HC Deb 07 March 1990 vol 168 cc705-6W
Mr. Cohen

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) whether he will review the relevance to his Department of the research conducted by Professor Martin Gardner for the Medical Research Council into the correlation between childhood leukaemia and fathers working at Sellafield; and whether he will commission a report into radiation and submariners by Professor Gardner;

(2) if he will commission research into the health of submariners with (a) abnormalities in the offspring of submariners working on nuclear submarines and (b) abnormalities in the offspring of groups regularly working in closest proximity to the nuclear reactors of submarines;

(3) what research studies have been undertaken into the health of the offspring of and individuals (a) working with nuclear materials in the armed forces and (b) working in the nuclear defence industry;

(4) whether he will commission studies into abnormalities in the offspring of those working around (a) military nuclear power stations, (b) sites involved in the manufacture of nuclear reactors, (c) sites involved in the manufacture of nuclear arms, (d) sites where military nuclear waste is stored, (e) nuclear weapons storage facilities and (f) naval dockyards working with nuclear material.

Mr. Archie Hamilton

I refer the hon. Member to the answers I gave the hon. Member for Ynys Môn (Mr. Jones) on 28 February 1990,Official Report, column 246.

Mr. Ieuan Wyn Jones

To ask the Secretary of Stale for Defence if he will make it his policy to re-evaluate the current programme of seeking Z-berths for reserve use by nuclear submarines in the light of the Gardner report on radiation risks.

Mr. Archie Hamilton

No.