Skin problems show up in two Maralinga veterans

By SCOTT MacLEOD

Two of the five veterans exposed to radiation at Maralinga later suffered skin problems - but their families are not sure whether the ailments were caused by atomic bombs.

Major Peter Hamilton, who died aged 81 in 1999, had skin that was extremely sensitive to sunlight, and Brigadier Kim Morrison, DSO, OBE, aged 87, suffers from unusual lumps on his head.

Two of the other Maralinga veterans, Brigadier Blackie Burns, aged 83, and Flight Lieutenant Roger Peart, aged 78, say they have experienced no health problems from radiation.

Few details are available on the fifth veteran, Commander L.B. Carey, who is understood to have died.

The Herald tracked down the families of Major Hamilton and Brigadier Morrison yesterday.

Major Hamilton's daughter, Elizabeth Catherall, of Wellington, said her father's skin grew more sensitive as he aged.

But his family had a history of skin allergies and the problems could have been caused by harsh sun he experienced while fighting in Africa during the Second World War and in Malaya.

Although she was not sure if radiation caused the problems, she still supported the NZ Nuclear Test Veterans Association bid to get answers from the British.

"I think it was a pretty arrogant approach of the British Government."

Brigadier Morrison is recovering in Auckland from a series of strokes and also suffers from sores and lumps on his head that have puzzled doctors.

But he fought in Africa and Greece and later commanded the Fijian armed forces for four years - all places where he would have been exposed to strong sunlight.

Brigadier Morrison's son, Mike, said the family supported what the veterans' association was doing.

A National Radiation Laboratory scientific director, Dr Andrew McEwan, said the New Zealanders took about as much radiation from the bombs as they would from an x-ray Machine.

He believed the tests were done carefully.

The New Zealanders allegedly used as "guinea-pigs" received radiation similar to that in normal building materials and less than a hospital CT scan.

He said nine out of the 268 people at Maralinga received noticeably more radiation than the rest, but still within safe limits. Most of those men had flown through mushroom clouds.

But the chairman of the veterans association, Roy Sefton, said Dr McEwan's ideas were skewed.

The blasts emitted four types of radiation and the British had consistently tested only one type, gamma. Scientist Karl Morgan had found 300 times as much of a second type, beta, but his results were largely ignored.