Removal of body parts from Sellafield workers

[TonyGosling]

Sellafield body parts inquiry grows, says QC
David Ward
http://www.guardian.co.uk/nuclear/article/0,,2123429,00.html

Wednesday July 11, 2007
The Guardian

The barrister investigating the removal of body parts from Sellafield workers and those at other nuclear plants over 30 years said yesterday that he expected the number of cases would rise beyond the 65 already disclosed by BNFL.
But Michael Redfern QC refused to estimate how many cases he might consider in the year-long inquiry, whose sessions will be held in private. "I would not expect that it will be a large number," he said in Whitehaven, Cumbria, where the inquiry will be held. "But I would expect it to exceed, from looking at the research, 65.

"It would be wrong to speculate. You could have mass hysteria on your hands if you were not careful."
The inquiry was announced in April by Alistair Darling, then trade and industry secretary. Mr Redfern, who chaired the inquiry into the removal of children's organs at Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool, will also consider cases at plants at Capenhurst, Cheshire; Springfields, Lancashire; Aldermaston, Berkshire; Harwell, Oxfordshire, and possibly other sites.

Mr Redfern added: "I must make it abundantly clear that blame, fault, the conduct of the nuclear industry, have nothing to do with this inquiry save insofar as it bears upon the use of organs to investigate the cause of death and whether the law prevailing at the time was complied with."

Since the inquiry was announced it has emerged that organs were removed at postmortem examinations and apparently burned by doctors investigating evidence of radiation contamination.

Some families have called for a public inquiry but Mr Redfern said yesterday that private hearings, with their emphasis on an investigative rather than an adversarial approach, would mean the report would be produced earlier and families would feel more comfortable. He also said witnesses could remain anonymous. The report will be submitted to John Hutton, secretary of state at the new Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. Mr Redfern hopes Mr Hutton will publish it in full.