MUST WATCH Leukemia in North West England Southport river ribble Preston doctors health check

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• published: 25 Jan 2015
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The Issue Sellafield Nuclear Plant is located on the Northwest Coast of England on the Irish Sea. It is a government owned facility that produces about one-fourth of the United Kingdom's energy. Nuclear waste from this facility had turned the Irish sea into one of the most radioactive bodies of water in the world. This pollution threatens the health of the British people as well as inhabitants of Ireland across the Irish Sea. This is a controversial issue because of the environmental degradation of the Irish Sea. This case raises the question of how a country can try to protect it self against invading polution from a neighboring state. 2. Description CHILDREN AT RISK? By John Lawrence Industrial Correspondent Children playing on the banks of the River Ribble could be risking radioactive contamination from a nearby nuclear plant. Image: Local resident Paul Brown at the River Ribble…his concerns led to the Granada investigation A report by the pressure group Friends of the Earth claims youngsters playing along the river in the Penwortham area near Preston could be receiving large doses of radiation from mudflats contaminated by discharges from the British Nuclear Fuels Springfields plant, it was revealed today. Lancashire County Council leader Louise Ellman immediately called for an in-depth investigation from the independent radiation monitoring group Radmil. Frightened residents living within yards of the River Ribble today said they feared for their health. The worried locals called for a wide ranging investigation into the damning report. The shock survey coincides with a hard hitting Granada TV investigation due to be screened tonight into radiation safety standards at the sprawling Salwick site, which features ex worker Joe McMaster, 69 formerly of Greystock Avenue, Fulwood, Preston and his wife Stella. Mr McMaster, who worked for 31 years as an analytical chemist, claims that three of his daughters died between 1958 and 1987 from illnesses linked to fatal doses of radiation. Friends of the Earth today said tests carried out on the stretch of the Ribble through Preston revealed pollution levels higher than those published by BNFL and the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food. Researchers monitored radiation levels at four points upstream of the Springfields discharge pipe – the cadet hut at Penwortham bridge, Broadgate, Lower Penwortham park and the mainline railway bridge. Doses of radioactive thorium particles were found to be up to six times higher than normal. Radiation campaigner Dr Patrick Green said the muddy river bed and bank were popular with children, especially at low tide during the summer months when the mud dried out. The report says a child would have to spend on average around 80 minutes a day over a year on the river bank to receive the maximum tolerable radiation dose of 100 units. BNFL information officer Peter Osborne said the pressure group’s findings did not stand up to close scrutiny and denied that youngsters were in danger. Mr Osborne said: “Any doses that children would be receiving from playing in those areas would only be one per cent of any radiation that could be regarded as remotely dangerous. To be honest, the Ribble is a pretty inhospitable play area for other reasons and not many children play there anyway.” A MAFF spokesman said government scientists always carried out tests in areas that would provide the highest doses and published their results on a regular basis. Local residents said if the alleged nuclear waste dumping was true it should be stopped immediately. Mrs Susan Hunter of Riverside Road said: “If its true, it is absolutely outrageous and everyone round here will naturally be very concerned.” Graham Hunter of Stonefield, Penwortham, said BNFL had to “clean up their act” if the Friends of the Earth report was true. Pg 9 BNFL’s Sellafield release up to 90% of the world’s artificial aerial radioactivity, public access to monitoring records is non-existent. Greenpeace’s air samples, collected at an altitude of 180-360 feet and up to half a mile from the plant's main discharge stacks, were analyzed by the University of Gent, Belgium. The radioactive noble gas krypton-85 was found at levels up to 90,000 Bq per cubic meter, as compared to the world average radioactivity in air of between 1-2 Bq per cubic meter. Computer dispersion models show how the discharged radioactivity spreads over large parts of Europe, covering France, UK, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany with radioactivity levels sometimes up to 100 times natural background, and eventually dispersing with the wind around the Earth.