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Home > Press > Year 2010 > Press Release 11 as of 07/21/2010
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Press Release 11 as of 2010/07/21
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No enhanced risk of deformity for newborn babies in the vicinity of Biblis and Philippsburg
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There is no enhanced risk in the near vicinity of the nuclear power plant sites of Biblis and Philippsburg for toddlers being born with a deformity than there is for children in other regions of Germany. This is the result of a study of the University of Mainz Register of Births carried out on behalf of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS). In the vicinity of these nuclear power plants the study determined the frequency of congenital deformities and compared the data with the deformity frequency in a region where there is no nuclear power plant.
The BfS had already had investigated the frequency of tumours in children under the age of five in the vicinity of all west German nuclear power plants. It showed that there was an enhanced risk for children of getting cancer, especially leukaemia, in the near vicinity of the reactors. The cause of this risk has not been clarified so far, however. Because, according to the current state of knowledge, the observed increase in diseases can not only be explained by the radiation exposure originating from a nuclear power plant.
Parallel to this, the question was examined in the now presented study whether there was possibly also an enhanced risk of deformities in the vicinity of nuclear power plants. For this purpose, all births and abortions between November 2006 and February 2008 were registered within a radius of ten kilometres around the reactors of Biblis and Philippsburg and in a reference region without nuclear power plants. The study comprised 5,273 children and fetuses, of these there were 5,218 children born alive, 30 born dead and 25 induced abortions. The children born alive were examined by especially trained paediatricians. All detected deformities were classified by an international body of experts.
No difference was found in the frequency of congenital deformities between the environment of the two nuclear power plant sites and the reference region. Neither did a trend show as to the distance from the reactors indicating an increasing risk with increasing vicinity of the place of residence to the reactors. With the presented study one of the most comprehensive studies world-wide on the topic of deformities in the vicinity of nuclear power plants was carried out.
In evaluations of the data gained form the deformity study carried out later on an indication was found that an occupation of the mothers as occupationally radiation exposed person in the medical field could possibly go along with an enhanced risk of deformity. However, this indication is based on only a few individual cases. Whether this is associated with radiation exposures or other causes in the occupational area and whether this association can be confirmed in further studies or if is possibly accidental requires further clarification. The BfS will commission further investigations on this topic.
The report of the deformity study is available for download at "DORIS", the Digital Online Repository and Information System of the BfS. Please always refer to URN urn:nbn:de:0221-20100316750 as source when quoting from the report.
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