Milk tainted by fallout 30 years after Chernobyl

HIGH levels of radioactivity are still being found in cow’s milk 100 miles from Chernobyl, more than 30 years after one of the world’s most serious nuclear disasters, scientists have found.

Milk in parts of Ukraine has radioactivity up to five times over its official safe limit for adults and 12 times for children.

Scientists sampled cows’ milk from private farms and homes in the Rivne region, about 125 miles from the site of the Chernobyl explosion in 1986.

They found levels of caesium in milk above Ukraine’s safe limit for adults of 100 becquerel per litre (Bq/l) at six of 14 settlements studied, and above the children’s limit of 40 Bq/l at eight sites.

The highest levels were about 500 Bq/l – five times over the limit for adults and more than 12 times that for children.

The study was carried out at Exeter University and the Ukrainian Institute of Agricultural Radiology. Dr Iryna Labunska, from Exeter, spoke of a health risk to almost every part of the body.