HC Deb 05 July 1990 vol 175 cc680-1W
Mr. Redmond

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list by county, and by year for the last five years, the number of reported cases of radioactive caesium in people.

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton

Low concentrations of caesium radionuclides are detectable in people generally as a result of atmospheric fallout and releases from nuclear installations.

Following the Chernobyl accident, the Scottish universities research and reactor centre was commissioned on behalf of the Scottish Development Department to undertake a study of the levels of radiocaesium in representative members of the population of Scotland. The results of the first phase of this study have been published in a report—"DOE Report No. DOE/RW/88.103, Measurement of radioactivity from Chernobyl in population groups in Scotland"—which is available in the Library.