The ban on milk consumption significantly reduced the radiological impact of the accident on the population. Jackson and Jones7 estimated that the ban averted 75% of the ingestion dose to children, and a higher proportion of the ingestion dose to adults. The maximum dose to the thyroid of children in the local area was 160 mSv, with average doses being in the range 10-100 mSv.7 As a result of the milk ban, the main dose pathway was inhalation,10 though in children there was also a significant contribution from ingestion.7 The collective effective dose equivalent from external radiation, inhalation and ingestion was approximately 1900 person-Sv in the UK and 100 person-Sv in the rest of Northern Europe.10 Estimates imply that about 50% of the collective effective dose equivalent was due to inhalation, the remainder being mainly due to ingestion of milk and other foods (about 35%), the rest being attributed to external radiation from the cloud and ground deposits. Clarke11 estimated approximately 100 fatal and 100 non-fatal cancers in the UK population (over a 40-50 year period) resulting from the Windscale fire release. Polonium-210 was expected to give rise to the majority of fatal cancers. Thyroid cancer (from 131I), being in most cases successfully treatable, would be expected to form the majority of non-fatal cancers.

The median dose to 466 workers involved in fighting the fire and in clean-up work was 3.52mSv with the maximum individual dose being recorded as 43.9 mSv (determined from monthly dose monitoring records for October 1957).12 It was reported12 that the collective dose to these workers was 2.33 person-Sv for October 1957, which was approximately double the average monthly collective dose for 1957. As might be expected from the low median individual and collective doses, a study12 of mortality and the number of registered cancers during the period 1957-97 was ‘‘unable to detect any effect of the 1957 fire upon the mortality and cancer morbidity experience of those workers involved in it’’.