The independent UK Committe on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment COMARE released a report on May 6, 2011 “COMARE 14th Report: Further consideration of the incidence of childhood leukaemia around nuclear power plants in Great Britain”. The report concludes that the risk risk estimate for childhood leukaemia associated with proximity to an nuclear power plant is extremely small, if not zero.
It would be intersting to see what the risk is near a coal fired power station, as the isotopes realeased duing the buring of coal produce significant releases. In “Health Effects of Radon from Coal Burning.” Health Physics, 42 (1982), 725. Professor Bernard .L. Cohen concludes:
“coal burning will eventually cause 30 fatalities/GWe-yr through radon emission is in every way as valid as conclusions about health effects of radioactive waste from nuclear power plants. Our conclusion on the high level waste from the latter was 0.17 fatalities/GWe-yr (Co82a) so the radioactive waste from coal burning is 180 times more harmful than the radioactive waste from nuclear energy. If radon effects are included in the latter, nuclear energy becomes a net life saver of impressive prorportions”
Summary of COMARE report
“Childhood leukaemia is a rare disease, affecting approximately 500 children every year in the UK. Nevertheless there have been numerous studies and reports on the possible risks of childhood leukaemia in the vicinity of nuclear power plants and other nuclear installations. The aim of this report was to undertake a further review of the incidence of childhood leukaemia in the vicinity of nuclear power plants (NPPs) specifically in Great Britain, with particular reference to recent publications and studies from other countries and taking into account the conclusions in the tenth and eleventh COMARE reports (which consider the period 1969-1993).
COMARE presents a new geographical data analysis on the incidence of leukaemia in children under 5 years of age, living in the vicinity of 13 NPPs. It uses cancer registration data for Great Britain for the extended period 1969 to 2004.
The report also considers additional factors not addressed in previous COMARE reports, which may account for differences in leukaemia risks in studies from other countries. The report investigates the pathology of childhood leukaemia and non-Hodgkins lymphoma cases in the vicinity of British NPPs. It also describes the cancer registries of several European countries, the types of reactors used in those countries, the radioactive discharges associated with the reactor types and the consequent assessed radiation doses to the general population.
In particular, COMARE considered the results of the German Kinderkrebs in der Umgebung von Kernkraftwerken (KiKK) study and concludes they are heavily influenced by cases in the earliest period (1980-1990), compared with the later periods (1991-1995 and 1996-2003) when the risks are lower. In the later periods, the results are influenced heavily by the known cluster around the Krummel plant. The study was not able to take potential confounders, such as socio-economic status, into account. There is disparity in the risk for childhood leukaemia for 1980-1990 between additional German geographical studies and the case-control KiKK study. Possibilities for this difference include the distance measurement methodology and the control selection for the KiKK study.
Finally COMARE is of the view that there is no current evidence to support the hypothesis that in utero exposures from tritium and carbon-14 radioactive discharges have been underestimated or that such discharges are associated with increased risk of childhood cancers.
COMARE recommends that the Government keeps a watching brief on the risk of childhood cancers in the vicinity of NPPs. The committee also recommends that there is no reduction in maintenance of effective surveillance regarding the environment and public health. COMARE recommends the continuation of a programme of environmental measurements of radioactivity, including the continued monitoring of carbon-14 discharges (both gaseous and liquid) for existing nuclear installations and similar programmes for all new NPPS in the UK. The committee would like to see the monitoring of liquid carbon-14 discharges from NPPs, as undertaken in the UK, extended to the rest of the EU. COMARE recommends that research is continued into all possible causative mechanisms of leukaemia (both radiation and non-radiation-related).
In conclusion, COMARE’s primary analysis of the latest British data has revealed no significant evidence of an association between risk of childhood leukaemia (in under 5 year olds) and living in proximity to an NPP.”
