Celtic League - Sellafield Cancr Link - Jury will be out for some time !

This from the Celtic League:

SELLAFIELD CANCER LINK - THE 'JURY WILL BE OUT' FOR SOME TIME!

'No Cancer link with Sellafield?' said the Manx Radio headline with
a cautiously appended question mark.

The station was reporting on a five year study into cancer deaths,
as yet uncompleted. The news item went on, "The Island's Director
of Public Health, Dr. Parameswaran Kishore, is strongly suggesting
preliminary findings from a five year study dispel the myth there
is a link".

Most people will be glad that the question mark was appended and will
also be anxious to see the completed report. Even then many will probably
ask why it has taken the Isle of Man government over thirty years
to seriously address this issue when it was in the mid-seventies when
serious concerns over Sellafield and cancers were first raised. A
lot of pollutants have come down the Sellafield sea outfall and a
lot of cancer deaths have ocurred in that time.

It would also be prudent for government to cross reference its findings
with others before making conclusions. Many people have deeply seated
concerns about the linkage between our proximity to the worst polluter
in the history of the British nuclear industry and cancer deaths here.
Many of those directly affected by cancer deaths will need to see
hard and conclusive evidence before they accept the rejections of
their concerns as a 'myth'.

What is not in dispute is that the Isle of Man has been sitting in
the middle of the greatest concentration of man-made nuclear pollution
ever deliberately discharged by a government into areas of concentrated
population. After all it is less then twenty miles from the end of
the Sellafield nuclear waste pipe to Ramsey Bay.

Whilst levels of pollution are said to be steadily reducing now, for
years they were at unacceptably high concentrations. Even the French,
when criticised for their South Seas nuclear testing and the pollution
it caused, pointed to Sellafield as a worst case scenario which France
came nowhere near to.

Contamination levels are falling now but what of the long term implications
for the marine environment and communities that live around the Irish
sea? It will take more than one set of good statistics to calm concerns.

In addition, one most also be sceptical about a set of results based
on one study. The unfortunate shenanigans surrounding the Welsh Cancer
Registry a decade ago prove that 'accurate data' is not always what
it seems (see links).

Links referred to at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/celtic_league/message/345
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/celtic_league/message/39

Manx Radio report mentioned at:

http://www.manxradio.com/readNewsItemo.aspx?oID=18585

J B Moffatt
Director of Information
Celtic League

22/06/08


The Celtic League has branches in the six Celtic Countries. It works
to promote cooperation between these countries and campaigns on a
broad range of political, cultural and environmental matters. It highlights
human rights abuse, monitors all military activity and focuses on
socio-economic issues.

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