Results of the Redfern Inquiry
Wednesday 18 November 2010. Updated 24 November 2010.
The findings of the Redfern inquiry were formally announced in the House of Commons yesterday.
The inquiry, led by Michael Redfern QC, was launched in 2007 initially to investigate the circumstances surrounding the removal of organs and tissue for medical research analysis from 65 deceased individuals who had worked in the nuclear industry between 1961 and 1992 at Sellafield. The inquiry later expanded to cover the period from 1955 to the present, and include all UK nuclear facilities that had laboratory facilities. A key focus of the inquiry report surrounded the issue of consent for use of organs and tissue for research within the context of the law in place at the time. The Medical Research Council (MRC) was not involved in the research at Sellafield that first prompted the inquiry but carried out research on the biological effects of ionising radiation and on radiological protection.
In the 1950s and 60s, in the face of widespread public concern about the long term effects of nuclear weapons testing, the MRC carried out Strontium-90 (Sr-90) surveys, which monitored the impact of nuclear fission in the UK environment, looking for signs of Strontium-90 particularly in air, rainwater, human diet (via cow’s milk) and human bone using post mortem tissue. Strontium-90 is a radioisotope present in the fall-out from nuclear fission. It has a half-life of about 28 years. If ingested by humans (or animals), it is selectively taken up by bone. Measurement of Sr-90 in human bone is therefore an estimate of exposure to fall-out, and was used to estimate health risks to individuals. Bones were taken from more than 6,000 deceased people, many of them infants, and the research spanned two decades. Nineteen reports of the monitoring programme were published by the MRC contemporaneously - between 1960 and 1973. The Redfern inquiry concluded that consent was not obtained from the families to the removal of bone for the Sr-90 research.
Dr Tony Peatfield, director of corporate affairs at the Medical Research Council said:
“The survey was an important and valuable piece of research but that does not in any way justify the removal of tissue without appropriate consent. Whilst it is very likely that the families involved were unaware that tissue from their loved ones were used in this survey, we are nevertheless grateful to them and regret any distress that may have been caused by uncertainty that tissue from a family member may have been used. Nowadays the legislation and systems in place for consent are very robust. Ethical principles are a top priority for all MRC research.”
An independent committee set up by the MRC in 1998 mirrored some of the conclusions of the Redfern inquiry in relation to the Sr-90 survey. The Neuberger Report is publically available and investigated radiation studies funded in the 1950s and 1960s, including the Sr-90 survey. The Neuberger committee found that during this time and in some cases consent (or evidence of lack of objection) had not been adequately sought or obtained for the use of post mortem tissue.
Today, the legislation and MRC policy governing consent is rigorous and explicit. The MRC was the first organisation in the UK to formulate ethical principles to be observed by those undertaking medical research and all MRC researchers are required to follow comprehensive ethical guidelines.
The MRC co-operated fully with the Redfern Inquiry and has published the following documents relating to the Inquiry;
- MRC Statement in preparation for the Inquiry Hearing (February 2009)
- Opening statement from the MRC (January 2008)
- The MRC and the Redfern Inquiry (November 2010)
ENDS
