ISARISARThe June exchange program focused on one of the main topic areas identified by Russian and US community activists during workshops in the US -- the disproportionately high rates of a range of health problems among those who live near nuclear production facilities throughout the US and Russia. The program featured trainings in the cities of Chelyabinsk, Argayash (Chelyabinsk Oblast) and Novosibirsk. Each of these communities has borne serious environmental and health problems as a result of nuclear pollution emitted both on an ongoing basis and as a result of the 1957 catastrophe at the Mayak nuclear production facility, which some estimate as a larger-scale accident than Chernobyl. Argayash is located approximately 20 kilometers from the Mayak facility.
The training program, led by Linda Price King, president of the Environmental Health Network, offered exchange participants a methodology to systematically document pathways of pollution and health problems in communities. Ms. King's workshops, which she has conducted in towns across the US and in several foreign countries, demonstrated how it is not necessary for activists to have specific medical or scientific training to carry out these studies. By first working with fictional maps and then by helping participants apply this knowledge to maps of their own communities, Ms. King was able to demonstrate the utility of creating visual images to illustrate disease cluster patterns.
Training participants included a diversity of NGO activists -- from those who are internationally recognized, to fledgling NGOs, to members of initiative groups who became interested in the trainings as a result of being personally touched by health problems. One woman described how all of her siblings and her parents had died prematurely from different types of cancers and how her children are suffering from a range of maladies. Also participating in the trainings were a variety of community leaders. For example, the trainings in Argayash (population 10,000) included the head doctors of each of the major medical facilities in the area, the principals of several high schools, teachers and the mayor of Argayash and two surrounding villages. Other trainings included students, scientists, doctors and journalists.
The 10 Russian activists who had participated in the November 2000 exchange traveled from across Russia to take part in one of the three city's training programs. The past Russian participants facilitated small group discussions, presented maps of their communities, and offered descriptions of their NGOs' activities.
During the trainings, three American nuclear safety activists, who live near nuclear facilities in the US and participated in the last phase of the exchange programs, likewise facilitated small group discussions and presented maps of their communities. The US activists -- who live near the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky (Corinne Whitehead), the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico (Corrine Sanchez), and the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York State (Alice Roos) -- were able to present a variety of perspectives about their struggles against nuclear pollution in their hometowns. There was tremendous diversity among the US activists in terms of age (ranging from 79 to 29 years old), ethnicity (two participants were Native American), education (from PhDs to those with a high school diplomas). But they were united in that all of them have personally witnessed the poisonous effects nuclear pollution can have on friends, families and neighbors.
Following each day's training sessions, the US participants were hosted individually (along with an interpreter) in the home of a local community activist. This offered an invaluable opportunity for community activists to share stories and strategies with one another in a setting outside of the trainings.
The US participants were accompanied by two representatives from ISAR-DC, Alice Hengesbach and Alex Klaits, and one representative from ISAR-Moscow, Andrei Pechnikov.
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