§ Mr. Johnasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what information he has as to the likely long-term effects upon ewes in north Wales and Cumbria of exposure to radiation, and in particular how long such 575W ewes are likely to give contaminated milk; whether movement to uncontaminated pasture would have a beneficial effect; and whether there is any risk to genetic mutations in sheep.
§ Mr. Jopling[pursuant to his reply, 26 June 1986, c. 308]: The Ministry's monitoring programme of foodstuffs instituted following the Chernobyl accident detected transient increases in radioactivity in ewes' milk during May but levels have now declined substantially. Movement to uncontaminated pasture is not necessary and in any case would have been impracticable.
There is no reason to expect that the slightly increased levels of radioactivity following the accident at Chernobyl will lead to any detectable increase in genetic mutation in sheep.