Veterans with genetic defects from nuclear test protests desperate for descendants to be cared for

Sunday, 4 August 2019

Cyril Goulsbro reveals his tattoo marking his involvement in the Mururoa protests. There would also be more insidious reminders of his service in the Pacific.

A navy veteran who caught sight of his own finger bones in the flash of a nuclear blast is urging the New Zealand Government to help families suffering health problems linked to the military service of their relatives.

Tere Tahi was stationed on the HMNZS Rotoiti, off the coast of Christmas Island, when he first witnessed a nuclear bomb explode during Operation Grapple in 1957.

Tahi, now 81, said families of the 562 sailors, many of whom suffered genetic damage from radiation-related diseases, were still under a cloud of uncertainty more than 60 years after the blast.

Joining their crusade are the families of further 500 Kiwi sailors, who were sent to protest French nuclear testing at the Mururoa Atoll in 1973.

Mururoa Nuclear Test Veteran Group president Gavin Smith and group member Tony Cox talk about the effect of watching the 1973 nuclear test at Mururoa. (Video first published in August 2019).

* Research gives hope for nuclear test vets families**

However, the Government has never accepted the responsibility to fund a study on the long-term adverse health effects to the sailors' descendants, despite existing research revealing disturbing results.

Their desire for an admission that radiation exposure caused genetic defects has fallen on deaf ears, with the Government refuting a Massey University study which found veterans who attended the protests bore a greater number of genetic mutations than others.

Following a decade-long protest, veterans were awarded 'war disablement pensions' in the 2000s, but only for specific types of cancers. It did not extend to family members who may have inherited genetic defects.

In 2013, a report by the Ministry of Veterans' Affairs discredited the university's study, saying its 'poor choice of exposed and control subjects' made it difficult to draw accurate conclusions.

Tere Tahi was a radio operator on the HMNZS Rotoiti during Operation Grapple in 1957.

The University of Otago is now conducting the first comprehensive medical testing of veterans' children and grandchildren.

Ruth McKenzie, an ex-nurse whose husband was on HMNZS Pukaki, surveyed the families of 235 Grapple veterans in 1997. Of 443 pregnancies, there were 99 miscarriages, 16 still births and two abortions.

Twenty-five offspring didn't survive early childhood because of severe deformities.

Tahi, who lives in Bulls, suffered several illnesses, some of which were inconclusively linked to radiation exposure, and the worst was post traumatic stress disorder.

Like most veterans, he struggled with day-to-day life after Operation Grapple. Plagued by nightmares, he couldn't escape the haunted memories and visions of mushroom clouds, which would be brought on by certain sights and sounds.

Mururoa veterans, from left, Tony Cox, Cyril Goulsbro and Gavin Smith.

'We didn't know about the long-term health effects of radiation then.'

Many of his crewmen died of cancer before they had turned 40, prompting Tahi to establish the New Zealand Nuclear Veterans Association with the aim of lobbying the Government for help.

'A lot of the guys started talking about their children. It was heartbreaking.'

One man had lost three children before he was 23, Tahi said.

His own children have been affected, filling him with guilt. His grandson died of cancer, aged 23.

Cyril Goulsbro, who went to Mururoa aboard HMNZS Canterbury, said the Government had a duty of care to help all those affected by sailors attending the nuclear protests.

His daughter had a rare skin condition, which didn't run in the family.

Nuclear Test Veterans Association chairman Roy Sefton.

Tony Cox also went to Mururoa, serving as an executive on HMNZS Otago. Eighteen years ago, he was diagnosed with a rare form of skin cancer called cutaneous non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which doctors say was caused by radiation.

'The doctor said: 'In our career, this is the type of cancer we never see. We only see photos of it'.

'At some point, it's going to turn inward and then that's it.'

Cox said sailors were there protesting on behalf of the Government, not themselves.

'To those who disagree that veterans' families shouldn't [be entitled to state funding], I say, I hope my grandchildren don't breed with your grandchildren and something rears an ugly head.'

Association chairman Roy Sefton wanted the report which discredited the university study removed from the Ministry's website so it didn't mislead future researchers.

He contacted Veterans' Affairs Minister Ron Mark last year, but he hadn't responded.

In a statement to Stuff, Mark said the delay was because the association's concerns were part of a 'complex, historical' case.

He had written to his British counterpart, defence minister Tobias Ellwood, earlier this year and was still 'reviewing' Ellwood's advice.

He said he would respond to the association soon.

A new British report into the mortality rates and frequency of cancer in veterans is expected to be released in 2020.