Leukemia Discovered Around La Hague

["the greenbase" <greenbas@gb.greenpeace.org>]

GOVERNMENT STUDY CONFIRMS LEUKEMIA AROUND LA HAGUE; GREENPEACE
CALLS FOR IMMEDIATE END TO REPROCESSING/RADIOACTIVE DISCHARGES 

PARIS, June 18, A report revealed by the French newspaper Le
Monde today confirms that there is a concentration of leukemia
around the state-controlled La Hague plutonium factory. 
Greenpeace, which is currently conducting environmental
monitoring of the plant's radioactive discharges, greeted the
news with sadness, stating that it confirms their belief that
COGEMA has victimized the local population by contaminating the
environment with radioactive waste.

The study was commissioned by the French government in January
1997, following a leukemia study published in the British
Medical Journal by Professor Francois Viel, which identified an
increased level of leukemia around the La Hague plant.

"This confirms what Greenpeace has been saying for years," said
Damon Moglen of Greenpeace.  "COGEMA's victimization of the
population of Cap La Hague must stop. We demand that the  French
government instruct COGEMA to immediately suspend all
reprocessing and radioactive discharges into the environment."

In response to the new study, the new French Secretary of State
for Health, Bernard Kouchner, has called for an investigation
into radioactive contamination around La Hague and the
improvement of the local and national cancer registry.
Furthermore, Dominique Voynet, the French Environment Minister,
issued a statement endorsing the independent sampling activities
conducted by Greenpeace and calling for an immediate
investigation into environmental contamination around la Hague. 

 
The news comes one day after COGEMA illegally removed Greenpeace
sampling equipment from the end of the company's discharge pipe,
which annually pumps some 230 million liters of nuclear waste
into the Atlantic.  COGEMA's illegal seizure of the
organisation's equipment came in response to Greenpeace's
release of preliminary sample results. Greenpeace's analysis
proved that COGEMA's radioactive discharges have turned the
ocean floor into a nuclear waste dump. The sediment sample
analysis, released on June 13, showed that stones covering the
ocean floor were so radioactive that EC regulations would
require that they be treated as controlled nuclear waste.

"It's about time that science catches up to common-sense--
pumping nuclear waste into the sea is a public health and
environmental catastrophe," said Moglen.
--End---

NOTE: Greenpeace will be releasing new sampling information in
Cherbourg on Friday, June 20.

For More Information: Damon Moglen, ++31-6-5341-7947
Luisa Colasimone, ++31-6-5312-8907
Damon Moglen
phone in Paris: ++33-1-5343-8587
mobile phone: ++31-6-5341-7947
email address: damon.moglen@wdc.greenpeace.org