Letter: We deserve explanation over incinerator
When setting up my e-petition last November as an attempt to persuade Shropshire Council to reinstate kerbside collections of cardboard, my only motivation was to prevent the cardboard from being sent to landfill.
When setting up my e-petition last November as an attempt to persuade Shropshire Council to reinstate kerbside collections of cardboard, my only motivation was to prevent the cardboard from being sent to landfill.
Inevitably, I suppose, because the incinerator appeal was upheld around the same time I found myself drawn into that debate.
But although appalled at the way the views of local people had been ignored, given the appeal decision I would have had no option but to content myself with some form of joint statement from Veolia and the council to the effect that their long-term aims were to bring cardboard and mixed plastic into the recycling stream and not rely on them as fuel for the incinerator.
To the best of my knowledge no such statement exists.
Not having been involved in the original incinerator debate, and not knowing much about it, I accept that I would then have parted company with the many people who were opposed to it on health grounds.
But now that I learn that a fresh government-backed study into the potential health risks of incinerators has been given the go-ahead my position has shifted.
The Health Protection Agency's chief executive Justin McCracken has said this week that it is not possible to rule out adverse health effects of municipal waste incinerators with complete certainty.
Apparently HPA scientists will research whether there is a potential link between emissions and health issues such as low birth weight, congenital anomalies such as cleft palate and spina bifida, major heart defects, respiratory defects and anomalies of the neural tube, abdominal wall, or urinary tract, stillbirths and infant deaths.
Having learned more about this in recent weeks I fail to understand why the option of a technically superior plasma gasification incinerator was not given serious consideration. My understanding is that there is widespread consensus that these pose no health risks.
Surely Shropshire people deserve a fuller explanation to what has gone on behind the scenes.
Patrick Cosgrove
Bucknell
See also:
MP Daniel Kawczynski will lie in road to stop Shrewsbury incinerator
Letter: Was end of cardboard collection all a ploy?
£60m Shrewsbury incinerator gets the go-ahead
