Madam, - I think we are entitled to ask how Adi Roche (Dec 27th) comes to know so much more than the 700 scientists working on the radiation consequences of Chernobyl, which I visited in 1994.
Why should scientists of many disciplines from a wide array of countries wish to tell anything other than the truth as they see it from their observations over 19 years? Chernobyl fortuitously and sadly presented them with a remarkable opportunity to study the effects of radiation on the site and among the affected populations.
Is she suggesting that their report that fewer than 60 people have died as a result of Chernobyl or that there is no evidence of any excess of leukaemia in the population is dishonest?
If so, why, when all the popular pressures are to talk up the consequences? Adi Roche will have to do better than this. - Yours, etc,
(Sir) BERNARD INGHAM, Purley, Surrey, England.