2016 Volume 5 Issue 1 Pages 31-39
A media report in 1983 drew attention to high levels of childhood leukaemia around the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant. This prompted investigations around other nuclear installations, some of which suggested other “clusters”, though Sellafield remained the most striking. Many studies over more than 30 years have investigated possible reasons for such clusters. Inevitably attention was first directed at radiation linked with activities at the plant. However, it was found that doses from accidental and planned releases were too low to account for the observed levels of childhood leukaemia. Various other mechanisms involving radiation have been investigated and have also been discounted. While no clear explanation for the Sellafield cluster has been found, perhaps the most plausible remaining hypothesis involves “population mixing” in which an infection is spread to susceptible individuals and, in rare cases, results in leukaemia.
