Nuclear Testing (Mortality and Cancer Incidence) (Hansard, 28 January 1988)

§ Mr. Sainsbury

The report by the National Radiological Protection Board on mortality and cancer incidence in United Kingdom participants in the United Kingdom atmospheric nuclear weapon tests and experimental programmes is being published today. A copy has been placed in the Library. The report compares the health of the participants (over 80 per cent. of whom were included) with that of a similar number of matched controls to show whether their health has been affected. The roughly equal number of deaths in both groups (1,600) shows that participation has not had a detectable effect on their expectation of life. Indeed, both groups appear to be somewhat healthier than would be expected from the national rates of mortality, possibly due to the social class distribution and to their having been to some extent selected for overseas duties. The expected number of deaths according to national rates would be about 2,000.

Compared with the control group, more participants were found to have died from leukaemia and multiple myeloma. Although the excess was only marginally above national rates, because of the association of these diseases with exposure to ionising radiation, even a small increase merited detailed analysis. Investigation showed that it did not occur so strongly among those present at any nuclear detonation, nor among those known to have been exposed to measurable doses of radiation, nor among those for whom inhalation or ingestion of radioactive material was a remote possibility. Consequently, although no cause of the increased leukaemia was identified, this investigation as not proved that the cause was exposure to ionising radiation.

The Government welcome, and will co-operate with the NRPB in implementing, the recommendation to continue to observe the mortality and cancer incidence of the participants over a further period of 10 years, as a means of testing the three hypotheses which have been formulated. Meantime, however, they regard the results of this study to date as fully vindicating their view that the radiological protection measures adopted were effective and that the chance of anyone suffering harm to health as a consequence of participation is extremely small.