Radioactive gas 'not to blame' for cancer cluster

Radon gas was yesterday ruled out as a cause of a leukaemia cluster which killed a teenage boy and struck two of his schoolmates. Detailed testing carried out at the school at Camelford, Cornwall, found levels of the gas were within recognised limits for non-domestic buildings. Cornwall has the country's highest levels of radon, a naturally occurring radioactive gas.

Last autumn, the authority revealed investigations concluded that neither the Camelford acid water disaster in 1988, nor electromagnetic fields from an overhead power cable in the area of the the school caused the cluster.In the water pollution incident, supplies to 20,000 people in the Camelford area were affected after 20 tonnes of aluminium sulphate was accidentally dumped into the wrong tank at a water treatment works.

Health experts were called in by the health authority after three teenagers in the same 25-strong tutor group at the Camelford school were diagnosed as having leukaemia.