In the November issue of Psychological Medicine a study is presented examining the psychological aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl accident . This study describes the long-term psychological effects of Chernobyl in 295 male clean-up workers sent to Chernobyl between 1986 and 1990. The workers were interviewed 18 years after the accident (71% participation rate) along with 397 geographically matched controls interviewed as part of the Ukraine World Mental Health (WMS) Survey 16 years after the accident. The authors examined group differences in common psychiatric disorders, suicide ideation and severe headaches, differential effects of disorder on days lost from work, and in the clean-up workers, the relationship of exposure severity to disorder and current trauma and somatic symptoms. The results indicated that relatively more clean-up workers than controls experienced depression (18.0% v. 13.1%) and suicide ideation (9.2% v. 4.1%) after the accident. In the twelve months before the interview, the rates of depression (14.9% v. 7.1%), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (4.1% v. 1.0%) and headaches (69.2% v. 12.4%) were elevated. Affected workers lost more work days than affected controls with exposure level was associated with current somatic and PTSD symptom severity. The authors concluded that workers tasked with cleaning up after major disasters can face long-term mental health consequences that need to be recognized and treated accordingly.
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This emotional YouTube video attempts to capture the experience of Chernobyl cleanup workers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8oVzYCBqNA
Here is another video from the Chernobyl Documentary Project that I posted on my blog: http://chernobyl.typepad.com/chernobyl_childrens_proje/2007/10/the-ultimate-di.html
The video shows the process for people working at the Chernobyl sarcophagus today -- a truly "dirty job."
I'm glad to have run into this interesting blog!
Posted by: Kathy Ryan | January 04, 2008 at 09:44 AM
Thank you for your comment. I have been looking over your excellent blog at http://chernobyl.typepad.com and I highly recommend it.
Posted by: Romeo Vitelli | January 04, 2008 at 01:54 PM