Veterans always claimed the official study was a lie – now evidence has emerged government figures may be unreliable
Evidence of more than 1,000 troops given a radiation dose was intentionally removed from an official government study into their causes of death.
Scientists ditched the data while undertaking research into the cancer rates of veterans ordered to take part in Cold War nuclear bomb tests.
Their final report claimed there was no connection between their subsequent deaths and the weapon trials, ruling any cancers the result of “chance”.
It was only 70 years after the tests that an updated version of the research finally found a statistically-significant link between service at the nuclear test sites and later death.
But it was still unable to draw conclusions about whether cancers had a direct link to radiation – and now it appears a large number of recorded doses were removed from the study at the start.
Now campaigners are demanding the Ministry of Defence stop relying on the study, already discredited after it was revealed officials had demanded rewrites to the conclusions. And they intend to raise it in a meeting with Prime Minister Keir Starmer promised for early in the New Year.
Alan Owen of pressure group LABRATS said: “Veterans always knew this study was a lie – now we have proof. It’s threadbare science the MoD can no longer use to cover up its misdeeds.
“We expect to meet the Prime Minister in the New Year and will be asking him to drop the act, and honour the victims of human radiation experiments.”
The revelation comes from a summary of dose records, held by the Atomic Weapons Establishment and known as “the Blue Books”. They were locked as a state secret. Only AWE staff with top-level security clearance had access, and requests to view them were repeatedly refused.
The Mirror finally obtained a copy after a 14 month Freedom of Information battle, and the files show that in 1982 a total of 14,290 servicemen were noted as taking part in trials, held in Australia and the Pacific over more than a decade.
Of these, 6,053 had a radiation dose recorded by atomic scientists. Although many were considered low, it was known at the time there was no such thing as a safe dose, and any amount of radiation could cause injury.
But in 1985 when the government launched a cancer and mortality study, 1,031 of them were removed.
The latest official data claims a total of 20,956 men took part, but there were just 5,423 recorded doses. As a result, the total number of veterans whose deaths were examined increased by 47%, while the number of those who were exposed was slashed by 17%.
Former RAF aircraft technician John Folkes flew sampling missions through atomic clouds at Operation Buffalo in Maralinga, Australia, in 1956. He was also given a radiation badge and told to walk through a bomb crater after an explosion. But although scientists recorded doses for 967 men at Buffalo, almost a third were removed. Only 786 were used in the study.
John, 89, of Broadstairs, Kent, wore badges to record his dose every day. He now has prostate cancer and has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress. He said: “When we handed them in they said they’d be entered in to our medical records. We thought they were keeping us safe. Increasingly, I wonder how I survived.”
Researchers say they removed duplications, but there has been no explanation as to whether the removed doses were all duplicates, or if they were different to those used in the final report.
A MoD spokesman said the discrepancy was due to the “rigorous” research, and confirmed some troops were intentionally excluded because NHS medical records could not be found.
He added: “The Blue Books were used only as a starting point for determining the list of participants, not as a definitive record. The study researchers undertook extensive work to verify records and tracing individuals through NHS systems, and remove duplicates or errors.”
