§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what follow-up monitoring programmes exist in respect of the health of workers who have retired from employment in the nuclear industry. [39257]
§ Mr. EggarI have been asked to reply.
The nuclear industry, including the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, British Nuclear Fuels plc and Nuclear Electric, carry out or commission epidemiological studies of their current and former, including retired, employees. Through these programmes, data are assembled on the mortality record of the current and past workforce. Detailed mortality studies using this data undertaken by independent researchers have been published. These compare overall mortality, and mortality from individual diseases, between radiation workers, including those who have left the industry, and both non-radiation workers and the general public.
Employers in the nuclear industry also contribute data to the National Registry for Radiation Workers operated by the National Radiological Protection Board. A first analysis of the data held on the NRRW covering more than 95,000 nuclear industry employees and former employees in the UK has been published. This showed that deaths from all causes amongst these employees and former employees were 85 per cent. of those expected from national statistics for the general population, while deaths from all cancers were 86 per cent. of those expected. A second analysis is expected to be carried out in the near future. In addition, data on the mortality record of workers in the UK nuclear industry have been included in a study published by the International Agency for Research into Cancer which studies the health of nuclear industry workers in a number of countries.