CHILDREN living near the naval dockyard at Rosyth may have a slightly higher risk of cancer, a report suggests.

In an examination of British nuclear sites, the Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment found no evidence of an increased risk of cancers close to nuclear power stations.

But it confirmed earlier evidence that living near the nuclear sites at Sellafield reprocessing plant, in Cumbria, the Dounreay reprocessing plant, in Caithness, or the Burghfield atomic weapons establishment, in Berkshire, appeared to increase the risk of leukaemia and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL).

Burghfield, with the military establishments at Aldermaston, in Berkshire, and Harwell, in South Oxfordshire, also showed increased risks of solid tumours, again a result that earlier studies had found.

The only new site identified in the committee’s report is Rosyth, on the Firth of Forth, where a dockyard was built to refit nuclear submarines.

The study shows a tiny excess of cancers in the area within 25km (15½ miles) of Rosyth but it does show a gradient in cancer cases with distance from the plant. Bryn Bridges, who chaired the committee while the report was in preparation, said that what this meant was unclear. The most significant finding of the report, in his view, was the clean bill of health given to nuclear power stations.

Many claims had been made that cancer was more common in children living near plants but this report, covering 24 years and more than 32,000 cancers, indicated that there was no risk. “There is no evidence from this very large study that living within 25km of a nuclear generating station in Britain is associated with any increased risk of childhood cancer,” Professor Bridges said.

The study included all cancer cases in children under the age of 15 occurring between 1969 and 1993, the largest study yet.

For the four sites where links were found it concludes that risks were modestly increased.

At Sellafield, for example, the risks of leukaemia and NHL were 14 per cent higher than average and the risks of solid tumours 11 per cent higher. The biggest risk was found at Dounreay, where the odds of contracting leukaemia or NHL were more than doubled, but this was based on small numbers — 9 cancers when 3.9 would have been expected.

Professor Bridges said that this “blip” could have been due to population mixing, which exposes children moving to an area of infectious agents that they are unused to, which has been shown to increase leukaemia risks. In this case, the population mixing was the result of people moving to Thurso, near Dounreay, to work in the oil industry.

As for Aldermaston, Burghfield and Harwell, he said, Berkshire and Oxfordshire had been shown to have higher cancer rates than other areas for reasons that are unexplained but which cannot be due to radiation because the cancers are found far from nuclear plants.

Rosyth is the only new site identified by the study. The evidence shows a small excess of leukaemias and NHL: 218 where 211 would have been expected and 392 solid tumours where 343 would have been expected. But these differences are not statistically significant.

In a second test, which checked whether there was a gradient of cases moving outwards from the plant, statistical significance was achieved. But only further analysis will show if this result means anything, Professor Bridges said.

It may simply be a reflection of the previously reported high incidence of central nervous system tumours in the surrounding Fife and Lothian region, he said.

The most significant finding, he said, was that nuclear plants were safe to live next to.

“There is no evidence from this very large study that living within 25km of a nuclear generating station in Britain is associated with any increased risk of childhood cancer,” he said.

A Department of Health spokesman said: “It is important to reassure the public that this research found no evidence of an excess number of cancer cases around any of the nuclear power stations.”

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