Hinkley child cancer claims rubbished

By Dan Sales, Burnham Weekly News 20th July 2007

CLAIMS made by anti-nuclear campaigners that an increase in youth cancer cases has been found near Hinkley Point have been rubbished by the power plant.

Protest group Stop Hinkley says a new compilation of international studies into childhood leukaemia shows a 23% rise above average in the disease near more than 200 nuclear sites.

The study by the Medical University of South Carolina was published on Thursday (July 19) and adds together the findings of 17 research studies published in the 1980s and 1990s examining leukaemia in children living within ten miles of nuclear power stations.

Jim Duffy, spokesman for Stop Hinkley said he thought the document added weight to his campaign's battle to shut down the station.

"The new study adds momentum to the growing view that levels of radiation previously considered harmless, are indeed having an effect on our children in the form of this awful disease," he claimed.

"It's high time to wind down this polluting technology, drop plans for Hinkley C and get on with clean energy production which will not harm human life now or in the future."

Hinkley owner British Energy spokesman Sue Fletcher told the Weekly News the company rejected the report.

"There is no evidence in the increased incidence of leukaemia or any other cancers around British Energy sites," she said.

"This has been shown by research carried out over a number of years by the Committee Of Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment - independent research findings supported by the UK Government."

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