyl

NEW YORK - The Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund and the World Information Transfer will host a three-day conference on the state of world health and the global environment on Wednesday-Friday, April 25-27 in the ECOSOC Chamber of the United Nations.

Co-sponsored by the governments of Ukraine and Greece, this will be the 10th annual International Conference on Health and the Environment sponsored by the World Information Transfer. Among the invited keynote speakers are U.N. Secretary Gen. Kofi Annan, U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), and popular actor and humanitarian activist Henry Winkler.

The opening session of the conference will focus on the challenges and benefits of globalization in combating public health crises around the globe. The Thursday, April 26, session will commemorate the 15th anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster. Titled "Chornobyl Commemoration: Economics of a Catastrophe," the program will feature presentations by Ambassador Valeriy Kuchinsky of Ukraine, Ambassador Marjatta Rasi of Finland, Artur Korneev, the deputy director of the Chornobyl Shelter Project, and Prof. Serhiy Komisarenko, director of the Palladin Institute of Biochemistry in Kyiv.

Other prominent experts will include Hillary French, senior scientist with the World Watch Institute, Adi Roche, the renowned executive director of the Chornobyl Children's Project in Ireland.

Presiding over the afternoon panel discussion will be Dr. Zenon Matkiwsky, the founder and president of the U.S.-based Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund, an award-winning charity that has delivered over $46 million worth of medical and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. The final speaker at the afternoon session will be Melanne Verveer, the former chief of staff to First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"This will be an important retrospective examining the overall impact of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster," said Alexander B. Kuzma, executive director of CCRF. "It's important that we look at the health consequences that are well-established, such as the explosion in thyroid cancer among children, as well as other health effects that require more in-depth review."

New evidence is emerging that Chornobyl is having a major genetic impact on the population of Ukraine and Belarus, resulting in a sharp increase in birth defects. An unusually high rate of prenatal complications, infertility and infant mortality are contributing to an alarming population decline that is the most dramatic in all of Europe. The latest demographic studies conducted by the United Nations and reported in March estimate that at current rates, by the year 2020 the population of Ukraine could be reduced by nearly 40 percent.

"The U.N. and the ministries of health of Ukraine and Belarus have cited Chornobyl as a major factor in this demographic free-fall, although we recognize that many other factors are exacerbating this decline, including a rapidly growing incidence of AIDS, staggering poverty and high rates of infectious disease," Mr. Kuzma explained.

Conference organizers hope that the panels of international experts will help shed new light on the Chornobyl aftermath, and place it in a global and historical context. The Thursday session will include a luncheon and press conference that will be open to the public.

The final day of the international conference will address the need for new educational programs to inform and empower youth around the world to play a more active role in the defense of the global environment. Among the most prominent speakers featured will be Alexandra Cousteau, president of the Cousteau Foundation and daughter of the legendary marine scientist and conservationist.

Although the conference is free, participants must register in advance. To register for the conference or for the luncheon, readers should contact the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund at (973) 376-5140 or (203) 387-0507.

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