Further consideration of the incidence of childhood leukaemia around nuclear power plants in Great Britain: COMARE Fourteenth Report

The Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment (COMARE) was established in November 1985 in response to the final recommendation of the report of the Independent Advisory Group chaired by Sir Douglas Black (Black, 1984).The terms of reference for COMARE are: ‘to assess and advise Government and the devolved authorities on the health effects of natural and man-made radiation and to assess the adequacy of the available data and the need for further research’. In 25 years of providing advice to Government and the devolved authorities COMARE has to date published 13 major reports, in addition to numerous other statements and documents, mainly related to exposure to naturally occurring radionuclides, such as radon and its progeny, or to man-made radiation, usually emitted by major nuclear installations. In 2009, the Department of Health asked COMARE to conduct a review of recent publications on the incidence of childhood leukaemia in the vicinity of nuclear power plants, in relation to the conclusions in the tenth and eleventh COMARE reports. This work was prompted in part by the publication of a German report on the same subject known as the Kinderkrebs in der Umgebung von Kernkraftwerken (KiKK) study. To achieve this, COMARE set up a subgroup of committee members and external experts to conduct this work, the KiKK Review Subgroup. When the Subgroup had finished its review, the report was presented to COMARE for consideration by the full committee, with the aim that the information would be presented to the Department of Health in due course. That information is contained in this, our fourteenth report. COMARE previously considered the incidence of childhood cancer in the vicinity of nuclear power plants between 1969 and 1993 and concluded that ‘there is no evidence from this very large study that living within 25 km of a nuclear generating site in Britain is associated with an increased risk of childhood cancer’ (COMARE, 2005). The aim of this COMARE report has been to provide further information for the Department of Health on the incidence of childhood leukaemia in the vicinity of nuclear power plants in Great Britain in comparison with the situation in other countries and to determine whether there is any evidence to support a revision of the previous COMARE advice. However, the interest in this issue extends beyond the remit of the Department of Health and the recommendations made in this report will be pertinent to other government departments and agencies, particularly with the consideration of a new nuclear build programme.