Another amendment attempted to delete the phrase 'We are convinced that safe final disposal routes are available in the United Kingdom,' and was defeated by four votes to one. I then attempted to delete the whole of Chapter 7 of the report and to incorporate a new chapter entitled, 'The Dangers of Radioactive Discharges'. This was based on the research of an American nun, a physicist, Rosalie Bertell, whose work has been published in her book, No Immediate Danger.4 This new chapter looked at the links between nuclear installations such as Sellafield and the high incidence of leukaemia, and stressed that given the great uncertainty surrounding the health effects of radioactive doses it was crass to assert that there were 'safe' levels of discharges. I quoted work undertaken by James Cutler of Yorkshire Television which suggested that Seascale, near Sellafield, had a leukaemia rate twenty-four times the regional average. Cutler challenged the findings of the earlier Black Report which failed to make any connections between outbreaks of cancer and radiation from nuclear installations. I also cited the excellent work of Stuart Boyle, of Friends of the Earth5 which suggested that it was implausible to dismiss the incidence of childhood leukaemia as a statistical freak. My amendment stated that
there is strong evidence to suggest that discharges emanating from nuclear sites at present bring with them a very serious health hazard. We therefore recommend that discharges from such sites are, as far as technically possible, ended unless irrefutable evidence is produced that they are safe ... We also recommend that the Government establish an enquiry investigating the evidence of cancers around all nuclear establishments, examining the medical records of those working in, or living near to, nuclear establishments, and that such an enquiry does not repeat the logical and statistical errors of the Black Report.
Labour and Conservative Members on the Committee combined to defeat these proposals, five votes to one. This is a small glimpse into the frustrations of political life and of society's failure to act early enough. It always seems to take another disaster before anything is done. Frustration pales into insignificance when measured alongside the grief of families - like that of little Gemma who died in the summer of 1990 from leukaemia, which the family believed was a direct result of discharges from Sellafield.