I RESPECT Ted Sherrell?s comments (Letters, April 29) about the economic importance of the Devonport Dockyard, not only for those employed there but also for the many businesses that depend on the dockyard for their existence. However there are health implications about working with nuclear submarines that need to be considered.

There are many people in Plymouth and Tavistock who have developed asbestosis lung disease, and some the fatal cancer mesothelioma, from working with asbestos in the dockyard. Originally it was thought quite safe, then minor but inadequate safeguards were installed and only now too late do we realise the terrible dangers of working with asbestos.

British servicemen witnessed atomic bomb tests in the South Seas standing on the deck of Royal Navy ships. They had to turn away for the flash but could then turn around to watch the mushroom cloud rise. They were exposed to unnecessary radiation. At about the same time a fire at Windscale (now Sellafield) nuclear power installation was covered up.

We pollute the Irish Sea with plutonium from Sellafield and the Irish and Norwegian Governments (not just the Green groups) have officially protested to our Government. The National Radiological Board has over the years made consistent and significant underestimates of the danger of radioactivity and has gradually reduced the so-called safe level.

Asbestos generally only affects those who work with it unless there is careless removal when it can be carried by the wind to surrounding areas. Radioactivity stays in the environment to affect our children and our children?s children for generations to come. I do not know how dangerous the radioactive discharges are but search the internet for tritium to find out a bit more. We need answers to our questions and not a cover up for strategic or microeconomic reasons.

If we were to design a nuclear establishment from scratch we would not put it in the middle of a city. I think Devonport Dockyard needs to be responsible and diversify away from any work that involves radioactivity and should seek to survive on other kinds of work for the sake of generations to come.

Dr Rupert Gude

Treveglos

Whitchurch

AS Cllr Ted Sherrell correctly points out, many people in Plymouth lobbied to get the submarine contract but did they have any idea at the time what the health risks were going to be?

The West Devon councillors have been sent the details of the recent survey undertaken by the Plymouth Campaign Against Nuclear Storage and Radiation which found 1,800% increase in leukaemia adjacent to the dockyard.

Even Michael Meacher, MP, Environment Minister 1997-2003 said, at a public meeting in Plymouth in March, that he felt ?deeply suspicious? and had ?considerable doubts? about the scientific evidence presented to him before he allowed a 500% increase in tritium discharges in the River Tamar in 2002.

Cllr Sherrell refers to employment, but the majority of workers in the dockyard are not connected with the nuclear site. Those directly employed on nuclear work are less than 500 permanent staff.

Of the 4,000 or so who also work in the dockyard, most are engaged with the non-nuclear ship refits. Compare this with the 10,500 who work in the tourist trade in the city - or the 11,000 that work for the council, plus the 12,000 that work in the Health Service, plus the tens of thousands in manufacturing from Wrigleys and Toshiba through to Marine Science.

The claim that Plymouth relies on the nuclear submarine work is untrue; to the contrary, if the south coast becomes the ?Sellafield of the South?, nuclear submarines will be a liability causing cancer and leukaemia rates to soar and devastation to the tourist and other industries.

Plymouth is the only city in the world where nuclear submarines are re-commissioned adjacent to a population of 270,000 people and 400 yards from a primary school. Surely it is time we had a public debate about this seriously important matter as requested by Ms Laithwaite at the council meeting, and then the community can judge who is pursuing ?blinkered and self-indulgent dogma?.

G P Laithwaite

Tavistock Peace

Action Group