Health Minister Recep Akdag's denial that rising cancer rates in the Black Sea region are related to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster continues to draw fire from professional groups and unions.
Speaking at a press conference over the weekend, representatives of the Ankara Physicians' Chamber (ATO), the Ankara branch of the Electricity Engineers' Chamber (EMO) and Health and Social Services Public Employees Union (SES) said that Akdag is the modern-day version of Cahit Aral, who as industry minister in 1986 famously drank Black Sea tea in an attempt to prove it wasn't affected by the nuclear accident. EMO Ankara branch head Ramazan Pektas said that the government is sacrificing public health to its political interests and trying to sow terror among the public by warning of energy shortages and Turkey therefore needing nuclear power plants. Underlining that studies in the Black Sea show that there are cases of cancer in almost every family, Pektas accused Akdag of supporting nuclear plants and ignoring public health. Pektas asked who the people who carried out the scientific studies which were cited by Akdag serve the interests of energy holdings, not the public. He also said that the government is trying to spread panic among the public through frequent power outages and by saying that Turkey is facing real energy shortages in an attempt to serve the interests of the nuclear energy lobbies. "Nuclear plants aren't a necessity but a political decision," charged Pektas, calling on the government to draw up an energy plan that prioritizes not nuclear plants but environmentally friendly energy sources. Pektas argued that there have been around 40 major accidents worldwide in the energy sector since the 1950s, adding that most of them were in developed countries like the U.S., Japan and the UK. Citing a Turkish Physicians' Union study, Pektas called on the Health Ministry to implement a large health study in the Black Sea region. Pektas also said there's an urgent need for a database of cancer patients as well as a health inspection study of residential areas determined by the Turkish Atomic Energy Institution to be at risk from radioactivity.
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