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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