"More cancers here due to Chernobyl"

The disaster triggered a radioactive cloud that also passed over Belgium. The authorities say that the impact on public health was negligible, but not everybody agrees.

Officially, the Chernobyl cloud did not claim any victims in Belgium, but the Walloon oncologist Luc Michel now claims that the authorities were not vigilant enough. In Flanders cows were ordered back to the cowshed. In Wallonia no action was taken.

Twenty-five years on Luc Michel now says it would have been better to keep children indoors too.

During the nineties Dr Michel operated on several children. They were all the same sensitive age when they were exposed to the radiation and all went on to develop cancer of the thyroid gland.

The youngest was two months at the time of the disaster, the eldest six years. Cancer of the thyroid gland is rare in children as is its metastasis. Luc Michel believes that the cause of this spate of rare cancers should be investigated.

The doctor attempted to establish the exact radiation levels in the days following the accident, but the data is not available. He says that only a confidential report drawn up at the Met Office reveals that the nuclear accident triggered ramifications here. Peaks of 70 Becquerel per day were measured when the cloud crossed Belgium.