Atomic work 'caused cancer'

The environmental pressure group Greenpeace hailed as a 'historic breakthrough' an inquest verdict that bone marrow cancer contracted by a former worker at Aldermaston atomic weapons plant was an industrial disease.

Stanley Athawes, 70, of Newbury, Berkshire, worked at the plant for 26 years and was exposed to radiation 27 times. He died of multiple myeloma. John Couch, a solicitor representing more than 60 Aldermaston workers who claim to have been exposed to radiation, said the verdict established an important link.