NORTH-EAST men who witnessed nuclear explosions in the 1950s and have suffered a lifetime of ill health have rejected Government claims they were not exposed to a high cancer risk.

The British Nuclear Test Veterans' Association has called a study into the experiment in Australia and the Pacific a whitewash.

Families of the men say their poor health is a direct result of the radiation they were exposed to during the controversial experiments.

They claim research has already proved high cancer rates among the men who took part in the blasts.

But last week, a study by the Government's National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) contradicted that view.

It compared the health of 21,000 ex-servicemen who took part in nuclear experiments with 22,000 men of a similar age who were not involved.

It found the death rates between the groups from natural causes and from cancer were the same.

Veterans' group secretary Sheila Gray, of Billingham, Teesside, lost her husband, Frank, to cancer in 1992.

She said research at Dundee University showed veterans were 30 per cent more likely than ordinary people to develop multiple cancers.

Mrs Gray said: "This is a whitewash which is being used to hide the truth."

But Dr Colin Muirhead, of the NRPB, defended his study.

He said: "It was overseen by an independent advisory group who were happy with our results."