We attach a circular letter from CANE - Communities Against Nuclear Expansion. Please read it and consider a response. The Low Level Radiation Campaign is supporting CANE's call for a "UK KiKK" study. We shall do all in our power to make sure it is designed to give a reliable answer to the question of whether nuclear power stations cause disease.
Background - the German KiKK
In Germany in recent years there has been growing public concern about
childhood cancers and leukaemia round nuclear power plants. Public
outcry led the government to commission an "Epidemiological Study on
Childhood Cancer in the Vicinity of Nuclear Power Plants
(Epidemiologische Studie zu Kinderkrebs in der Umgebung von
Kernkraftwerken), known by the acronym KiKK.
The study area included 41 counties in the vicinity of all 16 German
nuclear power plants. It found that children younger than 5 years old
living within 5 km of a nuclear plant were more than twice as likely to
develop leukaemia compared with children living more than 5 km distant.
A significant increase in leukaemia was also observed up to 10 km
distant.
It is generally acknowledged that the KiKK study was well designed and
that its findings cannot be ignored. A large problem however is that,
in the absence of information about exposure to radioactivity, the
study used proximity to the power stations as a surrogate indicator of
exposure.
The usual official mindset has swung into action to deny causation and
to look for causes other than direct irradiation or exposure to
radioactive emissions.
The way forward
We have always said it is necessary to look where the radioactive
discharges go to in the environment and to consider mechanisms, such as
sea-to-land transfer, that might cause them to affect people. We
believe that any new study must build on the results of the German KiKK
and in particular it must be based on well-defined populations living
close to areas of contamination. We are working with members of the
European Committee on Radiation Risk and some of the epidemiologists
who designed the KiKK.
The CANE letter sets out to gather support in principle for a UK KiKK
and to define the methods later. We agree with this approach.
Please consider endorsing CANE. Contact details are in the attached letter.
We are including contacts in countries other than UK in this mailing. If you can offer your support or ideas and experience please do so.
Richard Bramhall
Low Level Radiation Campaign