Earlier this week, Greenpeace and 52 scientists issued a study stating that the long-term cancer effects of the Chernobyl disaster have been grossly underestimated by the International Atomic Energy Agency Chernobyl Forum, and released an independent report highlighting the grim realities. In another study, called The Other Report on Chernobyl, known as the TORCH study, two British scientists report that 20 years after the nuclear explosion, in what is referred to as the world's worst industrial accident, leukemia, breast cancers, bladder cancers, and kidney cancers in people exposed to the radiation fallout continue to be diagnosed in countries as far away as the UK.

Torch claims that more than half of the fallout from the explosion landed outside Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, contaminating about 34 per cent of the UK's surface. It reveals that there are still restrictions on 374 farms covering 750 square kilometers and 200,000 sheep in the UK. The Other Report on Chernobyl, TORCH, is a 91 page study available online as a PDF document. Its comprehensive information, including an explanation of why the figures have been downplayed, makes for a compelling read. We live on a very small planet, and what affects one area of our planet will eventually have an affect on other parts of the planet. The winds and weather patterns carried the Chernobyl power plant disaster worldwide.

"There are two compelling reasons why this tragedy must not be forgotten. First, if we forget Chernobyl, we increase the risk of more technological and environmental disasters in the future. Second, more than seven million of our fellow human beings do not have the luxury of forgetting. They are still suffering every day." -- Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General 2000