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Comment by salimmadjd | Hacker News Reader

A side note - I work with developers in Belarus which borders Ukraine and the Chernobyl to the north.

In that process I’ve met many young people who grew up in neighboring villages and small towns who call themselves Chernobyl-baby. Nothing severe, but they all have various minor health issues, apparently.

There was even a humanitarian program that provided summer getaways to some European countries for kids growing up in that region.

I (we) always hear about the Chernobyl disaster, but to see people born 10 years or so later and in a country that many have never heard of gave it a human face to me.

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I am from Gomel. I was there when that happened.

About 70% of the fallout landed were we were (the winds were blowing north that time, so Ukraine's side was bit more spared).

Most of the time, I do not want to talk about it, though.

Feels like we were cheated out of normal life. Feels like we were animals to do experiments on.

I hate that time. Even now, place does not feel right.

I do not think health statistics coming out from here, are right either...

I also do not like videogames about Chernobyl for some reason. But I understand why the story line is attractive. So I am ok with that at a 'logical' level.

Once I become 'a person of means', I want to help people to get out of there, or, at least, live with proper controls of what we eat, drink, breath, etc.

Here's a fairly unique version of the story from two parents in Gomel with young children at the time of the accident [1]. Quite a story. The dad was a professor and had a Geiger counter and took readings. The mom's story is more emotional. The kid grew up to be a nuclear engineer.

[1] https://whatisnuclear.com/chernobyl-memories.html

Highly recommend the book "Voices From Chernobyl" by Svetlana Alexievich (she won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature partially for this work), it is an illuminating account of the Belarusian struggle and subsequent cover-up of the aftermath of the Chernobyl accident.

> There was even a humanitarian program that provided summer getaways to some European countries for kids growing up in that region.

Yep, when I was young, various families of kids in my school would host children that were affected by the Chernobyl disaster.

I remember my parents telling me that when the explosion happened, the schools forced all kids to either A). swallow an iodine capsule (if under 8 years old) or B). To drink a tablespoon of iodine.

This was in Poland so close enough to be affected by the fallout.

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