New power plant leukaemia link

Thursday January 19th, 2012

Campaigners have called for action to protect families living near nuclear power plants after new findings linking them to leukaemia among children.

The French study found a doubled risk of a child developing acute leukaemia when families live within five kilometres - 3.1 miles - of a nuclear plant.

Researchers from the national research centre Inserm compared 2,753 cases of children with leukaemia over a five year period - comparing them with 30,000 healthy children for the report published in the International Journal of Cancer.

There were 14 cases of children with leukaemia living near nuclear plants. The researchers said the study did not find any link with gaseous discharges from plants - analysed separated using dosage figures.

Researchers in the UK have in the past suggested that childhood leukaemia around plants might be the result of population migration - with workers settling in rural communities and spreading new viruses.

But women's health campaigners called for "immediate" measures to protect children living near these plants.

Sascha Gabizon, international director of the Women’s environment and health network WECF, based in Utrecht, said: "Victims of nuclear energy will never be compensated for, as the nuclear industry pays artificially low insurance costs, which means the tax-payer and future generations pay both economically as with their health.

"Nuclear energy is highly subsidised, the price of nuclear energy does not include the irreversible and long-term damage caused throughout the nuclear fuel cycle."

International Journal of Cancer January 2012 doi: 10.1002/ijc.27425

Tags: Cancer | Child Health | Europe | General Health | Women’s Health & Gynaecology

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