Claims that the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 may have doubled the number of baby deaths in Bradford need to be subject to more scrutiny, Bradford health experts said today.

Professor Neil Small, a professor of health research in the School of Health at the University of Bradford, said he would like to see the theory subjected to rigorous peer review.

"It seems a difficult connection to make and all sorts of assumptions are being made," he said.

"This is the sort of work that needs peer review."

The comments follow reports in the Telegraph & Argus yesterday on claims made by epidemiologist and statistician John Urquhart.

He said that analysis of health statistics in areas where "black rain" clouds passed over - including Bradford - in the wake of the Soviet reactor blast suggest the "shock" trend which had gone unnoticed for 20 years.

Mr Urquhart said the disaster could have caused more than 1,000 infant deaths in Britain and neo-natal deaths in Bradford - deaths within the first 28 days of life - appeared to have doubled from 33 to 64 in the year of the disaster.

But Prof Small said: "I would be very interested to see the data he has got. I would like to have a look at his sources and data that he is basing his claims on."

Official maps show a cloud swept up through Kent and London, into Hertfordshire and the East Midlands before curving round Bradford and into the North West and passing over the Isle of Man towards Northern Ireland.

Looking at health figures for around 200 hospital districts, Mr Urquhart said there was an 11 per cent rise in infant deaths between 1986 and 1989 as opposed to a figure of just four per cent in non-affected areas.

Speaking to the T&A, Mr Urquhart, a former adviser at Cambridge University research unit, said he would be following up the claims made in a presentation to a conference in London yesterday with a scientific paper.

"There is a scientific paper that will be put forward for peer review," he said.

"But the fact is all the information has been publicly available for the past 20 years.

"Bradford was affected by rain and infant deaths rose from 33 to 64.

"It is up to the clinicians to say why was this not picked up 20 years ago.

"Why were questions not asked then?

"There should be an open debate - a very important public debate."