13 Soviets Dead; Doctor Sees 100,000 at Risk

A UCLA doctor who treated victims of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster said today radiation released by the accident will increase the risk of cancer for about 100,000 people and revealed that four more victims of radiation poisoning have died, raising the death toll to 13.

Dr. Robert Gale, in an interview with Cable News Network, said that “the acute medical emergency is over” but that many of the 35 people who received the highest doses of radiation from the accident had a slim chance of recovery.

“I am happy to say that 24 of those 35 are still alive,” Gale said. “We may have some additional casualties but I think we will be able to rescue at least half of those individuals.”

Two Killed in Explosion

Two people were reported killed in the explosion and fire April 26 at the nuclear power plant in the Ukraine, 80 miles north of Kiev. Gale said Thursday that seven people who were exposed to heavy doses of radiation died while undergoing treatment in Moscow. (Story, Page 4.) Today, he said 11 of those patients died, which would make the accident’s death toll 13.

Gale, in an interview with the “CBS Morning News,” said, “I think there will be, and we have agreed with the Soviets, the need of carefully following a very large number of patients, perhaps upwards of 100,000 individuals, probably forever, for the rest of their lifetime.”

“Very few of them will be immediately affected but the risk of cancer and other complications will be increased,” he said.

The American doctor suggested the people affected by the fallout lived in the region near the reactor. The accident spread radiation as far as Japan and the United States.

Left for Los Angeles

Gale left for Los Angeles today with U.S. industrialist Armand Hammer, who has a long commercial relationship with the Soviet Union and arranged the visit by Gale’s medical team. The doctor plans to return next week.

Also today, it was reported that Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev warned that “a vicious anti-Soviet campaign” by the United States in reaction to the disaster hurt chances for a second summit with President Reagan.

The official Soviet press agency Tass said Gorbachev’s comments on prospects for a second summit were made during his meeting Thursday with Hammer.

Gorbachev “confirmed his consent in principle to a new meeting” and repeated the Soviets’ terms for the summit, including “a tangible practical result” and “an appropriate political atmosphere,” the press agency said.