THE British government report which says it is unlikely the Sellafield nuclear plant in Cumbria caused a leukaemia cluster among children in nearby Seascale, has been met with scepticism in Ireland.
Dublin Green MEP Ms Patricia McKenna said Sellafield had not been exonerated from the charge of causing "abnormally high" levels of leukaemia and childhood cancer in surrounding areas.
She expressed concern that the UK government's Committee on Medical Aspects of Radioactivity in the Environment had recommended that no further studies on leukaemia in Seascale should be conducted.
She said the report admitted the findings were "speculative" and if that was the case it was extremely irresponsible to recommend that leukaemia in the area should not be studied further. She questioned the claim that the report was independent, when it was commissioned and paid for by the British Department of Health.
Noting the report concluded that excessive levels of leukaemia in Seascale could not be ascribed to any one factor, she asked "How, then, can the report seek to rule out radiation as a contributory factor?"
A spokesman for the Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin, said they had constantly warned the British authorities that maximum precautions should be taken at the Sellafield plant because of the dangers of an accident happening there. These discussions were "ongoing".
Mr Dermot Ahern (FF, Louth), called for an independent inquiry into the cases of leukaemia. MEP Ms Nuala Ahern (Green) said there should be further research.
Mr John Bowler, of Greenpeace, said while they had not yet seen the report, it appeared that it had not come up with any certainties. "The onus is on the company to prove that it is not the cause of leukaemia."
The report, which was published on Wednesday, accepted that the incidence of leukaemia at Seascale was unlikely to be due to chance. It blamed it, in part, on infections resulting from the influx of large numbers of workers to the area and the dumping of raw sewage.
The report found that "environmental radiation exposure from authorised or unplanned releases could not account for the excess". A link with exposure to chemicals, or of workers to radiation, was "very unlikely".
However, Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment say it is still convinced radiation is responsible for the high incidence of leukaemia.