Open World Delegation Visits Madison, WI Community

(Library of Congress Open World Leadership Center)

MADISON, WI — “Radiation and Health” was the subject of a June 25 roundtable organized by Madison, WI host Norma Berkowitz for an Open World delegation of five Ukrainian local and NGO officials from cities especially hard-hit by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Three U.S. radiation experts affiliated with the University of Wisconsin participated as panelists in the free-flowing discussion: radiation biologist Kelly Clifton, geneticist Michael Patrick, and soil scientist Phillip Barak. The session gave the delegates the opportunity to get authoritative answers to their questions about radiation in children, children’s thyroid issues, cancer, and the impact of radiation levels in the soil on vegetables.  When the delegates were asked in turn by the panelists about the day-to-day effect of the Chernobyl disaster on themselves, one of the delegates, a psychologist at a community center for Chernobyl-affected populations, said “I have to live with this reality — when I eat foods from my garden I am calculating radiation levels instead of calories.” Other sessions held for the delegates included “Public Health and Long Range Planning” and “Working With Children in a Hospital Setting.”

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