April 4, 2006

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Chernobyl 'killed Brits'
By Emma Morton
The Sun, UK
March 25, 2006

Black rain ... path of radioactive showers
Click picture to enlarge

THE Chernobyl disaster killed more than 1,000 British babies, an expert claimed yesterday.

The radioactive “black rain” that fell over certain parts of the UK between 1986 and 1989 caused a ten per cent rise in infant death rates.

Areas prone to frequent showers — the north west, west Midlands, Scottish Highlands, Cumbria and Wales — were worst hit.

The ‘black rain’ boosted the risk of deadly respiratory problems and certain cancers in the vulnerable tots, it is thought.

The claims were made yesterday by ex-Cambridge University statistician John Urquhart, who tracked health records and Met Office reports from the time.

Mr Urquhart, who studied 50,000 infant deaths in 11 areas from 1983 to 1992, said: “The long term trend of infant mortality was declining at about four per cent per year, but that was interrupted by Chernobyl.”

Protected ... Chernobyl worker
Picture: REUTERS

It is almost 20 years since the Ukrainian reactor exploded in April 1986.

Radioactive clouds crossed Scandinavia and France before reaching here. When they mixed with rain clouds ‘black rain’ fell.

Bradford, Leicester, Merseyside, Bristol and Northern Ireland all showed sharp increases in infant mortalities, said Mr Urquhart.

He told the Nuclear Free Local Authorities conference in London: “People have been trundling along for 50 years saying radiation isn’t dangerous. These observations pose a challenge to the scientific establishment.”