HEALTH HAZARDS

A major study conducted by the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) into the dangers of low-energy, low-dose ionizing radiation concluded that there appears to be no safe radiation exposure level. The 750-page NAS report entitled The Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation Report VII (BEIR VII) �Health Risks from Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation´ found that the risk of getting cancer from radiation released into the environment by US nuclear reactors is approximately 35 per cent higher than current US Government risk estimates. The report also found that even very low doses of radiation can cause cancer and that there is no safe level or threshold of exposure. It also found a causal relationship between radiation exposure and non-cancer health effects such as heart disease and stroke. Finally, the NAS study also warned that it is possible that children born to parents who have been exposed to radiation could also be affected by those exposures.

Nuclear power production has also been linked to Downs syndrome and leukemia. Experts have suggested that there is an increase in cases amongst people living in close proximity to nuclear power stations.

In 1984 a survey of ex-pupils from St Louis Convent, Dundalk, a small town on the Irish sea, found hugely increase incidence in Downs syndrome births amongst ex-pupils from the school, a rate 89 times higher than the national average. Similar high rates of Downs syndrome births from Maryport in Cumbria were also noted (Tomorrow, 1984).

That Sellafield plutonium gets everywhere was shown in post-mortem examinations of former Sellafield workers. Concentrations of hundreds and in one case thousands of times higher than in the general population were found. Cumbrians who never worked at the plant had plutonium levels ranging from 50% to 250% above the average compared to elsewhere in Britain. (www.corecumbria.co.uk)