25 years ago this week I and thousands of others got caught out in the Chernobyl rain that fell on Lancaster and much of Northern Europe and came home with our hair and clothes full of gungy nuclear disaster fallout to a contaminated water supply.
Of the 9,800 UK holdings and more than 4,000,000 sheep originally placed under restriction following the accident, due to radioactive contamination, the Food Standards Agency notes there are still 330 farms in North Wales, and eight in Cumbria remaining under restriction today.
In the Ukraine and across Europe the consequences have been unprecedented, leading not only to increases in cancer and birth-defects (details in PDF form on chernobyl.info here) , but also to a reduction in the number of male births that still prevails (info here on Science Direct).
Lancaster and District CND will be holding the following commemorative events on Tuesday 26 April to mark the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, and also those affected by the continuing disaster at Fukushima in Japan.
- 2-5pm Commemoration in Market Square, Lancaster
- 7.30pm Candlelit vigil with reading and music. Friends Meeting House
- See photos of the ghost city of Pripyat – Chernobyl’s neighbouring city that remains abandoned (pictured above)
- www.lancaster-district-cnd.org/
- www.heysham-anti-nuclear-alliance.org/
- Click here for info on the Chernobyl Children’s Project in the UK