The rates of breast cancer in the Welsh counties of Ceredigion, Anglesey and Conwy have now risen to some of the highest in the world for the 55-64 age band. Most establishment experts attribute this to better screening programmes but Dr Chris Busby* suspects fallout from nuclear weapons testing carried out by the US and USSR in the '50s and '60s.

Rainfall

Rainfall delivers high levels of radioactive fallout. The west coast of Wales, like Canada, Scotland, Switzerland and parts of the USA, experiences high rainfall and has experienced high fallout in the past. Humans may be exposed directly via rainfall on skin, or indirectly via water from uncovered wells, contaminated grains, eating or drinking products from animals which have been exposed or have eaten contaminated grains and grasses.

These new statistics from the Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit also show that leukaemia rates for both men and women in Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire are above both the Welsh and European averages.

Ed.- (i) Breast cancer rates were also high in the other counties on the west coast of Wales (Gwynwedd and Pembrokeshire). These also experience high rainfall but it raises the possibility of a second source: the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant. The Irish Sea is allegedly the most radioactive in the world. If Burnham-on-Sea is a good example (see Green Health Watch 16), contamination could be blown inland from mudflats and beaches.

(ii) Breast cancer is the most common cancer worldwide.[1] For reasons still unknown, it began to increase all over the world after 1950. It is clear that there are many factors involved, including exposure to strontium-90.

(iii) The US Department of State reports that reverse osmosis water filters remove fallout.

* a world authority on the apparent links between low level radioactive pollution and cancer, the scientific secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk, and director of Green Audit