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Published:
March 2, 2008
Report
claims infant mortality higher in Burnham area due to Hinkley
 Infant
mortality is almost three times more likely to occur in towns
and villages downwind of Hinkley Point power station than inland
parts of Somerset, according to a disturbing report.
Details
of the study by Dr Chris Busby, of Green Audit, and supported
by a former director of the South West Cancer Registry, were aired
on Friday evening (February 29th) by BBC1's 'Inside Out West'
programme.
Using
Government figures, Dr Busby found there was an almost three times
greater risk of infant mortality between 1996 and 2001 in the
estuary wards of Burnham-On-Sea, Brean, Berrow, Highbridge, Huntspill,
Combwich and Pawlett, compared with inland wards.
The
rate of deaths in under one-year-olds was found to be 10 per 1,000
compared with 3.5 per 1,000 further inland.
Campaigners
said the findings add weight to the theory that dangerous radioactive
particles discharged into the sea and air at Hinkley are ingested
by residents downwind of the power station.
Neo-natal
deaths (in children up to 28 days old) were also found to be high,
particularly in Burnham North during the period 1993-98 at six
times the rate expected.
Dr
Chris Busby was commissioned by campaign group Stop Hinkley to
follow up earlier cancer studies that had shown high numbers of
breast cancer and leukaemia in the area near contaminated mudflats
between Hinkley and Burnham.
Jim
Duffy, spokesman for Stop Hinkley, said: "The tide is turning
with more scientific support for the compelling evidence that
radiation is harmful to local communities and particularly to
vulnerable infants."
"COMARE,
the Government watchdog assigned to monitor health trends near
nuclear plants should now be disbanded."
Bristish
Energy, which runs Hinkley Point, disputes the figures and denies
there is a link between infant mortality and its power plant.
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Hinkley
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Earlier
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