Study backs (UK) nuclear test veterans' claims (NZ)

[jpak]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4584973a11.html

Associate Professor Al Rowland's world-first study - which showed naval veterans who were exposed to nuclear tests in the Pacific 50 years ago had 300 per cent more genetic mutations than normal - has just been published in the prestigious journal Cytogenetic and Genome Research.

Experts who reviewed the paper said the results had significant implications for nuclear test veterans in New Zealand and in Britain.

"Because there will be no chance to repeat the investigation in the future, it is highly desirable and, in fact, necessary to publish the paper now," one wrote.

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Of the 551 Kiwi veterans involved in Operation Grapple (the code name for nine British tests carried out in the Pacific between 1957 and 1958), more than 400 are dead, mainly from cancer.

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