Days 12-18. Epidemiology; the principles and the various types of studies, prior to Gardner, the Gardner case control study, A Bomb data and studies since Gardner.
Start of the epidemiological section where the Plaintiff’s experts were heard before the Defendants. with Professor Stephen James Evans, a medical statistician from the London Hospital Medical College giving evidence.
As the Defendants BNFL would not accept the Gardner paper as fact, the Plaintiffs obtained all the dose data relating to the workforce as well as some further dose data on additional individuals linked to the Gardner study since its publication. Professor Evans had undertaken the re-analysis. He had also used revised dose data since, in the course of discovery, it had become apparent to the Plaintiff’s lawyers that the dosimetry could be improved. After both parties “agreed doses”, re-analysis of the data confirmed the findings seen in Gardner: that there was a statistically significant relationship between pre-conception radiation exposure and risk of a child developing leukaemia. Professor Evans had also analysed data on internal dose for the workers in the study and found some evidence for increasing risk with increasing internal dose in the six month period prior to conception.
The latest transcript files can be found under Health/Leukaemia Transcripts.