Farmed salmon found to contain traces of radioactive waste

Traces quantities of radioactive waste from Sellafield have been found in Scottish farmed salmon sold in major British supermarkets.

The tests commissioned by Greenpeace revealed traces of the radioactive waste product Technetium-99 (Tc-99) in packets of fresh and smoked salmon.

However, Dr Andrew Wadge, the Food Standards Agency's director of Food Safety, said: “Even at the maximum concentrations found by Greenpeace, a person would have to eat 700 portions of salmon a day for a year to reach the annual permitted EU radiation dose.

“This means consumers have no need to be alarmed. Low levels of Technetium-99 are found routinely in lobster, shellfish and other fish from waters around Sellafield.

“We have been conducting our own survey into levels in salmon and our initial results show there is no cause for concern.'

According to Greenpeace, the tests, conducted independently by Southampton University's oceanography centre, found low levels of Tc-99, a by-product of Magnox fuel reprocessing, in farmed Scottish salmon sold at Sainsbury's, Tesco, Asda, Safeway, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer.

Dr David Santillo, a scientist at Greenpeace's research laboratories at Exeter University, said: "Tc-99 should not be there at all. It is inexplicable yet significant. Scottish salmon is marketed as something that comes from a pristine environment."

While health experts consider the levels found, up to 20 becquerels of Tc-99 per kilogram, to be relatively low and not an immediate threat to human health, Greenpeace warned that if the government does not act now levels of radioactive pollution in salmon and other foods would increase and called on the Government to shutdown Britain's Magnox reactors.

The Government is likely to come under attack over Sellafield's emissions at the forthcoming Oslo and Paris Commissions (OSPAR) meeting to be held in Germany.

In 1998, the Government promised OSPAR, the commission charged with the protection of the marine environment in the north-eastern Atlantic, that Sellafield's emissions would be reduced, but since then, according to Greenpeace, emissions have increased.

(SP)