Nuclear Test Veterans

EDM number 424 in 1993-94, proposed by Frank Cook on 24/01/1994.

That this House notes that the National Radiological Protection Board established 12 months ago a positive association between the incidence of leukaemia among nuclear workers and the radiation to which they were exposed despite the use in their work of protective clothing, safety screens and the most stringent safeguards; notes too that this link was established on the basis of 53 leukaemia deaths occurring in a sample of 95,000 employees although only 20 or 30 of those as a result of radiation; questions then why, in scrutinising records of service and mortality in just over 21,000 men and women who took part in the British Nuclear Test programme between October 1952 and October 1958, the National Radiological Protection Board denied a similar positive association, despite the evidence that more than 57 test veterans have died of leukaemia and myeloma to date, many of whom were exposed carelessly and deliberately to radiation without protection or safety provision of any kind; questions too why the National Radiological Protection Board insist on disregarding 19 of these cases that occurred after the most arbitrary cut off date of December 1990; registers astonishment that a national protection body so called should adopt so readily this self-imposed myopia; ponders what motive could possible justify such docile behaviour; and urges the Prime Minister, in order to resolve these matters fairly and expeditiously, to appoint a Minister directly responsible with the courage and candour of the Honourable Hazel O'Leary, Secretary of Energy in the United States Administration who has bravely disclosed details held secret for years of the manner in which an uncaring, nuclear industry has wilfully exposed unwitting victims.

This motion has been signed by a total of 86 MPs, 2 of these signatures have been withdrawn.