The Radio 4 Today programme (i) has revealed that nuclear workers at Sellafield and other nuclear sites had organs and tissues removed from their bodies at post-mortems apparantly without the knowledge or permission of their relatives. This occurred from 1962 to as late as 1992. Stroud District Green party campaigners are asking whether Oldbury workers were subject to this process.
 
Alaister Darling, Minister for the Department of Trade and Industry announced the launch of an inquiry into the matter, prompted by calls from the GMB, a trade union representing nuclear workers.
 
Asked for his reaction to the scandal, Dr Chris Busby of Green Audit who studies health effects of radiation, said: "It was commonplace at that time to remove organs to monitor for radiation but equally shocking was that ordinary members of the public also had organs removed to test for plutonium near nuclear sites. A scientist called Popperwell discussed this in three internal papers he wrote in 1988 for the National Radiological Protection Board (ii)."
 
Cllr Philip Booth, a Stroud District Green party spokesperson said: "Removal of organs from deceased radiation workers without their consent would be morally, ethically and probably legally wrong. Many local families will be concerned by this news and deserve to have answers."
 
Philip Booth added: "There would be no grounds for such an act without workers consent. However it does highlight one further issue - more research is needed into the effects of being exposed to plutonium and other radionuclides whilst working or living near nuclear sites. One minute particle of plutonium lodged in any part of the body will continue to constantly irradiate surrounding tissue during the whole lifetime of the person. Unfortunately the IAEA and all other nuclear watchdog organisations still continue to use outdate and poor models to estimate dose rate and risk. Is it any wonder there are unacceptable health risks from nuclear power?"

Latest report from The Times today, 19th April: A deceptively neutral piece of jargon surfaced at least three times in Alistair Darling’s remarks to the House of Commons on postmortem examinations of former workers at the Sellafield nuclear power station. The term was “audit trail”. There was no audit trail, Mr Darling acknowledged, in the available documents on 65 deceased Sellafield employees to indicate whether organs taken from their bodies were removed with their families’ consent. Stripped of euphemism, this means that key records on post mortems carried out on dozens of people who had worked for a highly secretive nuclear power utility at a time of intense controversy over the effects of radiation on the human body, have been lost, hidden, or were never made at all.

Times 19th April 2007

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article1674247.ece
 
Notes:

(i) BBC Radio 4 Today programme 18th April 2007. See report here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6565409.stm
 
(ii) Contacts:
NRPB now known as the Health Protection Agency: 01235 831600
Dr Chris Busby: 07989 428833