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Title: New Sellafield study poses a puzzle

Journal Article · · Science (Washington, D.C.); (United States)

Three years ago, an epidemiological study rocked the nuclear industry by suggesting a link between exposure to radiation among men and leukemia in their children. The study, by the late British epidemiologist Martin Gardner, focused on workers at the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant in northwest England and had profound implications for the nuclear industry: If a causal link between exposure and cancer could be proven, occupational exposure limits to radiation would have to be tightened and British Nuclear Fuels, the operator of Sellafield, might be open to litigation from the affected children and their relatives. A new study by Britain's Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found only fragile evidence that long-term cumulative exposure to radiation by fathers before conception of their children was linked to an increased risk of the child developing leukemia and non-Hodgkins lymphoma. But in Seascale, 3 kilometers south of Sellafield, the rate of leukemia and non-Hodgkins lymphoma among children whose fathers worked in Sellafield and lived in Seascale when they were born was about 14 times the national average. The findings remain uncertain as to cause of the cancers.

OSTI ID:
5293418
Journal Information:
Science (Washington, D.C.); (United States), Vol. 262:5134; ISSN 0036-8075
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English