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Home > Press > Year 2007 > Press Release 014
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Press Release 014 as of 2007/12/19
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BfS and GCCR jointly support results of the childhood cancer study
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The main results of the KiKK study are reliable, and are shared by all parties involved in the study. That is the result of a meeting between the contractor of the study, the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) and the authors of the investigation, the German Childhood Cancer Registry (GCCR). The meeting was held after media had repeatedly reported on a dissent between the contractor and the authors of the study in the days following it’s publication. BfS President Wolfram König: „We decided to take this step because we agree on all main results. There was only disagreement on questions not directly associated with the commissioned part of the study. People living near nuclear power plants have a particular interest that we jointly meet the challenge resulting from this study.“
BfS and GCCR emphasise the high quality of the study. „The study shows that the risk for children under five years of age to contract leukaemia increases the closer they live to a nuclear power plant”, Prof. Maria Blettner, head of the study, points out. The study is thus an essential component in answering the issue of health effects in the vicinity of reactors, which has been discussed for about 30 years, since it applied a new approach which is epidemiologically more ambitious than previous studies.
BfS and GCCR also agree that no statements on the causes of the increased cancer rates can be derived from the study. König: „Due to the fact that the risk clearly depends on the distance to the reactor sites there are indications of possible connections but there is no proof“. Current knowledge of radiation-biological effects cannot explain the interrelations between normal operation of nuclear power plants and the increased number of leukaemia cases. Blettner: „I think that this study provides us with a good basis for making progress in finding the general causes of leukaemia“. BfS has planned to hold an expert meeting in spring 2008 where the causes that can lead to childhood cancer are to be discussed with experts of various disciplines.
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