UK Health Research

Incineration

In this section we explain what is meant by the term PM2.5s and discuss the effects of incinerators on public health.

Click here to see a map showing pattern of infant deaths in wards around Edmonton Incinerator

Click here to see a map showing Infant Mortality Rates in electoral wards upwind & downwind of Coventry incinerator

Click here to read Shropshire Star letters on the health effects of breathing in PM2.5 emissions.

Click here to see Dr Woodward’s ‘scientific’ report about Ironbridge Power Station. Note that her report has no ‘control’ in an area free from PM2.5 emissions from the power station or any other source and lacks any data or journal references.

SELCHP & Infant Death Rate Changes Graph

This graph illustrates the changes in Infant Death Rates in three Boroughs exposed to emissions from the SELCHP incinerator located in South Bermondsey, London. Note that Wandsworth is mainly “upwind” of SELCHP and therefore relatively free from emissions.

Edmonton Map of Infant Mortality rates

The Greater London Authority’s map [click here, page 8] shows wards with infant death rates of 9.0 per 1,000 live births and above for period 2002-2008 and this map shows how emissions from Edmonton incinerator cannot be excluded as a causal factor. Click here to learn more

Kirklees Map of Infant Mortality rates

Cllr Ann Raistrick, who is concerned about high infant death rates in parts of Kirklees, will find this map useful – as will the Social Services Departments in Kirklees and elsewhere.

Open Letter to Daniel Kawczynski MP 21.07.2009

Daniel Kawczynski was a member of the EFRA committee which examined the performance of the Environment Agency in 2006 and should by now realise that the Environment Agency is ignoring the health effects of incinerators, aided and abetted by the Health Protection Agency and others. (Click here to read Michael Ryan’s statement to the House of Commons which has been ignored so far by MPs and the Environment Agency).

Objection letter to Harlescott Incinerator, Shrewsbury

Sheila Healy used to be Chief Executive at Cornwall County Council, where the councillors turned down the proposed St Dennis incinerator in March 2009. The Shropshire Star haven’t bothered to report this fact despite SITA wanting to build a similar incinerator at Granville, Telford. Note that Capel Parish Council had another SITA incinerator proposal quashed in the High Court in January 2009. The Shropshire Star ignored this as well.

HPA admit no health studies around incinerators

The Health Protection Agency give ‘expert’ advice to Primary Care Trusts about the health effects of incineration and yet they haven’t bothered to examine the rates of illness and premature deaths at electoral ward level around any incinerators. The PCTs accept the Health Protection Agency’s worthless advice and make no objections to incinerator proposals on health grounds.

Infant deaths 4 x higher downwind of Ironbridge Power Station

Click here to read how Office for National Statistics (ONS) data at electoral ward level shows a four-fold increase in rates of infant mortality downwind of Ironbridge Power Station compared with upwind for the five year period 2003 – 2007.

High Infant Mortality rates in Sheffield, Rotherham & Doncaster

Click here to view the map detailing the high rates of infant mortality in electoral wards around incinerators in the area of Sheffield, Rotherham and Doncaster.

REPORT regarding NEWHAVEN proposed incinerator site

Read the report by Dr Dick van Steenis on the varied health effects of incineration, together with the wider social and economic impact.

London boroughs with highest & lowest infant mortality rates

Read which London boroughs have the highest infant mortality rates, and which ones have the lowest (based on 2006 London infant mortality data).

Norwich Lecture

Should past failures to get justice over health damage from industrial
PM2.5 emissions from incinerators etc. discourage further efforts?

Infant death rate 3 times higher downwind of Power Station

Examination of ONS data for years 1998 – 2005 has shown that electoral wards that are downwind of the Ironbridge Power Station had an average infant mortality rate three times that of the upwind wards.

Incinerators: A Few Home Truths

The Shropshire Star Letters page has revealed that the UK’s incineration policy is based on fraud and has no consideration for the provable adverse health effects of PM2.5 emissions including the significant reduction in life expectancy.

Jonathan Davies, of Enviros Consulting Ltd is a co-author of DEFRA’s report about waste disposal and he has been exposed by the Shropshire Star’s letters page. Click here to read letters which are a key part of Incinerators: A Few Home Truths.

Some opponents of waste incineration opt for processes that result in pelletized waste that is then burnt in incinerators or cement kilns resulting in high levels of toxic PM2.5 emissions.

Something disturbing in the air

The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health is the professional body of Environmental Health officers in local authorities who have a duty to monitor air quality. They seem unaware of the fact that the PM10s that they monitor are too large to get into the lungs and cause health damage. They should all have had ample opportunity to read this important article during the last 12 months.

Ironbridge Power Station Emissions Cover-up

Telford and Wrekin Primary Care Trust (PCT) have failed to examine the pattern of illness and premature deaths downwind of Ironbridge power station, but have invited Michael Ryan to prepare a scientific report. The preliminary outline of that report was part of a statement of evidence to the EFRA Committee investigation into the performance of the Environment Agency who fail to monitor industrial PM2.5 emissions. Click here and see pages Ev 202 – 206 of the report published 11 May 2006.

Co-incineration of coal and waste oils has resulted in a reduction in average particle size from PM5 to about PM2.2, which has meant that the majority of emissions have become small enough to enter the lungs. There has been a significant deterioration in health and life expectancy among those downwind of the power station compared with those living upwind.

PM2.5s and life expectancy

PM2.5s are particles that are small enough to enter the lungs. Particles that are larger than 3 microns in diameter (PM3s) are too large to get into the lungs.

Harvard School of Public Health found that for every reduction of one microgram per cubic metre of industrial PM2.5 emissions in average levels of industrial PM2.5 emissions, there were 3% fewer deaths. The largest drops in mortality rates were in cities with the greatest reduction in fine particulate air pollution, ie PM2.5s. Click here for the Harvard press release 15 March, 2006.

Unlike the USA and many other countries, the UK do not measure PM2.5s, preferring to measure PM10s, ie particles that are between 11 microns and 4 microns in diameter that are too large to get into the lungs and cause a range of illnesses and premature deaths of all ages.

The huge increase in PM2.5 emissions in the UK during the last decade has reversed the previous upward trend in life expectancy. If life expectancy were increasing, the age of the oldest resident would also be increasing. That is not happening as the oldest recorded resident was 115 years old in 2000. Infant mortality rates are highest where industrial PM2.5 exposure is greatest. Anyone living in an electoral ward with a high infant mortality rate can expect their lifespan to be curtailed with their health.