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More Childhood Cancer Near Nuclear Power Plants
Released December 8, 2007
The german section of IPPNW has
initiated a study, which approves that children under the age of five living near
nuclear power stations have contracted cancer at a greatly higher rate than the
national average. The study was paid for by the German Federal Radiation Protection
Agency (BfS) the government's main adviser on nuclear health. It was conducted
by the German Register of Child Cancer, an office in Mainz which is funded by
the 16 German states and the federal Health Ministry.
The risk of cancer
increased by 60 percent for children living less than five kilometres (three miles)
from a nuclear power plant, according to the study. The risk was 117 percent higher
when only leukemia was taken into account.The study looked at statistics from
between 1980 and 2003 in regions near 21 reactors or former reactors. In those
areas, 77 cases of cancer were found among children under five, or a 60-percent
increase over the national average. Some 37 cases of leukemia were recorded instead
of the average of 17.
"Our study confirms that in Germany a relationship
is observable between the proximity of the home to the nearest nuclear power plant
at the time of diagnosis and the risk of contracting cancer (respectively leukaemia)
before the child's fifth birthday," the researchers write.
One member
of the expert commission that oversaw the study even considers the conclusions
to be understated. According to him, the data indicate an increased risk of cancer
for children in a radius of 50 kilometres.
It needed lobbying since 2001
by the local IPPNW section and more than 10,000 protest letters from the public
authorities and ministries to get the BfS to commission the study. The campaign
was triggered by a study initiated by the IPPNW and carried by Dr. Alfred Körblein
(Environment Institute Munich), which found significantly higher child cancer
incidence near Bavarian nuclear power stations.
The BfS commissioned its
study to the Mainzer Kinderkrebsregister (Mainz Child Cancer Register) in 2003.
"Now that the connection between increased cancer and leukaemia rates
and proximity of the residence to the nuclear power station has been established,
the causes of this must be further clarified immediately," IPPNW says in
a media release.
"The population affected at nuclear power station
locations must be examined by suitable screening methods fast and comprehensively."
"Given
these massive findings at every German nuclear power station location, a radiation-linked
cause is highly likely in every case. Anyone who now still talks of coincidence
is making himself ridiculous," writes Dr. med. Angelika Claussen, chair of
the German IPPNW.
"The precautionary principle enshrined in European
environment law now demands that the German nuclear power stations be switched
off immediately."
"The IPPNW demands that the environment ministry
now greatly reduce the obviously too lax upper limits for radioactive emissions
from nuclear power stations. From now on the burden of proof of cause of illness
should no longer have to be borne by parents, but conversely by the operators
of the nuclear installations."
The BfS media release on the study
in German.
More
IPPNW background and chronology in German at www.ippnw-ulm.de
For a translated summary of the study, please go to the IPPNW European website.
More on the topic: alfred-koerblein.de
www.bfs.de
Contact: Reinhold Thiel, #49 0176-511 64 195 or #49 7346-8407,
Dr. Angelika Claussen, IPPNW Chair #49 521-15 22 13, Henrik Paulitz, IPPNW expert
on nuclear energy issues #49 621-3972-668.