Because of
the secrecy surrounding Mayak, the populations of affected areas were
not initially informed of the accident. A week later (on 6 October) an
operation for evacuating 10,000 people from the affected area started, still without
giving an explanation of the reasons for evacuation. People "grew hysterical
with fear with the incidence of unknown 'mysterious' diseases breaking
out. Victims were seen with skin 'sloughing off' their faces, hands and other
exposed parts of their bodies."[7]Although vague reports of a "catastrophic
accident" began appearing in the Western press in April 1958, it was
only in 1976 that Zhores Medvedev made the nature and extent of the disaster
known to the world.[8][9]Even though the Soviet government suppressed
information about the figures, it is estimated that the direct exposure
to radiation caused at least 200 cases of death from cancer.[10] "In 1992, a
study conducted by the Institute of Biophysics at the former Soviet Health
Ministry in Chelyabinsk found that 8,015 people had died within the preceding
32 years as a result of the accident."[1]To reduce the spread of radioactive
contamination after the accident, contaminated soil was excavated
and stockpiled in fenced enclosures that were called "graveyards of the
earth".[11]
Aftermath