Environmental Radioactivity
The Isle of Man Government Laboratory carries out its own independent monitoring of environmental radioactivity on the Island. Since 1989 the Laboratory has issued Annual Reports dealing exclusively with radioactivity in foodstuffs and the general environment. The monitoring results have shown no evidence of hazardous levels of radioactivity on the Island.
Sellafield Pollution
The Isle of Man is located in the middle of the Irish Sea some 55km from the Sellafield nuclear fuel reprocessing plant. Seafood landed on the Island contains low levels of radionuclides associated with effluent discharges from Sellafield to the Irish Sea.
Chernobyl Fallout
The Isle of Man, like other areas of the British Isles, received some radioactive fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl accident. Heavy rainfall deposited radioactivity on hill land, resulting in the contamination of sheep and the necessity for legal controls on sheep farming. Over the years the restrictions were removed from hill land, where sheep passed live-monitoring tests to show that they contained no significant concentration of radiocaesium.
Annual Reports
The Department of Local Government and the Environment have published the results for the year 2007, of their on-going radioactivity monitoring on the Island.
The year 2007 report reveals that no increased level of radioactivity was found in locally-produced foods or the general environment. This report has now been published and is available to view or download.
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