10 Dec (NucNet): Experts studying the reasons for higher incidences of cancer – in particular leukaemia – in children up to five years old living near nuclear power plants in Germany have said the normal safe operation of the plants is not the cause.
The experts point out that each German citizen is exposed to an average of about 1.4 milisieverts (mSv) of natural background radiation each year, while radiation levels near the country’s nuclear plants is lower than that by a factor of between 1,000 and 100,000.
The study, by the Deutschen Kinderkrebsregisters (the German child cancer register) in Mainz, said it is possible that as yet unknown factors are involved or the cases may simply be coincidence.
A statement in German on the organisation’s website (www.kinderkrebsregister.de) said according to up-to-date scientific knowledge, the increased number of infant cancer cases and in particular of leukaemia cases in the neighbourhood of nuclear power plants cannot be explained by the ionizing radiation from these plants.
“We cannot say how the observed increase of the number of infant cancer cases in the neighbourhood of nuclear power plants can be explained,” the statement said.
Sigmar Gabriel, German federal minister for the environment, nature conservation and nuclear safety, agreed that the increased cases of illness cannot be explained by the radiation exposure of a nuclear power plant.
Mr Gabriel has asked the Commission on Radiation Protection (SSK) to evaluate the results of the study and a possible root-cause. He said when the results of the assessment are available, the Federal Ministry for the Environment will decide on “further procedure”.
The main authors of the report are Dr Peter Kaatsch, head of the German child cancer register, and Dr Maria Blettner director of the Institute of medical biometry, epidemiology and informatics at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz.
