A French health specialist says he is all in favour of an independent study into possible genetic changes as a result of France's nuclear weapons tests in French Polynesia.
Picture taken in 1971, showing a nuclear explosion in Mururoa atoll. Photo: AFP
The head of the medical centre looking at test veterans, Patrice Baert, has told local television in Tahiti that today nobody can challenge that such a study is needed.
He was reacting to a report by a child psychiatrist Christian Sueur who linked a high incidence of pervasive developmental disorders and deformities among children to their parents' and grandparents' exposure to radiation.
Dr Baert said there was no study confirming this.
He attributed the health problems in the Tuamotus to the impact of lead taken from old car batteries which is used for fishing.
Dr Sueur had called for an independent study and Dr Baert now says he is for one as well.
Until 2009, France maintained that its 193 tests were clean and caused no damage to human health.
