Today, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (NY-08) reasserted his resolve to combat the mounting rates of thyroid cancer among New York’s immigrants from the former Soviet Union (FSU). At the annual “Living with Radiation After Chernobyl” Health Conference at the United Nations, Rep. Nadler joined doctors, scientists, elected officials and others committed to studying and stemming this health crisis. He announced $428,000 in federal funding that he secured for Project Chernobyl, a program led by Dr. Daniel Igor Branovan at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, which will screen and treat those at risk of developing Chernobyl-related thyroid cancer.


“It is essential that we act now to address this mounting public health crisis affecting immigrants from the former Soviet Union,” said Rep. Nadler. “Project Chernobyl will prevent thousands of cancer cases from developing undetected and untreated. This program will save thousands of lives and, of course, it will ultimately save millions of dollars in medical expenses.”

According to the research of Dr. Branovan and his colleagues, up to 200,000 people may be affected in the New York region. 50,000 to 70,000 of those are considered medium to high risk. Hundreds of thousands (perhaps millions) more in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia are sick or at-risk. Thyroid cancer, which is the most common health impact of the Chernobyl disaster, particularly affects children, who absorbed high levels of radioactive iodine through milk and agricultural products. Project Chernobyl is now systematically screening, monitoring and treating at-risk individuals in the New York area.

The following are Rep. Nadler’s remarks from today’s conference as written:

“Thank you to Dr. Branovan and to all of you for having me here with you today. We are all gathered together once again because we share a concern about the ongoing and alarming health crisis that originated in the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986.

“As we all know, this is a health crisis that now affects hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, Russians, Belarusians, and indeed Americans with origins in those nations. There are likely thousands of my own constituents in Brooklyn who have likely developed – or will develop in the future – thyroid cancer as a result of post-Chernobyl exposure.

“Thanks to Dr. Branovan and other researchers present in this room, along with your colleagues elsewhere, we now have a clear picture of how post-Chernobyl radiation has directly caused a huge upsurge in malignant cancers among those exposed, particularly thyroid cancer, and particularly targeting young people. Dr. Branovan and his colleagues at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary and the World Information Transfer have now begun the essential process of screening, monitoring and treating those in the New York-area who are at risk of Chernobyl-borne thyroid cancer. Project Chernobyl will prevent thousands of cancer cases from developing undetected and untreated. This program will save thousands of lives and, of course, it will ultimately save millions of dollars in medical expenses.

“Today, I am extremely pleased to announce that this year in Congress, I was able to secure $428,000 in federal funding for Project Chernobyl. Along with funds that Assembly members Alec Brook-Krasny and Helene Weinstein have gotten from the State, this money will help ensure that Project Chernobyl will be fully realized and successful.”