Reprocessing plants and leukaemia in children
01 January 1991
Reprocessing plants and leukaemia in children
UK Government sponsored reports have already found that around
the Dounreay and Sellafield reprocessing plants childhood
leukaemia is between five and 10 times the national average.
Now a new Government report, lead by Professor Martin Gardner of
the Medical Research Council, has found a link between children
who had leukaemia and fathers who worked at Sellafield and had
received high doses of radiation. The report found that
children born to Sellafield workers who had received radiation
doses of more than 100 milliSeiverts (mSv) had the risk of
contracting leukaemia increased by a factor of six to eight
times.
Following the report the major trades unions representing workers
at Sellafield joined forces with environmental groups for the
first time ever to demand improved safety standards and big
reductions on the radiation dose levels for workers. The trades
unions want legal dose levels reduced to 10 Msv, a move supported
by the National Radiological Protection Board.
NENIG Briefing no 39, April 1990