Daily news

Report: leukaemia risk for children living near nuclear power stations

The risk of suffering from leukaemia is double for children who live near nuclear power stations, according to new German research.

The research, commissioned by the German government, claims that children under five who live within three miles of a nuclear power plant have twice the risk of suffering from the blood cancer leukaemia.

Dr Paul Dorfman of Warwick University, the co-secretary of an independent committee established by the UK government in 2001 to examine the risks of internal radiation, said the study was very important because of its depth and rigour.

Scientists from the University of Mainz undertook a study of children living around 16 nuclear plants in West Germany after earlier albeit inconclusive research suggested there might be a higher risk.

It was published online by scientific journals, the International Journal of Cancer and the European Journal of Cancer.

¿We must take the correlation between distance of residence and high risk of leukaemia very seriously,¿ said Wolfram Koenig, the director of the German Federal Office for Radiation Protection.

The data of some 6300 children covered 23 years, from 1980 to 2003.

The UK government's radiation advisors, the Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment, insist there is no link.

Find out how EST can help you