HC Deb 08 June 1988 vol 134 cc600-1W
Mr. Bill Walker

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland when the report by the Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment on the incidence of leukaemia around Dounreay will be published.

Mr. Michael Forsyth

The report has been published today and copies placed in the Library. The committee has emphasised both the small numbers of leukaemia cases involved, and that any conclusion based on these numbers must be subject to a degree of uncertainty. Nevertheless it concludes that there is evidence of a raised incidence of leukaemia among young people living in the vicinity of Dounreay. In the committee's view, this evidence, taken in conjunction with that relating to the area around Sellafield, tends to support the hypothesis that some feature of the two nuclear plants that the committee has examined leads to an increased risk of leukaemia in young people living in the vicinity of those plants.

The committee does, however, point out that conventional dose and risk estimates suggest that neither authorised nor accidental discharges could be responsible. Estimates of radiation doses to young people resident in Thurso have been made by the NRPB, on behalf of the committee. These estimates suggest that, using conventional dose modelling procedures, the risk attributable to the doses received by local young people from the discharges is very small indeed, being of the order of only 0.005 of a case.

The committee does, however note uncertainties about dose and risk calculations especially in respect to exposure of the foetus and small child. The report identifies a number of possible explanations, but does not point to any particular one, and therefore considers all possible explanations need to be investigated further. Recommendations for these further investigations are made.

The Government are grateful to the committee for its report. A great deal of work is already being done to investigate this problem. There are clearly uncertainties in relation to the causes of elevated rates of leukaemia which can occur in a variety of locations. The Government accept, in principle, all the committee's recommendations for further work. It is hoped that this work will advance our knowledge in this area.

The recommendations specific to Scotland are: Recommendation 1 a retrospective case control study of leukaemia occurring in young people in Caithness in the period 1968–1986. This study is already underway; Recommendation 4d a detailed survey to identify the extent to which radioactive contamination is present in household dust in the Dounreay area. Plans are already being made on how best to carry out this survey; Recommendation 2 birth cohort, and school cohort studies. Consideration is currently being given on how to undertake this last recommendation.

The other recommendations relate to various aspects of monitoring and research and the relevant United Kingdom Departments are considering how best to implement them.