| pubmed-article:2005848 | pubmed:abstractText | Recently, Gardner and colleagues inferred, from a case-control study of leukaemia incidence in young people near the Sellafield nuclear facility in West Cumbria, that an increase near Sellafield was real, and was probably caused by occupational exposure of the father to ionising radiation at the Sellafield plant. The intent of this paper is to dispute that attribution, and to suggest that confirmation of such an alarming and prejudicial conclusion should precede its dissemination. MATERIAL CONSIDERED: Critical comment is limited to the paper by the Gardner group presenting their results, the accompanying paper outlining their methods, a review from Mathews that provides some support for the Gardner proposal by suggesting a pathogenetic mechanism, and some observations on inherited tumours by Nomura that are quoted by Gardner et al. and Mathews in support of their beliefs. Other material quoted is from the general medical literature of the past 20 years relating to radiation biology, mutagenesis and carcinogenesis with some relevance to the Gardner contention; it is not exhaustive. | lld:pubmed |
