Contamination in Australia shown

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33215, 3 May 1973, Page 1

Contamination in Australia shown

(N.Z. Press Association-Copyright) CANBERRA, May 2. The Australian Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) told Parliament today that the French nuclear tests in the South Pacific had resulted in radioactive fall-out over Australia and contamination of the Australian environment.

Mr Whitlam said that the contamination was clearly and conclusively established in four reports which he tabled in the House of Representatives.

Reports by the National Radiation Advisory Committee and the Australian Academy of Science had established that Australians might have been adversely affected by the French tests, he said. Mr Whitlam announced the formation of a new body to be known as the Australian lonising Radiation Advisory Council to advise the Government on the effects of ionising radiation on the Australian population and environment. The Australian Academy of Science report said that fall-out in Australia from French nuclear tests in the Pacific could lead to increased incidence of cancer and genetic mutations. The report estimated that previous French tests produced a level of whole body irradiation in Australia of about one millirad a year.

“This would correspond to about one mutation in the Australian population in every 10 years, leading to death or disability in the first generation,” the report said.

The total possible genetic deaths and disabilities from radiation levels resulting from French tests would be 50 to 100 distributed over all future generations of Australia.

In the unlikely circumstances of a high-powered bomb, combined with exceptional meteorological circumstances, the increased radiation dose could lead to more than a thousand deaths and disabilities in all future generations. The report said that although the average levels of radiation due to French explosions were unlikely to make a statistically detectable increase in the cancer and genetic effects in Australia, there should be no unwarranted exposure to radiation. Further, with the longlived isotopes, the effects on the Australian population, though small, would be cumulative.