[ RadSafe ] " German doctor takes anti-nuclear message to western Canada "

[Franta, Jaroslav]

German doctor takes anti-nuclear message to western Canada
Canadian Press, 8 October 2008

PEACE RIVER, Alta. _ A German doctor is travelling through western Alberta delivering a message about the dangers of nuclear power.

Dr. Ernst Iskenius says a 2007 study by the German government shows the closer you live to a nuclear power plant, the more likely your children will get cancer.

Iskenius, a member of the international organization Physicians Against Nuclear War, is on a speaking tour that includes visits to Regina, Whitecourt and Peace River.

He says the report found that during the years of 1980 to 2003, children under the age of five living close to a nuclear power plant were 120 per cent more likely to develop leukemia.

He says there were also 60 per cent more likely to develop other forms of cancer.

The report looked at 16 power plants and was funded by the German Federal Radiation Protection Agency.

The several doctors involved in the four-year study were a mixture of those against nuclear plants, and those who were proponents, said Iskenius.

"It is an extraordinary study,'' he said. "The results were quite different than (the government) expected. They expected no evidence like they did in prior studies, but what they found was they took all 16 plants and found there was a significant risk to get cancer (in children).''

The study also observed children downwind from the plants and found similar results.

Despite the findings, there is still uncertainty about nuclear power within Germany.

German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said he was perplexed by the findings, as radiation levels are regulated rigorously.
"The population's radiation exposure due to the operation of a nuclear power plants in Germany would have to be at least 1,000 times higher to be able to explain the observed increase in cancer,'' he said.

Iskenius urged northern Albertans to lobby government to reconsider allowing a proposed nuclear reactor near Lac Cardinal, north of Peace River.
"If this nuclear plant is too dangerous and there is a risk for all children then we either accept these things as very dangerous or we (raise) the standards,'' he said.
"On the international level we are fighting to shut down all of these installations because the risk is too great.''
















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