March 8.When Sir Douglas Black investigated the Sellafield leukemias,
he found that, according to his information on cause and effect,
Sellafield discharges had been too small to cause such a gross anomaly
in cancer statistics. Of course, the estimates of Sellafield discharges
were wrong -- but Sir Douglas, like the rest of us, only found this out
several years later.
The International Commission on Radiological Protection continually
reviews pathways of radioactive pollution and levels of exposure. New
pathways are constantly being identified. Levels of exposure are
continually reviewed and reduced. In fact it is almost universally
admitted now that any man-made addition to radiation exposure will have
a detrimental effect on the environment and health in general -- cancer
statistics in particular.
The ICRP has recently reviewed its estimates of ''take-up'' rates of
radioactivity. Now it tells us that we absorb much more plutonium, et
al., from the environment and consumption of food, water and air, than
it used to believe. In other words, we are much more sensitive to
Sellafield, Dounreay, Chernobyl, and nuclear waste than previously
thought.
Dr Robert Wheaton and Professor Murdoch Baxter have demonstrated the
fallibility of official monitoring. Chernobyl proved the point.
Now -- while BNFL is still reeling from the implications of the
Gardiner report, and the ICRP confirms even worse possibilities -- the
British Government continues to sanction reprocessing of nuclear
discharges which would be illegal anywhere else in the world.
Worst of all, Mrs Thatcher defies Europe by planning to dump nuclear
waste under the bed of the North Sea -- among the oil-rigs!
Are we mad?
Frances McKie,
Snowberry,
East Road,
Kirkwall,
Orkney.
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