New Zealand sailors suffered genetic damage from their exposure to radiation during nuclear tests held in the Pacific in the 1950s, a scientist leading a new research study said on Friday.
A total of 551 New Zealand Navy sailors witnessed nine nuclear tests in 1957 and 1958 at close quarters, wearing only white cotton hoods and dark glasses to protect themselves from the blasts. Only about 160 are still alive, and many died in their forties and fifties.
New Zealand, British and Fijian veterans have joined forces to try to win compensation from the British government which has steadfastly denied that servicemen were exposed to dangerous levels of radiation during the tests at Christmas Island, now part of the small island state of Kiribati.
Doctor Al Rowland of the Massey University Institute of Molecular Bio-Sciences and colleagues overseas have been studying blood samples from veterans of the tests, known as Operation Grapple.
”The tests will not be completed for another 10 months but I can say I have seen evidence of genetic damage,” Rowland said.
Genetic damage from radiation is linked to various cancers and other medical problems.
Rowland is conducting the New Zealand government-funded study for the Nuclear Test Veterans Association.
Before starting the study he had questioned if any genetic damage would show up more than half a century after the nuclear tests were conducted but there was clear evidence of damage, he said.
Veterans association president Roy Sefton said the findings would be important in attempts by the New Zealand, Fijian and British veterans to win compensation.
But he was concerned the findings would not be available until the study is completed in August.
The veterans’ case has been funded by Britain’s Legal Services Commission which provides legal aid. But after making the first of three agreed payments, the funding dried up, making it difficult for the veterans to continue their case.
”The other thing is many of our people are old and some are very sick. A year is a very long time for them,” Sefton said.
”We are worried their [British Ministry of Defence] aim is to hold us off long enough, so we will lose the will to continue.”.
A Television New Zealand documentary screened on Thursday said although the New Zealand sailors were told they would be 200km away from the nine blasts, sometimes they were as little as 80km away.
Those still alive have suffered with a variety of illnesses including cataracts, skin problems, chronic arthritis, blood cancers and premature ageing.
Research by a widow of an Operation Grapple veteran showed half of the children of the veterans had genetic defects, compared with 2,5% amongst the normal population. Half of pregnancies resulted in miscarriage or still births, the documentary said. – Sapa-AFP