KEY POINTS:
New Zealand servicemen who suffered genetic damage after watching British nuclear tests in the Pacific 50 years ago say they want their children's health investigated too.
A Massey University study yesterday found former sailors who observed the nuclear blasts had a high level of cell abnormalities, which was
likely to have been caused by radiation exposure.
The chairman of the Veterans Association, Roy Sefton, responded by calling on the Government - which paid $100,000 towards the research - to pay $500,000 more for work on the effects on veterans' children, many of whom have been born with genetic deformities.
The study compared the health of 50 veterans with 50 other men with similar profiles, including age, alcohol and tobacco consumption, and occupation.
It had previously found the veterans had a 30 per cent rate of cancer, compared with just 4 per cent for the control group.
Mr Sefton said he would seek a meeting with Veterans Affairs Minister Rick Barker over the next month to discuss the possibility of more funding.
A former nurse, Ruth McKenzie, has done preliminary research into the families of nuclear veterans.
She found 50 per cent of the children suffered genetic deformities and more than 200 pregnancies were miscarried.
Indications from the minister's office yesterday were positive. Mr Barker said he welcomed the Massey University research findings.
The Government was "open to new information and analysis" of the health effects from nuclear exposure, he said.
The Government would monitor national and international research into the health effects of nuclear test veterans and their children.
A spokesman for the minister's office said Veterans Affairs officials would look at the research and make recommendations to Mr Barker. Those recommendations could include consideration of further research funding.
There had been no talk of ex-gratia lump sum packages, similar to the $30 million announced for Vietnam veterans last year for dioxin poisoning effects. "The [research] report doesn't call for that," the spokesman said.
No link has yet been drawn between the bomb tests and the potential effects it had on the offspring of the men, although the veterans point to a horrific list of of mystery illness and deformities in their children.
"The children are the innocent victims in this," Mr Sefton said.
Indications were that the required research would need about $500,000.
"We do know that radiation causes problems in children, look at Chernobyl for example. So there's every reason to suspect that the children of the New Zealand nuclear test veterans have in fact suffered genetically some damage from their fathers' service there.
"I didn't join the Navy for my children to be genetically damaged by my service. I did it to defend my country, be involved, and was quite prepared to be wounded or killed if there was action."
The veterans have never won lump sum compensation for their suffering, from either the British or New Zealand Governments.
"When Winston Peters was Deputy Prime Minister he got the Operation Grapple [nuclear test veterans] men elevated to war and emergency status," Mr Sefton said. That meant the men were able to receive a war pension.
The Government had recently gone a little further however, committing $100,000 to the just-completed research project. Groups such as the Lion Foundation and Cancer Society had helped.
Potential cancer cells tripled in ex-servicemen
Servicemen who watched the nuclear tests in the Pacific have almost three times the level of potentially cancer-causing cells as other men their age.
Lead researcher Dr Al Rowland, one of the world's top 20 molecular geneticists, concluded the results proved a significant correlation between the veterans' exposure and their ill health.
Dr Rowland said radiation could cause chromosome damage, which could in turn lead to abnormal developments such as cancer cells.
The human body had 46 chromosomes consisting of 23 pairs. When two chromosomes broke, there was a chance that genetic material - consisting of thousands of genes in a specific order - would be swapped around, a process called translocation.
That could be very damaging to a person and it depended on where the breaks occurred as to how damaging it might be for the cell.
"You can get genes re-localised in to a position that can activate them when they're not supposed to be activated. That cell can become an aberrant cell."
Translocation happened naturally as the human body got older, but it was the pure number of translocations that veterans had undergone that was the key to the research.
"When you look at a normal healthy person of that age (65-75), you would expect to find 10 translocated cells among 1000, just by the world we live in and the age people are at."
"But we found an average of 29 translocations. That is high."
NZ sailors 'human guinea pigs' - veteran
How did New Zealand servicemen get exposed to nuclear radiation?
In 1957 and 1958 Britain carried out nuclear tests at Christmas Island (now part of the Kiribati group) in the Pacific. The tests were observed by 551 New Zealanders on the frigates HMNZS Pukaki and Rotoiti. The men were told to stand on the open decks of the ships as the nine-megaton explosions were detonated. Distances to ground zero and the amount of protective clothing worn by the men were deliberately varied over the course of the tests.
Were they being used to test the effects of nuclear radiation?
Definitely, say the veterans. Roy Sefton, chairman of the New Zealand Veterans Association, said veterans were used as "human guinea pigs", observing nuclear bomb blasts from distances within 30km of ground zero. "At the first detonation we were dressed in so-called protective clothing, normal anti-gunfire, flash hoods and gloves. Dark glasses were produced specially for us to protect the eyes. "Every member was required to be on deck, and after 10 seconds we were told to stand up, remove goggles and look up." As distances to ground zero reduced, the military men were told to remove protective clothing.Mr Sefton said at the last blast he attended, the fifth out of nine, he stood on the deck dressed in nothing more than shorts and sandals.
What were the long-term effects?
About 400 of the veterans have died since the tests, many from cancer-related illnesses. Others have watched their offspring suffer horrific disabilities, including severe limb or organ deformities. There have been up to 200 cases of miscarriages among the men and their partners.
Are they seeking compensation?
A $3 billion compensation claim against the British Government has been under way for many years, led by British veterans but including the New Zealanders and some Fijians.
