§ Dr. John Cunninghamasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if, following the recently published report of the National Radiological Protection Board into the impact of the 1957 Windscale pile fire on health, he will arrange for an exhaustive analysis of health records to determine whether any increased incidence of radiation-induced illnesses can be identified; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeThe National Radiological Protection Board is the independent statutory body charged with advising on radiation protection. The recent report on the 1957 Windscale fire is part of the Board's continuous monitoring of all radiation hazards. The report analyses the known data on the Windscale fire, using recently developed mathematical environmental models, in an attempt to assess the total radiation exposure of the population arising from the accident. It does not alter the estimates of maximum radiation exposure which were reported at the time. The board has made it clear that the derivation of possible health effects is a highly theoretical exercise and represents an upper limit. The estimates of possible cases of thyroid cancer are statistical probabilities which might have been caused if the report's assumptions were correct. These estimates are not the result of observations of numbers of actual cases of cancer. The board has made a preliminary review of the thyroid cancer figures and found no evidence of any detectable increase.
The board is continuing its studies of the incidence of thyroid cancer using available evidence from cancer registries and other sources as part of its long-term research programme. The results of these further studies will be published as they become available.