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Sun 21 Nov, 2004 04:31 am
Chernobyl 'caused Sweden cancers'
The fallout of Chernobyl has affected millions of lives.
More than 800 people in northern Sweden may have developed cancer as a result of the fallout of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident, a new study says.
Swedish scientists said the "Chernobyl effect" was the only likely explanation for 849 cancer cases they came across.
But their findings met with scepticism from some other experts who think the radiation fallout in Sweden was not likely to cause such a rise in cases.
A radioactive cloud swept across north Europe after the disaster in Ukraine.
The study monitored cancer cases among more than 1.1 million people exposed to radioactive fallout in northern Sweden between 1988 and 1996.
Martin Tondel, a researcher at Sweden's Linkoeping University who headed the study, said that, of 22,400 cancer cases, 849 could be statistically attributed to Chernobyl.
He said that, after other factors such as smoking, population density and age had been taken into account, it seemed the only possible explanation..........
Full story:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4028729.stm
I remember at the time that Welsh hill farmers were banned from selling their lambs due to the high radiation levels from the fallout here - if it affected the sheep then it presumably affected the people as well and Sweden is of course a lot nearer.
Pretty worrying when you think how many other nuclear power stations are also probably in poor repair.
My stepson was in the navy at the time, stationed in Scotland. Pregnant women and young children were urged to drink canned milk--the fresh milk had high levels of radioactive isotopes.
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