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NEWS July 6th 2001
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| Toxic waste for all (2) BBC’s Newsnight revealed this week that incinerator ash contaminated with cancer-causing dioxins from burned PVC has been used in construction materials. The toxic ash was scattered on allotments (helping it straight into the food chain…), used to build a bypass at Waltham Abbey and car parks at the Ford factory in Dagenham, Essex as well as incorporated into blocks widely used in the building industry. 50,000 tonnes of ash from an incinerator in Edmonton was supplied to the building industry, apparently with the consent of the Environment Agency. In an interview on the programme, Environment Minister Michael Meacher refused to say whether householders will be notified if the current locations of the contaminated materials are identified, leaving open the possibility that the government could know of people living in houses using breezeblocks contaminated with carcinogens, and not tell them. Apparently telling them could cause a panic. The Newsnight programme also suggested that the Environment Agency’s investigation into the affair was being ‘prosecuted with an extraordinary lack of vigour’, and that the Agency may have supplied false information to Parliament. There are currently around 70 planning applications in the pipeline to build new incinerators around the country – many are facing strident local opposition, but given planned changes to the law on public enquiries (see news updates 21/6/01) they may be forced through regardless. |