Mutant Rat?

[Matthew X]

Fallout deaths
By NICK RICHARDSON
31aug02
RADIOACTIVE fallout from the British nuclear tests in the 1950s might be 
linked to an alarming rise in infant deaths in some Victorian towns.Fallout 
deaths
By NICK RICHARDSON
31aug02
RADIOACTIVE fallout from the British nuclear tests in the 1950s might be 
linked to an alarming rise in infant deaths in some Victorian towns.
Approaching the 50th anniversary of the first nuclear explosion on October 
3, 1952, at the Monte Bello Islands off the West Australian coast, research 
reveals several towns in Victoria, NSW and Queensland recorded 
higher-than-usual infant death rates in the late 1950s.
Each of the 12 tests conducted in and around Australia from 1952-57 
generated a nuclear cloud. In some areas, the nuclear plume met rain 
clouds, forming a potentially lethal solution.
According to official radioactivity monitoring stations at the time, Sale, 
Echuca, Hamilton, Mildura, Nhill, Swan Hill and Warrnambool were exposed to 
some radiation - especially after the final bomb at Maralinga in October 1957.
Australian and British authorities maintained at the time the exposure was 
minimal and there was no threat.
But in the past 50 years, evidence has emerged there is no safe level of 
radiation exposure. A survey of infant mortality rates in the Victorian 
towns reveals a circumstantial link between the nuclear rain and a rise in 
deaths.
Sixteen children aged up to two died in Mildura in 1958. In 1959, the 
number was 20, before dropping to 13 the next year.
Warrnambool had a similar pattern. The number of infant deaths in 1958 was 27.
It increased to 34 in 1959, then dropped to 16 in 1960.
Mt Isa in Queensland and Tamworth and Armidale in New South Wales mirror 
the Victorian results.
The initial alarm about fallout was raised by Australian scientist Hedley 
Marston in 1957.
Mr Marston found a radioactive cloud from the third nuclear test passed 
over Adelaide and left debris in the city's northern suburbs.
His research on sheep and cattle, which had eaten fallout-tainted pasture, 
indicated the presence of a lethal nuclear by-product, strontium 90.
Approaching the 50th anniversary of the first nuclear explosion on October 
3, 1952, at the Monte Bello Islands off the West Australian coast, research 
reveals several towns in Victoria, NSW and Queensland recorded 
higher-than-usual infant death rates in the late 1950s.
Each of the 12 tests conducted in and around Australia from 1952-57 
generated a nuclear cloud. In some areas, the nuclear plume met rain 
clouds, forming a potentially lethal solution.
According to official radioactivity monitoring stations at the time, Sale, 
Echuca, Hamilton, Mildura, Nhill, Swan Hill and Warrnambool were exposed to 
some radiation - especially after the final bomb at Maralinga in October 1957.
Australian and British authorities maintained at the time the exposure was 
minimal and there was no threat.
But in the past 50 years, evidence has emerged there is no safe level of 
radiation exposure. A survey of infant mortality rates in the Victorian 
towns reveals a circumstantial link between the nuclear rain and a rise in 
deaths.
Sixteen children aged up to two died in Mildura in 1958. In 1959, the 
number was 20, before dropping to 13 the next year.
Warrnambool had a similar pattern. The number of infant deaths in 1958 was 27.
It increased to 34 in 1959, then dropped to 16 in 1960.
Mt Isa in Queensland and Tamworth and Armidale in New South Wales mirror 
the Victorian results.
The initial alarm about fallout was raised by Australian scientist Hedley 
Marston in 1957.
Mr Marston found a radioactive cloud from the third nuclear test passed 
over Adelaide and left debris in the city's northern suburbs.
His research on sheep and cattle, which had eaten fallout-tainted pasture, 
indicated the presence of a lethal nuclear by-product, strontium 90. END
professor rat was born in 55 at Ballarat,country Vic.French tests 
raised  cesium levels in milk around the late 50's early 60's.