TEN years after Chernobyl, radioactivity levels in Irish sheep are still above the recommended maximum, the Radiological Protection Institute has confirmed.
However, an RPI spokes woman said the latest monitoring results "continue to indicate that regular consumption of sheepmeat does not constitute a significant health hazard".
The RPI's results coincide with demands for an investigation into rising cancer rates on a Scottish island which doctors believe might he linked to fallout from Chernobyl. GPs on Benbecula, in the Outer Hebrides, have reported a trebling of cancer cases in the last 18 months - mostly in the lungs and digestive system. The Western Isles Health Board has said it will investigate the matter.
The radioactive cloud from Chernobyl passed over Ireland on May 3rd and 4th, 1986, when heavy rain increased ground contamination.
In conjunction with the Department of Agriculture, the RPI has been carrying out a monitoring programme on sheep for radioactivity. The programme consists of testing mountain sheep, sheep being slaughtered and checking sheepmeat from butchers' shops.
The RPI spokeswoman said yesterday that "some sheep, in a limited number of upland areas, continue to have radioactivity levels in excess of the limit considered suitable for marketing.
"These areas are in parts of the mountains of the northwest, north east and south of the country. The results show that the activity in these upland sheep has generally fallen below 1,000 becquerels per kilogramme (Bq/kg), a decrease of a factor of three to four below the levels experienced shortly after the Chernobyl accident. The slow decrease will continue during the coming years."
The spokeswoman said that before being slaughtered, sheep from these areas were grazed on lower pastures where the radioactivity levels decrease rapidly. Monitoring of live sheep at slaughterhouses was also undertaken in local abattoirs in these areas.