Birth defects for nuclear test veterans

Claim made by: Daily Mirror
Location: Daily Mirror
Spotted on: 2014-11-19

"A recent study found children born to the 22,000 British troops sent to witness blasts in the South Pacific in the 1960s had 16 times the normal rate of birth defects."
via http://bit.ly/1yyZ1db

Update 2015-01-07

The journalist at the Mirror replied that he took the numbers from an article in the Sunday Mirror (5 April 2014, Nuclear Test Veterans scandal continues as children are STILL being born with medical defects three generations on http://bit.ly/1x2q3cr). That article cites a statistical survey by Professor Chris Busby that "found that children of the [nuclear test] vets were 10 times more to get birth defects and five times more likely to die as infants. [sic]" When I read that article in April, I asked a couple scientists whether there was any connection between birth defects and exposure to nuclear radiation.

Dr Rob Tarzwell, Nuclear Medicine Specialist at Lions Gate Hospital in Vancouver, Canada, told me that:
“The best available evidence fails to show any connection between birth defects and parental exposure to nuclear weapons. This comes from the Radiation Effects Research Foundation, RERF, which is an ongoing study of Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors and their descendants. In brief, no unusual rates of birth defects has been observed in the children of survivors, who were exposed to much higher doses of radiation than have been emitted from Fukushima.”

Professor Pat Doyle of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine added:
"The Mirror article seems to rely solely on evidence from one study - the Rowland et al study of chromosomal abnormalities in test veterans. Some of this evidence is published but not all.
"Also, the article does not make clear that the study they quote did not look at the health of the offspring of test veterans directly. To my knowledge there has been no study conducted on this to date, so there is no evidence one way or the other. However the weight of evidence from related work - including that on the health of the offspring of radiation workers, and the health of offspring of atomic bomb survivors, does not support a link.
"Another point to note is that birth defects are not that uncommon in the general population. Using 1% to 2% as a reasonable range of prevalence for major structural malformations, 22,000 veterans, and assuming that one veteran had one child each (probably an underestimate), we would expect them to have between 220 and 440 children with some kind of anomaly, without having to assume an increased risk associated with radiation. To me this is the tragedy - the causes of most anomalies are unknown. We need good epidemiological studies to throw light on this relatively under researched area. Parents want answers, and often blame themselves."

The Mirror article mentioned that the British Nuclear Test Veterans' Association had secured a meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron to discuss whether descendants of people involved in nuclear testing should receive compensation. This prompted me to write to the Prime Minister to share the views of Dr Tarzwell and Professor Doyle. On 7th May 2014, I received a reply from the Ministry of Defence (attached) which said:
"It is the position of this, and previous, Governments' that there is no published peer-reviewed evidence of excess illness or mortality among veterans as a group, or their families, which could be linked to their participation in the tests or exposure to radiation as a result of that participation. Formal and well documented procedures were in place to ensure the health and safety of those participating in the tests.
"In response to the health concerns of some veterans, the MOD has previously commissioned three studies into cancer incidence and mortality among nuclear test participants conducted by the independent National Radiological Protection Board (now part of Public Health England). The most recent report, published in 2003, concluded that overall levels of mortality and cancer incidence in Nuclear Test Veterans (NTVs) have continued to be similar to those in a matched control group and lower than the general population."

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It's nonsense

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