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Is Hinkley Point the cause of health issues for nearby residents?

NEW claims by anti-nuclear campaigners that towns downwind of Hinkley Point Power Station show a three-fold rise in infant mortality rates have this week been attacked by health experts.

Brean, Berrow, Burnham, Highbridge, Huntspill, Combwich and Pawlett were identified in a new study as having infant death rates three times higher than the norm between 1996 and 2001.

The figures were made public by Dr Chris Busby of Green Audit, who was commissioned to carry out the study by protest group Stop Hinkley.

His findings said the rate of deaths in under one-year-olds in the area was ten per thousand, compared to a national average of 3.5 - a comparison which anti-nuclear lobbyists say adds weight to claims that radioactive particles from Hinkley are harming nearby residents.

Former Cancer Registry head Dr Derek Pheby said in response: "This is a serious finding, and most unlikely to have arisen by chance.

"Clearly this is a serious matter, which warrants further investigation."

And Stop Hinkley spokesman Jim Duffy added: "The tide is turning, with more scientific support for the compelling evidence that radiation is harmful to local communities and particularly to vulnerable infants.

"Hinkley B should shut down and the Hinkley C project abandoned."

However, Dr Busby's findings and the subsequent claims made by anti-nuclear groups have been refuted by the head of an organisation which monitors health issues throughout the South-West.

Dr Julia Verne is the director of the South West Public Health Observatory, and says Dr Busby's findings are "misleading, and might easily cause unnecessary anxiety to local people".

The Observatory has carried out more detailed studies over longer periods, and found "only very low" infant death rates in any Somerset ward.

Dr Verne said: "We have undertaken our own statistical analysis of infant deaths - looking around Hinkley Point, the mud flats and the tidal River Parrett - and we have found no significant increase.

"When looking at local infant deaths, they have only ever been in very low numbers, but even small changes in the geographic area where numbers are reviewed can have significant effects upon the interpretation of the statistics and this in turn can easily lead to misleading or even false conclusions.

"I am therefore concerned that local people may become unnecessarily anxious when reading or hearing campaigners' claims of increased rates of cancers and now infant deaths around Hinkley Point."

12:54pm Sunday 2nd March 2008

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