BIRTH defects around a factory in Britain that makes radioactive materials
are 20 per cent higher than the average for the area, according to a government
study.
Radioactive emissions from the Cardiff plant run by Nycomed Amersham to make
isotopes for the pharmaceuticals industry had previously been blamed by
environmentalists for harming babies. It is Britain鈥檚 second biggest radioactive
polluter after the Sellafield nuclear complex in Cumbria.
The local health authority Bro Taf commissioned the Small Area Health
Statistics Unit at Imperial College, London, to investigate infant health within
a 7.5-kilometre radius of the plant. Its study, published last week, showed that
907 babies were born with congenital deformities between 1983 and 1998, slightly
more than you would expect in this part of Wales.
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Max Wallis of Friends of the Earth Cymru says this is 鈥渄ynamite鈥� because it
vindicates environmentalists鈥� claims. A report in 1999 by a local campaigner
linked aerial emissions of radioactive tritium from the Nycomed plant with an
increase in the number of infant deaths.
But Bro Taf and Nycomed Amersham argue that the latest study provides no
clear evidence of a link with pollution from the plant. The only statistically
significant excess in birth defects was in families who lived between 2 and 7.5
kilometres away鈥攁nd the excess is in comparison with birth defect figures
for Wales that are incomplete, they say.
鈥淭here is no credible evidence that the plant has caused harm,鈥� concludes
Mark Temple, a public health consultant with Bro Taf. Nevertheless, he stresses
that there is still a need for further investigation.
Tritium and carbon-14 from the plant can be detected in fruit and vegetables
grown locally, and concentrations of tritium in flounder from the Severn Estuary
doubled between 1999 and 2000. Excluding fish eaters, the Food Standards Agency
says that children aged one to two get the largest dose in the local population,
particularly from carbon-14 in cow鈥檚 milk, though even this is well within
safety limits.