[Incidence of leukemia in the Elbmarsch area]

The extremely conspicuous excess of leukaemia in the immediate neighbourhood of the world's largest boiling water reactor Krümmel is shown in its temporal and spatial context. An early extensive Lower Saxony state research programme gives no hint what so ever for a cause beyond three known risks of the region: 1. the main point is that the radiation exposure is well-known for causing leukaemia; 2. contamination of drinking water with an unknown substance containing nitrogen; 3. emissions from a chemical factory (according to a brief toxicological report, however, without potential for causing leukaemia). The leukaemia cluster is discussed against the background of a new valuation of radiation risk derived from recent Hiroshima data and the Mainz Leukaemia Study published in February, which points out in analogy to late British studies a significant increase in the leukaemia risk for the most radiation-sensitive group of infants and young children (aged 0-4) in the proximity of nuclear power plants.