§ Mr. MeacherTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will evaluate the article in theBritish Medical 706W Journal of the 11 January relating to leukaemia occurrence to assess its implications for the populations in the vicinity of (a) Sellafield and (b) Dounreay. [11911]
§ Mr. HoramThe Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment—COMARE—has investigated the increase of cancer and leukaemia in young people around Dounreay and Sellafield and concluded that on current knowledge environmental radiation exposure from the sites could not account for the excesses.
COMARE has made various recommendations for further research, much of which has already been carried out, and further work is under way. COMARE will continue to keep this matter under review and will consider whether there is a need for any further advice. The results of the study, published in the British Medical Journal, "Case-control study of leukaemia in young people near La Hague nuclear reprocessing plant: the environmental hypothesis revisited", together with other evidence as it becomes available, will be considered by the committee.