Incinerator Ill-Health Cover Up

A major new study into whether incinerator emissions affect human health has been delayed and will not be published until next year, it was revealed today. The Public Health England study had been due to be published this March, but now it will not be completed until 2015.

Scientists from Imperial College London and Kings College London have undertaken the study on behalf of Public Health England, to see if ill health and infant deformities around 22 incinerators have any link to those incinerators. A clear link could be seen if there are more cases downwind, but it is feared that the Scientists have been instructed to take an average around each incinerator.

Campaigners around the country have studied ill-health statistics issued by the National Office of Statistics and have identified that people living downwind of incinerators suffer much higher cases of ill-heath and infant mortality than people upwind of incinerators. The Government’s claims of lower socio-economic conditions in those areas are unfounded.

In Greater Manchester, the Breathe Clean Air Group has been campaigning to stop the biomass waste incinerator, known as the Barton Renewable Energy Plant, to be located at Davyhulme, Trafford. Group Chairman, Pete Kilvert said, “the Government is hell bent on burning the country’s waste and telling us that it won’t do us any harm. When waste such as plastics, metals and organic material are burnt at low temperatures, then new chemicals such as dioxins and heavy metals will settle out into our community. The toxic fall-out can accumulate in school playgrounds, to be kicked up and breathed in by children at play. This will have massive ill-health impacts for the people of Trafford, Salford and Manchester”.

The fate of the Davyhulme incinerator will be known next week when the High Court considers Trafford Council’s Appeal to prevent its construction and operation in the heavily populated area of Davyhulme.