INVESTIGATION CHILDHOOD LEUKEMIA RATES AROUND THE SELLAFIELD NUCLEAR-PLANT

At this stage the perspective has changed from that of a suggested childhood leukaemia excess in Seascale which was possibly related to environmental radiation contamination (as originally reported by the Yorkshire television programme) to a confirmed childhood leukaemia excess in the village which is statistically related to father's external radiation exposure during work at Sellafield before his child's conception. The evidence has been developed from anecdote by the sequential use of standard statistical and epidemiological methods-geographical, cohort and case-control studies. This finding clearly needs and is receiving more attention and detail to try to understand whether it is truly radiation related and, if so, quite how it might operate.