The Seascale childhood leukaemia cases-the mutation rates implied by paternal preconceptional radiation doses

Abstract

Recent studies have demonstrated that paternal preconceptional radiation exposure is an insufficient explanation of the excess of leukaemia cases among children born in the West Cumbrian village of Seascale. Less than 10% of the children whose fathers were employed at the Sellafield nuclear installation and received a dose of radiation prior to their conception were born in Seascale; but the statistical association between paternal preconceptional radiation dose and leukaemia is apparent only in these Seascale-born children. The authors explore the speculative proposition that the Seascale leukaemia cases are caused by a strong interaction between paternal preconceptional irradiation and exposure after conception to a specific co-factor which is confined to Seascale. This hypothesis is demonstrated to be biologically implausible the implied rate of transmitted radiation-induced leukaemogenic mutations being far beyond the established rates for hereditary effects.