THE view that discharges from Sellafield do not pose a serious health risk was challenged by medical evidence submitted by two doctors at the weekend Sellafield conference.
The chief executive of the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland, Dr Tom O'Flaherty, said radioactive contamination from the Cumbrian plant was minimal, although very high rates of radiation in lobsters found in the sea near the plant "was a serious blunder in environmental management".
Later in the conference, Dr Mary Grehan, a Louth GP who has researched the trends in medical conditions in the county and the possible effects of the Windscale fire in 1957, said her research had "shown up extremely unusual findings".
Although not directly linking these findings with the plant, she said "it is very, very suspicious". She said the rate of stillbirths in the county during the 1980s had often been very irregular. Another survey of a Co Louth girls' secondary school had found a rate of one in eight leukaemias, significantly higher than the national average.
Of the 600 babies born in Louth County Hospital every year, she said, there was an average of 14 congenital abnormalities, much higher than the national rate. She also saw a lot of patients from the area with vitamin deficiencies and thyroid problems. "All these cases were much higher than other places in the country. I have submitted all this information to the Department of Health, but they have not investigated it," she said.
Dr Bernadette Herity, head of the UCD's Public Health Medicine department, produced figures which indicated high rates of childhood leukaemias along the east coast during the 1970s, when radioactive discharges from Sellafield were at their highest. Figures from the National Cancer Registry, not yet published, showed a high rate of stomach cancer among women in the North Eastern Health Board region. She said the level of 172 in 1995 "seemed strange".
Dr O'Flaherty said the greatest danger in the plant was an accident and not the discharges. He advised members of the public it is was "perfectly safe" to swim in the Irish Sea. But he said the recent report of high radioactivity in lobsters from the Cumbria area "would obviously make anyone suspicious when BNFL tells them it is safe to eat fish and shellfish from the Irish Sea".
The conference was earlier addressed by the Minister of State at the Department of Energy, Ms Avril Doyle. She said that if it were established the plant was definitely causing radioactive contamination to the Irish environment there would be a major impact "on tourism and agricultural prices", worse than the BSE crisis.
She confirmed that the Government had recently offered financial and other assistance to four Co Louth residents who are taking a case against BNFL. On the question of Government legal action against Sellafield she said: "We remain committed to legal action, if a case for it can be shown to exist. Various Departments are involved in finding the evidence we need at this moment."
She said shutting down the plant would not happen "over night", but would come about by "gradual action consistently applied over many years".