U.S. Embassy Calls for Caution on Soviet Milk

MOSCOW —  The U.S. Embassy on Saturday cautioned Americans living here that pregnant women and children should not drink local milk because a recent sample showed above-normal levels of radioactivity from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, in which the death toll reportedly has risen to 17.

The latest figure on fatalities came from a spokesman for the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, according to a report by United Press International. The news agency said that the unnamed spokesman reported that 35 persons remained in critical condition.

The Soviet Union, after widespread criticism of its initial reluctance to provide details of the April 26 accident, has promised to provide the agency with detailed information about the accident and its aftermath.

In the warning on milk, an embassy spokesman said that the Moscow milk supply is safe for adults, according to tests conducted in Washington after the disaster.

Samples of water, vegetables and other dairy products also appeared to be unaffected by fallout from the nuclear accident, the spokesman said.

Traces of Iodine-131

A single milk sample, he said, showed traces of iodine-131 that was above the “level of concern” for infants. A report by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration showed a level of 3,617 picocuries, compared with the standard of 1,500 for infants, he added.

Most American families here--including diplomats, journalists and business representatives--buy milk that is sent from Finland. At any rate, the embassy has advised Americans since the disaster was first publicly known not to drink milk from Soviet stores.

The embassy spokesman said he had no information on the number of samples sent to Washington for analysis or the area where the milk was produced.

Meantime, an article in the government newspaper Izvestia said that Soviet officials were making radiation checks on food in several areas far from Chernobyl.

It said that tests were conducted in Moldavia, far to the south of the damaged Ukrainian nuclear power plant; in Byelorussia to the west, and in the European part of the Russian Federation, toward the northeast.

Ukrainians were advised against picking wild berries and mushrooms by the republic’s health minister, Anatoly Y. Romanenko, but he said that well-rinsed green vegetables were safe to eat.

The strictest controls on food have been imposed in the area around the Chernobyl plant, site of the most serious leak of radiation in the history of the use of nuclear power to generate electricity.

In another development, the nightly TV news show presented films of the reactor taken by the first camera crew to be allowed near the stricken plant.

The films showed firefighters, wearing breathing masks, pouring streams of water onto the ground near reactor No. 4, which exploded and burned in the early hours of April 26.

A cement factory near the Chernobyl plant already had been decontaminated and will soon be reopened to help with the task of providing a “concrete coffin” to seal the damaged reactor against any possible future release of radioactivity, a TV correspondent said.