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Mr. Nigel Evans (Ribble Valley): I do not recall receiving a letter from the hon. Gentleman saying that he would be visiting my constituency.
Mr. Prentice: I hope that the hon. Gentleman will forgive me for not observing the parliamentary proprieties on that occasion. It was my mistake.
The plant manager and his colleagues were very courteous and helpful, and showed me the cement kiln.It was the first time that I had been in a cement plant. The kiln was an enormous metal structure, 100 or more yards long. It revolved slowly, generating a tremendous amount of heat: if I got too close, I had to back off. Inside the kiln, the temperature reached about 1500 deg C. I was taken to a viewing platform and invited to look through the spyhole just behind the lower part of the kiln, where the flame was. It was like the fires of hell. I thought that nothing could survive such an inferno--that everything would be vaporised, neutralised and made safe. Subsequently, however, I bumped into scientifically qualified people who knew much more about the subject than I did, and what they said gave me pause for thought.
I have raised this issue not just because of my own concerns, but because constituents have pressed me to secure answers to the questions that they have raised, so far without success. Judy Yacoub and her colleagues in the Pendle branch of Friends of the Earth have taken a close interest, and people in Clitheroe have also been in touch with me, although I have always made it clear that I should not be regarded as a surrogate Member of Parliament for Ribble Valley.
I should also mention Mary Horner, who seems to have lived and breathed the issue for years--literally, in fact, because her house is in the path of the plume from Castle
Cement's chimney and is regularly enveloped in it. People in Clitheroe are worried about the plume "grounding", and about its effect on health. The main group of campaigners is known by the acronym RATS, which stands for Residents Against Toxic Substances. Its members are concerned about the fact that Cemfuel is being burnt without proper regard to the health of people living in the vicinity. Their January newsletter records that Ribble Valley council's environment committee passed a vote of no confidence in HMIP in November last year. The council did that because of HMIP's alleged
It beggars belief that a responsible local authority could pass such a resolution about another public authority, HMIP.
In March 1995, Ribble Valley council's environment and social services committee recommended that HMIP be told that the council could not support the continuation of the burning of Cemfuel at Clitheroe until the following measures were put in place:
The committee took that view because of the information that had appeared on the public register. That information compared stack emissions and increases in emissions following the burning of Cemfuel, with emissions from the combustion of coal. There was a72 per cent. increase in ammonia, a 54 per cent. increase in particulates, which are sooty particles--I am not entirely sure what these things do to the human body, but they do not sound attractive--a 534 per cent. increase in chromium, a 54 per cent. increase in lead, an 819 per cent. increase in nickel, and so it goes on. Ribble Valley council was obviously concerned that that stuff was spewing out of chimney stacks at Castle Cement and that council tax payers would be breathing it all in.
The RATS January newsletter quoted two scientists, Dr. Vyvyan Howard from Liverpool university and Professor Paul Connett. I do not know how wide its distribution was, but the newsletter said:
When I read that newsletter, I thought that it was a bit alarmist and that, if I lived in the Clitheroe region, I would feel uncomfortable and anxious. I wanted to dampen anxieties and try to reassure people, but with such newsletters circulating in the Clitheroe region, it is clear that people are hyped up about the threat to their health and to that of their children.
On 10 January, the Minister told me that, over the preceding 21 months, HMIP had received approximately 440 complaints against Castle Cement,
On the same day, he told me that HMIP had sought advice from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, from East Lancashire health authority and from the Department of Health. After seeking that advice, HMIP concluded that it was
except perhaps the smell.
I have a clipping from the Clitheroe Advertiser and Times of 22 February. The banner headline reads:
The strapline says:
The story goes on:
Mrs. Elizabeth Gardner was reported as saying:
She goes on:
Later in the article, she says:
The article goes on:
Then he added:
Tough luck for anyone playing in the playground at Chatburn primary school in February, because of the turbulent wind conditions. The article goes on to talk about the authorisation.
I have the minutes of the meeting that took place between RATS, the borough council, HMIP and Castle Cement on 4 December 1995. It quotes Donald Boardman and his colleagues from RATS. I quote it because we are talking about ordinary people, living in the area, breathing this stuff and experiencing it, who are concerned about their children. The minutes of that meeting say:
The minute goes on:
Those are all the questions that come cascading out of the mouths of people who live in the area.
There were problems with the monitoring. An earlier newsletter from the same organisation in September, when the National Physical Laboratory was monitoring air quality in the area, referred to the two worst incidents that occurred in September, when the monitoring equipment was never where it was meant to be. The two worst incidents during the first week of the monitoring appeared to be in Park avenue, when the lab was at Moorlands school, and at Worston, when the lab van was at Chatburn, and on both occasions the hotline did not work. That was the monitoring carried out by the National Physical Laboratory, which will inform the decisions that the Government and HMIP will take about whether Cemfuel should continue to be burnt.
The RATS people also complained about the role of the East Lancashire health authority, which covers that area. They refer to Dr. Stephen Morton, who has been complaining that the health authority does not have the resources to monitor public health in the Ribble Valley.
For this Adjournment debate, Castle Cement produced a briefing note. It helpfully sent a copy to me and to other hon. Members who are interested in the matter. That briefing note says:
That may be the case, but I should like to see the evidence to justify the health authority and the Department of Health giving Cemfuel a clean bill of health.
On 6 November last year, I asked the Secretary of State for Health whether he would commission studies into the health effects of burning Cemfuel. On that occasion, I was told by the then Minister, the hon. Member for Bolton, West (Mr. Sackville), that the Department of Health would contribute to the Government's response to the Environment Committee's report--the one that 10 months later we do not yet have--but that the Department had no plans to commission any studies on the subject. That is absolutely astonishing. On 30 November last year, the Under-Secretary of State for the Environment told me that HMIP had yet to complete its consultation on health issues. Presumably it was waiting for the results of the investigative monitoring of the National Physical Laboratory, to which I have already referred.
One Clitheroe resident, who is an active member of RATS, Linda England, wrote to Dr. Stephen Morton because she was concerned about the incidence of asthma. He replied on 31 January, saying that he was not in a position to release raw data on asthma incidence in the Clitheroe area of Ribble Valley, because the number of hospital admissions was small and patient confidentiality might be compromised. He also said that the health authority might be breaching the Data Protection Act. For good measure, he added that data relating to general practice are the property of the general practitioner.
It is astonishing that, as far as I am aware, East Lancashire health authority seems to have made no serious attempt to collect data from GPs in the area. One would have thought that it would have been simple to contact GPs and ask them about the number of prescriptions for inhalers and so on, and whether the incidence of asthma had increased, but it did not happen. Indeed, Dr. Morton said in his letter to Ms England:
He went on, however, to add the caveat:
He concluded by saying:
That is what we have never had, although thousands of people living in the Ribble Valley area are crying out for someone in authority, someone with responsibility--the Government or one of the other public bodies--to commission a study on the alleged effects on health, but it has not happened.
My hon. Friend the Member for Denton and Reddish chaired the Environment Committee when it published its report on 7 June last year. Of its nine recommendations, the ninth--and I would say the most important--was that the Government should commission research to establish one way or the other whether there is any causal connection between burning Cemfuel and any rise in ill health. It has not been acted on. Without that study, people are relying on anecdotal evidence, some of which is fairly alarmist.
I was at another public meeting in Clitheroe--again,I apologise if I did not inform the hon. Member for Ribble Valley--in September, at which Dr. Van Steenis, a retired GP who used to practise in south Wales, spoke. Many people, including those from Castle Cement, feel thatDr. Van Steenis is a discredited witness because he is so emotive about the issue. In fact, at that public meeting, what he said was so over the top and alarmist that the people who came up to me afterwards were very nervous after listening to him. I take what he says with a pinch of salt--we do not intend to alarm people, but we simply want to get at the facts. He said that asthma rates in villages down wind of Castle Cement had risen from zero in 1991 to 9 per cent. last year, and he found as many as 15 per cent. of asthma cases close to the plant. I do not know whether his figures are right or wrong, but I pass them on for what they are worth.
I mentioned Blue Circle Cement. If I may be allowed to digress for a moment, I should like to mentionDr. Irving Spur, whose general practice covers three surgeries in the upper valley, close to the cement works. He looked retrospectively through patients' records, selecting those with a diagnosis of asthma. He found a correlation between asthma incidence in children between the ages of five and 12 and their postcodes. Two per cent. of such children living west of the cement plant had asthma, and 7.1 per cent. of those living to the east of the site had asthma. The figure rose to 12 per cent. for those living at a distance of four miles from the plant and to9 per cent. for those at a distance of eight miles away. I do not claim to be an expert on these matters, but I know that the causes of asthma are many and varied, and such findings are worthy of serious research.
Given all the anxieties that I have enumerated, it is astonishing--not only to me and my constituents but to the constituents of the hon. Member for Ribble Valley--that the Government could not get their act together to reply formally to the Environment Committee's report, especially as the Committee's recommendations were expressed in fairly trenchant terms.
I have mentioned the health effect, but the Select Committee made eight other recommendations. As I said, we hope to get a response within the next few weeks, which is one of the reasons why I raised the issue tonight. On 5 December last year, I asked the Minister when we could expect a considered response to the Select Committee's report. I was told that a full response would be published early in the new year. We are now 25 per cent. of the way through 1996 and we still do not have that response. When the Minister replies, I should like to know why there has been such an inordinate delay.
It is always possible to look down both ends of the telescope. People living in Clitheroe next to the plant have one view, but Castle Cement has another. I would not be paraphrasing Castle Cement unfairly if I said that it feels that many of the anxieties expressed have been whipped up and are almost hysterical. It is keen to reassure people and to try to do something about the very hostile public mood.
In fact, I had a meeting in the House on 22 February with Jim Stevenson, the chief executive of the Cement Association, and Ian Walpole and Richard Boarder from Castle Cement. They were here to talk to the Labour party's environment committee, which I chair. Also present were Roger Lilley and Alan Watson from Friends of the Earth, who wanted to put their opposing point of view. The gulf between the two views was wide, and I did my best to see how it could be bridged.
The people from the cement industry wanted Friends of the Earth to visit Ribblesdale in Clitheroe, to see the cement works and speak to the people involved. For its part, Friends of the Earth was upset that Castle Cement was playing its cards very close to its chest, citing in its support academics such as Professor Vincent Marks of Surrey university, but not persuading Professor Marks to make available the research data that led him to state that there is
I should like the cement people to invite Friends of the Earth to the cement works and I should like Friends of the Earth to take up Jim Stevenson's invitation. I cannot understand for the life of me why Castle Cement cannot persuade Professor Marks, who obviously has some sort of consultancy with it, to make available his research data to an academic peer group, to find out whether they stand up.
The briefing note circulated by Castle Cement, to which I referred earlier, enumerated the advantages of burning Cemfuel. It said that it reduces emissions, fossil fuel use and greenhouse gases, moves waste up the hierarchy, maintains competitiveness and secures jobs. That is important. I do not want my opposition to be misrepresented in any way. Jobs, especially in the current climate, are important and we must safeguard them. We have to support firms that are expanding employment, but not at the expense of people's health.
I recognise that Her Majesty's inspectorate of pollution has given Castle Cement until the end of next month to identify a solution to the problem of plume grounding,
with a remedy to be in place and effective by the end of the year. Many people say that there have been too many variations and too much bobbing and weaving. Information that should have been available has not been made available.
The right hon. Member for South Ribble (Mr. Atkins), in 1994, when he was an Environment Minister, wrote to the hon. Member for Ribble Valley, hinting--he did more than hint; he made it explicit--that there were commercial considerations and that Castle Cement had invested much money in burning Cemfuel. While such matters were not supreme, they could not be lightly set aside.
"lack of commitment to stop pollution from Castle Cement".
"there must be reductions to below the 'permitted levels' for all elements which are discharged from the stacks and to landfill
there must be research and urgent action taken to prevent the regular grounding of the plumes from both chimney stacks
there must be a rigorous analytical system in place to undertake specified analysis every 3 months in order to obtain more data on the burning of Cemfuel, and
there must be a properly planned programme of environmental impact analysis set up by HMIP in the area surrounding the Castle Cement works."
"These two eminent scientists both say that burning hazardous waste in cement kilns is a very dangerous practice and cannot be justified under any circumstances."
"some of which allege ill-effects".
20 Mar 1996 : Column 460
"satisfied that there does not appear to be any evidence that the use of cemfuel is any more harmful to health than the use of coal"--
"Demand to stop 'plume' nuisance".
"Children experience a 'bad egg' smell".
"As a thick plume dipped over Chatburn, a village resident demanded immediate action to 'stop the nuisance'."
"The plume was so severe and lasted so long that I was concerned about the children playing in Chatburn Primary School yard".
"I accept that Castle Cement is trying to deal with the problem of plume-grounding long-term, but at the end of the day nobody was able to prevent or alleviate the effect of the plume-grounding on our own health and our children's health".
"My daughter, who had been playing out in the yard at Chatburn Primary School, told me the children had been discussing what the 'bad egg' smell was all day".
"Castle Cement's works manager, Mr. Peter del Strother, said it had been a gusty day and that he had seen occasional plume-grounding incidences. 'In high winds the frequency is higher than it normally would be. It obviously was possible that there were incidents of plume-grounding . . . it is perfectly safe.'"
"February was always a difficult month due to the turbulent wind conditions."
"It is generally thought that the plume grounds far too often and this is felt across the Ribble Valley Community. People also believe there are adverse effects on their health, such as sore throats, headaches and dizziness. People think Castle Cement is trying to hide something by not publishing the formula of the fuel."
"We feel there has been inconclusive monitoring. Cemfuel constitutes advanced technology energy production but has monitoring been equally advanced? The inconsistent monitoring has damaged trust with the public and the credibility of Castle Cement. Is the equipment working at less than optimum? How do we know the kilns can burn cemfuel efficiently?"
"the local health authority give cemfuel 'a clean bill of health' and the Department of Health also give cemfuel a clean bill of health."
"The evidence available to the health authority does not indicate that the current use of Cemfuel leads to any greater health risks than there were previously when coal alone was used at Castle Cement."
20 Mar 1996 : Column 462
"We have never said that the processes at Castle Cement do not carry health risks, and we certainly recognise the discomfort which poor dispersal of the plume may cause especially to people with chronic ill health."
"only a major national study is likely to give meaningful data on the degree of the health risks associated with fuels used in the cement making process. To conduct such a study requires a political decision to commit resources from the Department of the Environment and/or the Department of Health."
"a lot of misplaced anxiety among the people of Clitheroe . . . Despite convincing and repetitive evidence that dioxins emissions are no greater in Clitheroe when Cemfuel is burned than when coal is used alone, the dangers to health from dioxins have been so exaggerated that many local people continue to believe and repeat fallacies based on unjustified extrapolation and experimental animal data".
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