Written evidence submitted by Michael Ryan (IAQ0178)
“How effectively do Government policies take into account the health and environmental impacts of poor air quality?”
No government policy will be effective on the above unless and until expert advisers cease claiming that lower socioeconomic status (SES) causes higher rates of illness and higher rates of premature deaths at all ages. Exposure to air pollution has been known to be the dominant cause of both for well over a century.
“The recording of cause of death began in 1629. But by the 1820s such records were unreliable and so were abandoned with the creation of the General Register Office for England and Wales in 1837. The study of mortality now came into its own. William Farr (1807–83), pioneer analyst of the new statistics, revealed the differences in mortality between, for example, town and country, and between north and south. Such statistics were vital to proponents of public health whose analysis of death and disease enabled them to pressure politicians and civic authorities to implement reform.”
(Mortality, Anne Hardy, The Lancet, 15 January 2005)
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(05)17727-7/fulltext
“Differences in mortality rates according to residential areas have been reported for many years in the UK. Such differences were believed by William Farr 150 years ago to show the “comparative salubrity of every part of England and Wales”. A wide range of socioenvironmental factors, including climate, altitude, water constituents, latitude, specific occupational factors, pollution, the long-term effects of development during early life, and deprivation, have been thought to underlie the differentials.”
(“Shrinking areas and mortality”, The Lancet, 11 October 1998)
http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(05)61261-5.pdf
“In Glasgow there died 13.08 children out of every 100 living under five years of age; in Aberdeen the mortality was only 4.83 out of 100 children. From whatever cause or causes it may arise, infantile mortality is nearly three times greater in Glasgow than in Aberdeen, and consequently Glasgow is a much more unhealthy town than Aberdeen; for it has been proved that, as a general rule, “the less the proportion of deaths among children under five years, the greater is the healthiness of a town or locality.” The report, in stating the causes of death, shows that the deaths from consumption were much greater in the towns than in the country districts, and that among the towns the lowest proportion was in the more exposed, and, therefore, better ventilated towns, such as Edinburgh and Aberdeen.”
Reports of the Registrar-General of Scotland for 1858
(“The Vital Statistics Of Scottish Towns”, The Times, 28 February 1859)
Dr John Tatham, Salford’s Medical Officer for Health, wrote the following in 1881:
"In Salford 598 people in every 100,000 of the population die annually of lung complaints, as compared with only 334 in Mid-Cheshire... The conditions of life in this district are not superior to those in Salford, with the one exception that the atmosphere is less contaminated by smoke... so that the extreme difference on mortality may be assumed to be mainly if not entirely due to the smoke nuisance".
(Thirteenth Annual Report on the Health of Salford, 1881)
Dr Tatham became the Superintendent of the General Register Office, which celebrated its 180th birthday this year. Dr Tatham's report on the registration year 1891 looked at the mortality rates in three industrial towns with high infant mortality and a group of three agricultural counties with low infant death rates. The following is at the bottom of page x and top of page xi of his report:
“The (infant mortality) rates differed widely in different counties; and that these differences are not merely casual is shown by their being repeated with great persistence year after year, the general rule being that the rate is lowest in the purely agricultural and highest in the mining and those with textile industries.”
(Fifty-Fourth Annual Report of the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages in England (1891)
Sir Arthur Newsholme was aware that infant mortality rates are highest in industrial areas and he was also aware that child death rates (i.e. at ages 1-5) were also high in such areas.
“Sir Arthur Newsholme and State Medicine: 1885-1935”, by Professor John Eyler (Cambridge University Press, 1997) has a graph on page 303 showing similar rates of infant and child mortality rates in the Counties in England & Wales for the year 1908.
Sir Arthur Newsholme realised the importance of the similarity as many at that time believed in “eugenics” and that high infant mortality was a way of “weeding-out” inferior stock and thereby having healthier survivors of that first year. The following table shows that Counties with highest rates were the most industrialised, whilst the ones with lowest rates are mainly rural – and where wages have historically been lower.
(Data from page 303 of “Sir Arthur Newsholme and State Medicine: 1885-1935”, by John Eyler)
Dr William Brend, who was a barrister as well as a medically-qualified doctor, scrutinised the infant death rates for all parts of the British Isles for the year 1914 and saw that poverty couldn’t possibly be blamed. The rates ranged from 38 per 1,00 live births in rural County Roscommon to 184 per 1,000 in the “textile town” Ashton-under-Lyne. The preface of his “Health and the State” (Constable, 1917) starts as follows:
“A healthy population is the finest form of national wealth, and in an industrialised country its possession depends to a large extent upon the completeness of the Public Health services and the success they achieve in securing a sound environment.”
The following is on page 87:
“The Effect of a Smoke- and Dust-polluted Atmosphere
We have now examined, with one exception, the main factors which might be held to account for a high rate of infant mortality, and we find that differences neither in poverty, bad housing, insufficient feeding, defective sanitation, disease, industrial occupation of women, nor malnutrition of mothers can be regarded as adequate to explain the excessive and widespread difference between urban and rural rates of infant mortality. The factor which remains to be examined is that of smoke and dust in the atmosphere. Dirtiness of the air appears to be the one constant accompaniment of a high infant mortality: purity of the atmosphere is the one great advantage which the agricultural labourer of Wiltshire, the Connaught peasant, and the poverty-stricken crofter of the Highlands enjoy over the resident in the town. In the opinion of the writer, a smoky and dusty atmosphere as a cause of infant mortality far transcends all other influences.”
The entire text of “Health and the State” is online, thanks to UCLA:
http://archive.org/stream/healthstate00bren/healthstate00bren_djvu.txt
My late father-in-law had a copy of Black’s Medical Dictionary and this sentence shows that the medical profession should have been aware that increased exposure to pollution from industrial and domestic sources was causally linked to infant mortality and also that “poverty” couldn’t be blamed – otherwise all agricultural districts (with their historically low wages) would have had high rates. The cleaner air, which is mostly to be found in agricultural districts, meant lower rates of infant deaths:
"As a general rule it is lowest in agricultural districts, higher in thickly populated mining and manufacturing regions, and highest in large towns where textile industries are carried on and where female labour is largely employed."
(Black’s Medical Dictionary, 1944 edition, page 471)
Politicians are aware of regional variations in infant mortality rates as seen in 1965, where the “social class” link was still believed, just like today:
Infant Mortality
HC Deb 08 February 1965 vol 706 cc20-1
12. Mr. Shepherd asked the Minister of Health why the infant mortality rate in one year is almost 20 per cent. higher in the Northern counties than in the Southern counties; and what steps are being taken to improve the situation.
92. Mr. Rose asked the Minister of Health, whether he will investigate further the causes of the high infant mortality rate in the Manchester area and northern counties.
94. Mr. Heffer asked the Minister of Health in which area the incidence of infantile mortality is highest; and what are the reasons for it.
Mr. K. Robinson In 1963, the highest infant mortality rate was in the four South-Eastern counties of Wales. There is no simple explanation of regional variations, but economic and social factors are thought to play some part. Research into the causes of these variations is continuing and future action must depend on the outcome.
Mr. Shepherd In view of the fact that we have a disparity between the eastern region rate of 16.7 deaths per thousand live births and the rate of my own region—the north-west—of 25 per thousand, will the right hon. Gentleman give serious consideration to a more detailed study of this question? Could it not be remitted to one of the universities for social study, because there is here a disparity very difficult to understand?
Mr. Robinson The Registrar-General is to make a special study of infant deaths in 1964 by regions, according to
social class, age of mothers and the number of previous children, I am afraid that the results of this study are not likely to be available until the middle of 1966.
Mr. Rose Is my right hon. Friend aware that there appears to be a correlation between substandard housing and high infant mortality? Is he further aware that there is an acute shortage of midwives in the Manchester Hospital area? Will he take the necessary action to deal with this legacy of 13 years of Tory rule?
Mr. Robinson I am sure that in so far as these factors contribute to the disparity in the figures, they will be brought out in the research studies.
Mr. Heffer Is my right hon. Friend aware that on Merseyside we have long held the view that the whole question of the infant mortality rate is due to a question of social class and that there is bad housing in areas in which there is a high rate of infant mortality; and that we shall very much welcome the report and a closer analysis of the factors in this question?
Mr. R. W. Elliott Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that an excellent research on this subject—now in its fourth year—is being undertaken by the University of Newcastle under the guidance of Professor Russell? Is he further aware that there is an associated research into crippled children being undertaken by the University of Newcastle? Will he look into the possibility of more money being allocated for this research, as the United States has recently subscribed 35,000 dollars to it?
Mr. Robinson I was not aware of the Newcastle study. I certainly knew that arrangements had been made for information to be collected locally from the beginning of 1964 about birth abnormalities. The question of research grants is probably one for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Science rather than for me.
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1965/feb/08/infant-mortality
The 1966 report that followed the above debate showed higher infant death rates in Northern England and Wales (only four regions analysed), but failed to mention air pollution as a possible factor. Just a single year of data was analysed (1 April 1964 - 31 March 1965), so the report showed little that wasn’t in the above Hansard debate.
The five socioeconomic groups were described as follows:
Social Class I: Professional occupations
Social Class II: Farmers, teachers, shopkeepers
Social Class III: Skilled occupations – fitters, clerks
Social Class IV: Semi-skilled occupations – farm workers, machine minders
Social Class V: Labouring occupations – railway porters, kitchen hands
The high infant mortality rate in Wales among group III was noticed as follows:
“It is interesting that in Wales babies of mothers in Social Classes IV and V combined were as likely to survive the first four weeks of life as those in Social Class III. This is probably due to the high death rate in babies of Welsh miners who are allotted to Social Class III. In the MRC (Medical Research Council) survey of 1949-50 these babies had the same rate as infants of workers in other industries who were assigned to Social Class V.”
(Spicer, C. C., and Lipworth, L. (1966). "Regional and Social Factors in Infant Mortality". General Register Office. Studies on Medical and Population Subjects. No. 19. H.M.S.O., London.)
I don’t know why William Whitlock MP wanted to know the neonatal mortality rates in Nottingham, but the data released showed that the previously falling rate rose after the Eastcroft incinerator started in 1972.
Mr. Whitlock asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what have been the figures of early neo-natal and neonatal infant mortality in Nottingham in each of the last 10 years; how these figures compare with the national figures;
Infant and Perinatal Mortality
HC Deb 09 February 1978 vol 943 cc668-9W
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/written_answers/1978/feb/09/infant-and-perinatal-mortality-1
“How effectively do Government policies take into account the health and environmental impacts of poor air quality?”
Before commenting in more detail on the above question, I wish to remind the EFRA Committee of my earlier statement as the remarks made are still relevant.
I have since obtained further evidence of failings of both the Health Protection Agency and Environment Agency to protect the public from health damage from incinerator emissions, which both bodies assume to be harmless despite neither body bothering to check relevant data to see if their assumption is correct. Also, the incinerator study is still unpublished more than six years after first being promised.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/243962/Are-rubbish-incinerators-killing-our-children
Memorandum submitted by Michael Ryan
THE FAILURE OF ENVIRONMENT AGENCY (EA) TO REGULATE HARMFUL INDUSTRIAL PM2.5 EMISSIONS
1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1.1 The EA's failure to regulate harmful PM2.5 (particles of 2.5 microns and below) emissions from power stations, incinerators, cement works, brickworks and some other industrial processes has caused a massive increase in sickness and premature death, which is likely to continue unless your Parliamentary Committee takes early and effective action. These PM2.5s have increased exponentially due to switch in fuel from coal to hazardous waste mixes.
1.2 The UK only monitor PM10s, ie particles of between four and 11 microns (a micron being one millionth part of a metre), despite proof that the critical upper size of particles to enter the lungs is PM2.5 and particles doing most harm are within the range PM1 to PM2.5.
1.3 There is no effective public health system in the UK to examine the patterns of sickness and premature deaths resulting from industrial PM2.5 pollution despite there being considerable published research on the subject by Dr Dick van Steenis and others.
1.4 If the UK adopted the US Clean Air Act of 1997 we could easily reduce the annual NHS bill by £24 billion. The US saved $193 billion just from reduced hospital visits and days off work according to the White House Office of Management and Budget report which was featured in the Washington Post, 27 September 2003. HM Treasury failed to reply to Paul Marsden MP after he raised this issue on my behalf in October 2004. My letter to Paul Marsden MP is at www.ukhr.org/obesity.
1.5 The failure of the EA to regulate and reduce toxic airborne emissions can be proved and this statement will make use of a case study in Shropshire and also my birth defect research at www.ukhr.org as only part of the proof.
1.6 The failure of public health professionals, whether in Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) or Health Protection Agency (HPA) or elsewhere to study locations and causes of sickness and premature death patterns and take effective remedial action shows a gross dereliction of duty.
1.7 There are two case studies with this report, the first is based in Shropshire and focuses on a range of health parameters and a major unregulated source of PM2.5 pollution, which has caused and is continuing to cause great loss of life. The second is based in Greater London and refers to variations in rates of babies born with defects, a set of data that has been gathered by the government since January 1964 with the aim of "providing early information of causal factors of congenital malformation" (The Times, 6 January 1964, "Scheme to notify malformations"). The principles of each case study apply elsewhere.
1.8 I've read and agree with Dr van Steenis' e-mailed submission (25 November 2005), having discussed the matter with him. We both agree that the best solution would to replace the EA's failed role as a regulator with an Environmental Police Force under the direction of HM Treasury, whose money is at stake for the cost of failure of regulation and also because HM Treasury is the controlling department of the Office of National Statistics (ONS), whose extensive data proves that what is written here is correct and can be used in future to demonstrate that regulation is taking place, unlike today. Such a new department should also be subject to external audit to prove effectiveness. Dr van Steenis would be able to provide expert advice on setting up and auditing such an establishment.
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmenvfru/780/780we14.htm
“How effectively do Government policies take into account the health and environmental impacts of poor air quality?”
I wish to expand upon the above question so that the EFRA Committee is fully aware of how early government awareness of the adverse health impact of air pollution ceased to exist around a century ago and also how the tendency to blame worse health outcomes on lower SES is both false and has also delayed efforts to deal honestly and effectively with the air pollution issue.
The Black Country Bugle is a weekly newspaper, which reports historical matters in that area.
“During the 1800s the Black Country became one of the most industrialised areas in Britain. Many iron, coal and steel mills dominated the landscape. In 1862, Elihu Burritt, the American consul in Birmingham, described the region as “black by day and red by night”. Pollution was a major problem. An 1852 report described the area as “being the most unhealthiest place in the country”. Life expectancy in Dudley Parish was a mere 16 years and 7 months.
The young Queen Victoria, on passing through the Black Country, ordered the carriage curtains be closed, as the sight offended her. She notes in her diary “The country is very desolate everywhere... the men, women and children, are all black.”
(“Celebrating the Black Country’s own culture, dialect and industry”, Black Country Bugle,
1 November 2017)
The industrial revolution helped Britain become a dominant country in both political and economic terms. Those whose lives were curtailed by exposure to air pollution from industrial sources were ignored and it’s a similar attitude today that needs to be changed by scrutinising the poor performance of those paid to protect public health. Pollution today is mostly invisible, but more deadly than when coal was the main fuel.
I qualified as a Chartered Civil Engineer in December 1976 and have researched the impact of air pollution on health since first contacting the late Dr Dick van Steenis MBBS in January 2002. My professional background was mainly in “flood defence”. These are major differences between flooding and health effects from pollution:
1. Flooding is impossible to hide when it occurs and it’s impossible to “look back in time” to past flood events, unless accurate data are available.
2. Adverse health effects from air pollution are very easy to hide, as few will have access to relevant data. Those that do have access may choose to do nothing. However, it’s possible to “look back in time” as there’s a huge archive, particularly since the start of compulsory registration of births, deaths and marriages in England & Wales in July 1837 (1855 in Scotland). These data consistently show that those exposed to air pollution have shorter lives and worse health.
The EFRA Committee and others should understand the following:
1. Low SES doesn’t have a causal effect on adverse health outcomes.
Poor people have little choice where they live or work and often live near sources of pollution. Poor people in rural areas with clean air don’t have higher rates of premature deaths at all ages,
2. There’s been a failure to protect the public from industrial PM2.5 air pollution from incinerators and other sources. Government bodies supposed to protect public health have failed in their duty of care.
The former Health Protection Agency (HPA) promised in August 2003 to check health data around incinerators and landfill sites due to pubic concerns, but in 2008, Justin McCracken, their CEO, admitted to me following my FoI request that they’d not examined the rates of illness or rates of premature death rates at all ages around any incinerator. That admission of negligence didn’t stop the HPA continuing their “expert” advice that incinerators posed no harm to human health.
When an application for an incinerator permit was made to the Environment Agency (EA), the local Primary Care Trust (PCT) would be asked if there’d be a significant risk to health and instead of checking data around existing incinerators, which I’ve done using ONS data, the PCT would just parrot the HPA’s opinion and the permit would be issued. Many would assume that if a permit were passed and the HPA claimed it was safe, then it must be so.
The Dorking Advertiser (10 January 2008) printed three electoral ward maps I’d shown at an incinerator public meeting at Costessey High School, Norwich in January 2007. The following week (17 January 2008) was a “right-of-reply” article with what must be a classic headline: “If it was dangerous it wouldn’t be built, say incinerator bosses”.
Both Dr Harry Burns (Chief Medical Officer of Health for Scotland) and Dr Robert Maynard (HPA) wrote dismissive letters to concerned residents about my research. Dr Burns’ letter was to Mr MG and dated 17 January 2008.
Dr Maynard’s was to Mr PW and dated 21 August 2008. Neither doctor seemed aware that a study by Dr Tango and others of infant deaths around 63 municipal incinerators in Japan found similar results to that I found around English incinerators. The conclusion of that study starts:
“Our study shows a peak-decline in risk with distance from the municipal solid waste incinerators for infant deaths and infant deaths with all congenital malformations combined.”
(Risk of adverse reproductive outcomes associated with proximity to municipal solid waste incinerators with high dioxin emission levels in Japan. J Epidemiol. 2004 May;14(3):83-93.)
When ONS data for London’s 760 electoral wards were pooled for the seven years 1994-2000 (City of London counted as a single ward), four wards had zero infant deaths and zero stillbirths recorded. These four wards were in different Boroughs, but the common factor was minimal exposure to incinerator emissions.
ONS restricted release of stillbirth data after 2001 and ward boundary changes in London mean that ONS data for the twelve years 2002-2013 is the largest set that I’ve been able to pool to show how infant mortality rates vary.
I’ve looked at “groups of four” wards and these four, which are clustered around the Edmonton incinerator, had a higher infant death rate than any other group of four wards in London:
The four Bromley wards below, which had very low infant death rates during the same 12 years, also form a single group - but are relatively free from incinerator emissions.
Waltham Forest’s infant mortality rate in 1968-70 (Edmonton incinerator started in 1971) was 16.3 per 1,000 live births, which was the same as Richmond upon Thames and was the joint-20th highest rate in London, but by 1978-80 Waltham Forest had the highest in London at 16.6 per 1,000 live births. Seven North London Boroughs had a financial interest in the Edmonton incinerator.
The following extract from the Waltham Forest Guardian is relevant:
“Concerns have been raised in recent years about the possible effects of the Edmonton incinerator complex on Chingford's western border, although the Health Protection Agency (HPA) has always insisted there is no evidence that it is harmful to residents.
Now the agency has said it is in talks with Imperial College London about a major new study as part of its efforts to continually review public health advice.
Fears were first sparked about the complex in Edmonton several years ago after it was noticed that Chingford Green ward had a statistically abnormally high level of infant mortality.
There is usually a correlation between baby deaths and an area's level of deprivation, but figures in 2007 showed that the relatively wealthy ward had the second highest death rate in the whole of London.
Researcher and campaigner Michael Ryan, who uses the example of Chingford in his argument that there is a link, said he hoped the device in Edmonton would be included in the new study.
He says that figures from 2002 to 2008 show there were an average of 9.7 infants deaths per 1,000 babies in Chingford Green ward - the highest rate in the borough.”
(“CHINGFORD: Incinerator health inquiry welcomed”, by Daniel Binns, Waltham Forest Guardian, 9 June 2011)
http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/9075647.CHINGFORD__Incinerator_health_inquiry_welcomed/
Kensington & Chelsea isn’t a deprived Borough at present. Nor was it in 1965-67, when it had the highest infant mortality rate of all 32 Boroughs at 23 per 1,000 live births and when the five Boroughs with highest rates (Kensington & Chelsea, Lambeth, Wandsworth, Camden, and Westminster) formed a single group, which would have been heavily exposed to emissions from the Battersea Power Station at a time before incinerators were operational at Edmonton, SELCHP, and Colnbrook etc., and also before the switch to cleaner North Sea Gas.
The thirteen Boroughs with lowest 1965-67 infant mortality rates are all peripheral.
The 2010-2012 data shown above are on page 5 of this Public Heath England report, which also relies on deprivation and which fails to mention “pollution”:
Infant mortality rates in Wandsworth, Newham, Tower Hamlets, and Lewisham were all falling at a similar rate prior to the start of SELCHP incinerator in 1993, but only Wandsworth’s rate continued to fall thereafter, whereas the rates in the other three Boroughs, which would have been heavily exposed to SELCHP emissions, all suddenly rose – as did their percentages of babies born weighing less than 2,500 grammes (ie low birthweight babies).
Those claiming that low socioeconomic status is to blame for high infant mortality will struggle to explain the 1965-67 rates for London Boroughs and also why the infant mortality rates and percentages of low birthweight babies in the Boroughs of Newham, Tower Hamlets and Lewisham suddenly rose after SELCHP started operating.
The London Borough infant mortality and low birthweight data are on the ONS website and have been used to produce the following graphs. One year of low birthweight data was missing from the ONS archive, hence the gap.
The sudden post-SELCHP increase in rates of infant deaths and of low birthweight babies can’t have been a pair of chance events and neither were the sudden post-incinerator increases in infant and perinatal mortality rates in Boroughs exposed to incinerators starting in Sheffield, Bolton, Stoke-on-Trent, Dudley, Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Nottingham, Kirklees, Coventry, Colnbrook and Edmonton a series of chance events either. The twelve incinerators named above are among the 22 that SASHU have been examining data around for the last few years for the still-unpublished study.
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/incinerator-health-study-results-delayed-12102083
http://www.sahsu.org/content/incinerators-study
3. The rapid fall in infant death rates was also causally linked to the switch to North Sea Gas. “At national level in England and Wales, infant mortality rates fell rapidly from the early 1970s and into the 1980s.”
(Geographical trends in infant mortality: England and Wales, 1970-2006 Health Stat Q. 2008 Winter;(40):18-29.)
Note that Turkey also experienced a fall in infant mortality rates after importing natural gas from Russia:
“In this paper, we use the variation across space and time in the expansion of natural gas infrastructure in Turkish provinces using data between 2001 and 2011. Our results indicate that the rate of increase in the use of natural gas has resulted in a significant reduction in the rate of infant mortality in Turkey. In particular, a one percentage point increase in the rate of subscriptions to natural gas services would cause the infant mortality rate to decline by 4 percent, which could result in 348 infant lives saved in 2011 alone. These results are robust to a large number of specifications.”
(Air Pollution and Infant Mortality: Evidence from the Expansion of Natural Gas Infrastructure, by Resul Cesur, Erdal Tekin, and Aydogan Ulker, January 2013)
Andrew Young School of Policy Studies Research Paper Series No. 13-01
4. The current record numbers of people alive today aged 90 years and above is also linked to the switch away from “town gas” (i.e. gas made from coal) to clean North Sea Gas. The following are extracts from page 18 of the Health Stat Q. 2008 Winter;(40):18-29. report:
“The level of infant mortality can be seen as a major indicator of the health of a nation with the focus on infant mortality rates (deaths at ages under one year, per 1,000 live births) remaining high on academic and public health and policy agendas within the UK and throughout the world.”
And
“The reduction in infant mortality has been cited as the single greatest factor contributing to increased life expectancy over the past 100 years.”
5. The collection of birth defect data from January 1964 (following the Thalidomide scandal) should have allowed swift identification of sources of environmental pollution that could be linked to babies born with defects. This hasn’t occurred as the long legal fight by Solicitor Des Collins showed following the clustering of birth defects during the Corby steelworks clean-up.
The following article shows that causal factors of birth defects were hoped to be indentified and also that birth defects were known to be “a problem which involves a high infant mortality rate and is responsible for much ill health, disability, and parental distress”:
"SCHEME TO NOTIFY MALFORMATIONS
General practioners have received from the chief medical officer of the Ministry of Health a letter informing them of a scheme, which came into force on January 1, for the notification of congenital abnormalities. The Scheme is voluntary but the chief medical officer expresses the hope that it will be supported by all doctors as a means of providing early information of causal factors of congenital malformation. He reminds practioners that “following the thalidomide tragedy it was generally felt that there should be a national notification of congenital abnormalities so that any increase in these conditions might be noted as early as possible”. The scheme will be widely welcomed as a valuable means of helping to cope with a problem which involves a high infant mortality rate and is responsible for much ill health, disability, and parental distress.”
(The Times, 6 January 1964)
After Daniel Kawczynski kindly obtained the infant mortality rates in all councils in England & Wales from 1974, I was certain that there’d be a spike in Corby’s infant mortality rate that correlated with the steelworks clean-up and was able to produce the following graph, the data for which must have been known to those Public Health officials defending Des Collins’ action for justice:
6. The former Health Protection Agency (HPA) promised to check health data around incinerators in August 2003:
THE potential dangers of chemicals and poisons, such as those from landfill sites and incinerators , are to come under intense scrutiny, the Health Protection Agency ( HPA ) announced yesterday.
Working with the NHS, the HPA will investigate suspicious clusters of disease which could be linked to chemical exposure.
The pledge was made as the fledgling agency, which began work in April, launched its five-year plan setting out its aims and objectives across a raft of health protection concerns.
The plan pointed out that an estimated 600 new chemicals entered the marketplace each month, on top of the 11million already known and 70,000 in regular use.
Various studies have claimed that exposure to chemicals can have serious effects on health, including the risk of birth defects and certain chronic diseases.
The HPA plan not only highlighted public concern about chemical-related accidents, but also the possible ill health consequences of long-term exposure to chemicals, such as those emitted from landfills, incinerators and industrial sites.
Pat Troop, the HPA 's chief executive, said it was crucial to study the long-term effects of chemical exposure. "We are not saying there is a problem. We are saying we are looking carefully to see if there is a problem or there isn't a problem. The public is concerned about many of these issues."
(“Chemical danger testing”, Western Daily Press, 6 August 2003)
“Studies have claimed that exposure to some chemicals can have serious effects on health, including the risk of birth defects and chronic diseases.
The HPA will also investigate public concern about the possible effects of long-term exposure to chemicals, such as those emitted from landfills, incinerators and industrial sites.
Dr Troop said: "We are not saying there is a problem. We are saying we are looking carefully to see if there is a problem or there isn't a problem.
"The public is concerned about many of these issues and it is important that we don't ignore it if there is a problem."
Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2003/08/05 12:49:48 GMT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3126075.stm
“The health protection agency (HPA), responsible for public health in England and Wales, yesterday conceded that there was public concern about the health risks from use of mobile phones, industrial chemicals and pollution from landfill sites and incinerators. Unveiling its first five-year plan, it recognised that exposure to chemicals and poisons was greater in poor and disadvantaged areas and that children might be at greatest risk.”
(“Health watchdog to monitor risks of everyday chemicals”, Guardian, 6 August 2003)
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/aug/06/publicservices.health
In 2005, the HPA made a false claim of an investigation into birth defects following the Yorkshire Post article about my research by Chris Benfield dated 1 September 2005 Rt Hon Ruth Kelly MP had authorised the release of unpublished ONS data giving the numbers of babies born with defects in each of the 303 PCTs in England for each of the eight years 1995-2002.
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/alarm-over-birth-defect-anomalies-1-2481074
The headline of the following YP article of 15 September 2005 suggests action by the HPA:
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/inquiry-ordered-into-birth-defects-linked-to-pollution-1-2482569
That promise of an inquiry was later shown to be false as this FoI request revealed:
“Dear Health Protection Agency,
I am writing to make an open government request for all the
information to which I am entitled under the Freedom of Information Act and the Environmental Information Regulations.
In order to assist you with this request, I am outlining my query as specifically as possible.
If however this request is too wide or too unclear, I would be grateful if you could contact me as I understand that under the act, you are required to advise and assist requesters.
According to the Yorkshire Post report "Inquiry ordered into birth defects linked to pollution"
Published on Thursday 15 September 2005 09:03 it is stated
"The HPA, a semi-independent government-funded body, has been investigating possible links between pollution and illness in the West Midlands.
Dr Patrick Saunders, who runs the research programme concerned, said: "The West Midlands pilot mapped data on potential sources of environmental contamination and data on hospital admissions and registrations for diseases such as lung cancer. This enabled possible connections between clusters of disease and possible sites of contamination to be investigated. While the system doesn't prove a link, it does identify areas that need further detailed investigation.
Dr Saunders said it could be that known factors cause the health problems, but added: "You cannot rule out the possibility that some, at least, is due to environmental exposure. There are issues we need to investigate further - in particular, a small but consistent link between land-fill sites and congenital abnormalities."
Could I request the full results of this study concerning the West Midlands refered to by the former Head of the Chemical and Hazards poisons division and risk at the HPA, who now works at Sandwell PCT and the subsequent areas that were identified for further detailed investigation?
I understand that under the act, I should be entitled to a response within 20 working days.
I would be grateful if you could confirm that you have received this request. I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.
Yours faithfully,
Mr Carroll”
Birth defects linked to pollution- HPA West Midlands survey
Mr Carroll made this Freedom of Information request to Health Protection Agency
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Health Protection Agency did not have the information requested.
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/birth_defects_linked_to_pollutio
“Ref: 11/06/03/ac/141
Mr Carroll WhatDoTheyKnow.com
27th June 2011 |
Dear Mr Carroll,
Re: West Midlands Survey
Further to your request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 dated 1st June 2011, please find below our responses to the questions you have raised.
In your request, you referred to a quote given by Dr Patrick Saunders, the former Head of the Chemical Hazards and Poisons Division. Having contacted Dr Saunders, who as you quite rightly state, is now a Public Health Consultant for Sandwell PCT, he has informed us that the research to which he was referring was his own PhD thesis, which is entitled “Investigating the Public Health Impact of Contaminated Land Using Routinely Available Health Data” (by Dr PJ Saunders, University of Birmingham, School of Medicine 2004).
The thesis remains the copyright of the author and for the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 is not held by the Health Protection Agency.
If you would like to access Dr Saunders’ thesis, a copy is held at the Barnes Medical Library at the University of Birmingham. Their contact details are as follows:
Barnes Medical Library
School of Medicine
University of Birmingham
Vincent Drive
Birmingham B15 2TT
Tel: 0121 414 3567
E-mail: xxxxxx@xxxx.xx.xx
I hope you have found this information helpful. If you have any queries regarding the information that has been supplied to you, please refer them in the first instance to myself. If you are dissatisfied with this response and would like a copy of the HPA complaints procedure then please contact Mr George Stafford, Complaints Manager at: Health Protection Agency, 61 Colindale Avenue, London NW9 5EQ.
Please note that you have the right to an independent review by the Information Commissioner’s Office if a complaint cannot be resolved through the HPA complaints procedure. The Information Commissioner’s Office can be contacted by writing to Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.
Yours sincerely
Ruby Peters
Freedom of Information Officer
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/birth_defects_linked_to_pollutio
6. The public inquiries following refusal of planning permission for incinerators are an expensive farce as Inspectors were told to ignore all health concerns raised by individuals and to only consider the expert opinion of the Health Protection Agency, Environment Agency and Primary Care Trusts.
None of the above bodies have checked relevant data around any incinerator and so permits get issued on the presumption that there’s no harm to health.
Dr Dick van Steenis MBBS was my expert witness at the 2011 public inquiry following the appeal by Veolia against refusal of planning permission for an incinerator. I’d written to ask the Planning Inspectorate to ensure that representatives from the HPA, EA and Shropshire County Primary Care Trust so that they could be cross-examined by Dr van Steenis.
Professor Rod Thomson’s “green light” letter (8 April 2010) about the incinerator proposal was just a single sentence:
“In accordance with our standard practice, we have taken advice from the Health Protection Agency and would respond to the above request as enclosed.”
The timing of the above letter coincides with preparation by Mark Metcalf for the first of his articles about my research in Big Issue in the North (26 Aprll-2 May 2010, pages 4 & 5). Mark Metcalf’s articles shamed, or otherwise persuaded the HPA to promise an incinerator study.
The following are extracts from the decision document following Veolia’s appeal:
“89. The Health Protection Agency (HPA), in commenting on the application, found that providing the proposed EWF was well regulated it would not be a significant risk to health, given what is considered to be an acceptable level of lifetime risk in the UK.83 It was satisfied that the assessment demonstrated that the maximally exposed individual would not be subject to a significant carcinogenic risk or non-carcinogenic hazard, arising from exposures via both inhalation and the ingestion of foods. Mr Ryan submitted a number of maps documenting mortality rates upwind and downwind of incinerators, and health statistics for localities near incinerators and power stations.84 However, no reliable inference can be drawn from this data. A whole host of possible confounding factors exist. These are other causes of the adverse health effect of interest, and they preclude any reasonable conclusions about likely cause and effect in the evidence adduced by Mr Ryan. Chief amongst these is socioeconomic status, for which there is much evidence as to its importance as a predictor of state of health. This is a very complex area which would require detailed epidemiological studies to provide any meaningful analysis of the Office of National Statistics data and other statistics submitted by Mr Ryan.”
(pages 26 & 27 of Appeal Decision APP/L3245/A/11/2146219)
Appeal Decision
Inquiry held on 27-30 September, 4-6, 11-14, 18-21, 25 and 27 October, and 4 November 2011 Site visit made on 28 October 2011
By John Woolcock BNatRes(Hons) MURP DipLaw MPIA MRTPI an Inspector appointed by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
Decision date: 10 January 2012
Mr Woolcock’s following statement shows the uselessness of bothering to present accurate data that contradicts the ongoing and false belief of Government bodies:
“Chief amongst these is socioeconomic status, for which there is much evidence as to its importance as a predictor of state of health. This is a very complex area which would require detailed epidemiological studies to provide any meaningful analysis of the Office of National Statistics data and other statistics submitted by Mr Ryan…”.
Mr Woolcock won’t be the only person to believe that low socioecomic status must cause worse health outcomes and yet Dr William Farr realised that location was important as seen on the first page of this report.
Bolton has both a municipal incinerator (Raikes Lane) and also a hospital incinerator and both have been replaced at various times. The most recent municipal incinerator, which is included in the study, started in 2000 and ONS data shows that the infant death rate suddenly rose above the average rate for England & Wales afterwards – and the Environment Agency, Primary Care Trust, Health Protection Agency and Bolton Council did nothing – as far as I’m aware.
Note how the gradient of the England & Wales graph flattens after 1991-93, which coincides with the EU decision to allow waste mixes to be used as fuel as a substitute for coal and clean oil, following S.I. No. 399/1992 - The European Communities (Waste Oils) Regulations, 1992.
S.I. No. 399 of 1992.
THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES (WASTE OILS) REGULATIONS, 1992.
The Minister for the Environment in exercise of the powers conferred on him by section 3 of the European Communities Act, 1972 (No. 27 of 1972) and for the purpose of giving effect to the Council Directive of 16th June, 1975 (No. 75/439/EEC)(1) as amended by Council Directive of 22nd December, 1986 (No. 87/101/EEC(2) hereby makes the following Regulations:—
(1)O.J. No. L194/23 25th July, 1975.
(2)O.J. No. L42/43 12th February, 1987.
PART I Preliminary and General
1. These Regulations may be cited as the European Communities (Waste Oils) Regulations, 1992.
2. (1) In these Regulations:—
"combustion" means the use of waste oils as fuel with heat recovery;
"collection" means an operation whereby waste oils are transferred from a holder to an undertaking which disposes of such oils;
"disposal" means the processing or destruction of waste oils as well as their storage and tipping above or under ground;
"existing operator" means any person who, before the 1st day of February, 1993, is carrying on the business of collecting or disposing of waste oils;
"holder" means a person who has waste oils in his custody or control prior to collection or disposal; etc”
The Bernard Road incinerator in Sheffield, which was completed in 1977, isn’t far from Rotherham, which is downwind with westerly winds. The perinatal mortality rate (stillbirths plus deaths under seven days per 1,000 total births) suddenly stopped falling.
As far as I’m aware, no national newspaper followed-up the two articles below, which followed the HPA’s admission that they not checked relevant data around any incinerator.
“The Health Protection Agency has admitted no studies have been undertaken into the health effects of particles that could be released from the potential Capel incinerator.
The Advertiser can reveal that a Freedom of Information request submitted to the Health Protection Agency (HPA) has disclosed that the effect of PM2.5 emissions from incinerators has not been studied.
PM2.5 refers to the size of particles that could escape into the atmosphere from incinerator emissions.
When asked if the HPA had examined the rates of illness and premature deaths in areas close to other incinerators to ascertain the health effects, the agency replied that it had not.
But it said it had considered peer reviewed studies when examining the adverse health effects around incinerators.
It concluded: "There is no consistent evidence for significantly elevated levels of ill-health in populations potentially affected by emissions from multiple solid waste incineration."
The revelation has angered and shocked the Capel Action Group (CAG) which is in the process of going to the High Court to stop an incinerator coming to the Clockhouse Brickworks site in Horsham Road.
It claims that high infant mortality rates, and other serious health problems such as asthma and a rise in suicide rates, all occur in towns and villages that are downwind of an incinerator.
It has come to this conclusion after examining research carried out by UK Health Research.
The independent research company has collected figures from areas close to existing incinerators in Kirklees, Coventry and London.
Dino Adriano, of Coles Lane, spoke on behalf of CAG. He said: "It is quite clear that despite the worldwide concern over the health effects of PM2.5 particles, those charged with protecting public health in the UK are failing in their duty.
"The HPA demonstrates disdain, incompetence or worse.
"Given the prospect of a large number of incinerators being built over the coming years this situation needs exposing now at local and national level."
He added: "When we heard there was no research I was very surprised. We know these particles are dangerous and there is great concern among Capel residents."
CAG claim that not only could the 3,600 population of Capel face health risks, but up to 260,000 people could be affected by emissions from the plant in a 16-mile radius reaching as far as Caterham, Horely and Oxted.
Sean Trotter, general manager of Surrey Waste Management, issued the following statement when told of the health fears: "Energy from waste plants is among the most strictly regulated industrial processes inthe UK and Europe.
"The UK's independent regulator, the Environment Agency, will be examining Surrey Waste Management's Environmental Statement in considerable detail."
(“Incinerator fury as bosses admit to no health checks”, by Nicole Le Marie,
Dorking Advertiser, 22 May 2008, page 10)
“Thousands of residents are potentially at risk from poisonous fumes after a privately-funded investigation revealed safety surveys have been neglected, a campaigner has claimed.
Residents in towns downwind of the proposed Capel incinerator in neighbouring Mole Valley, such as Redhill, Reigate, Banstead and Caterham, will be most at risk says Michael Ryan, who contacted the Mirror after claiming he received confirmation from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) that it had not checked whether communities downwind from incinerators suffer more than those upwind.
Mr Ryan said: "I think people in Surrey will be surprised and very angry to find out that the agency has been giving advice without bothering to check any data."
Retired GP, Dr Dick van Steenis, said: "The information that has been revealed is really damning.
"The HPA knows as much about this sort of study as it does about Japanese grammar."
The HPA was unavailable for comment as the Mirror went to press.”
(“Chill wind over fumes risk from incinerator”, Surrey Mirror, 22 May 2008)
The Dudley incinerator is in St Thomas’ ward, which shares a boundary with Sandwell Council. Sandwell is downwind of the Dudley incinerator with all westerly winds.
The increases in infant death rates after incinerators started aren’t a series of chance events – just as the high infant death rates in electoral wards exposed to incinerator emissions in recent years aren’t chance events either.
I’m particularly grateful to Henry Ellis (Enfield Advertiser, 25 April 2007), Dhruti Shah (Harrow Observer, 3 May 2007), Julia Lewis (South London Press, 4 May 2007) and Jonathan Bunn (Waltham Forest Guardian, 2 August 2007) as their articles encouraged me to continue the research for a further decade.
The dismissive comments about my research written to third parties by Dr Harry Burns, Chief Medical Officer for Scotland (17 January 2008), and Dr Robert Maynard CBE, FRCP Health Protection Agency Air and Noise Pollution Unit (21 August 2008), have also encouraged me to continue, whilst also wondering why such eminent doctors didn’t bother to examine further data and speak out, or look back at what other doctors, such as Dr William Brend, Sir Arthur Newsholme, Dr John Tatham, and Dr William Farr had observed.
When Boris Johnson was London Mayor, there was an opportunity to expose the link between exposure to incinerator emissions and higher rates of infant deaths following these two questions by Darren Johnson AM:
Incinerators
Question No: 41 / 2010
Darren Johnson
A constituent asks, is there any evidence to suggest that the SELCHP and Kings College Hospital incinerators which flank Southwark contributed to the Borough having the highest infant mortality rate in London in 2008?
Infant morality rates
Question No: 42 / 2010
Darren Johnson
Will you publish electoral ward-level data and a map showing the 2002-2008 infant mortality rates in London?
http://legacy.london.gov.uk/assembly/assemmtgs/2010/mqtjan27/minutes/written-answers.pdf
Note the “convenient” typo in question 42/2010.
The eleven-page May 2010 report about infant mortality rates that followed these questions should have had all incinerators marked on the ward map on page 8.
The following is on page 5 of the report, where the case was made for “deprivation”, or lower socioeconomic status being the cause of higher infant mortality:
“Richmond and Kensington and Chelsea show the relationships that would be expected at the other end of the scale. Richmond had the lowest average IMR of all London boroughs and was the lowest ranked London borough for deprivation by the IMD and had the lowest proportion of children living in income deprivation (0.12). Kensington and Chelsea had a low proportion of children living in income deprivation (0.22), had the highest male and female life expectancies of all London boroughs and infant mortality was second lowest of all the London boroughs.”
The authors of the above May 2010 report were so keen to blame deprivation that they stated the following on pages 4 &5 in which I’ve highlighted the part about Newham:
“Analysis published by ONS showed that socio-economic status is strongly associated with deaths less than one year, with a clear trend observed for increased mortality among births occurring to more socially disadvantaged mothers.1 Therefore we would expect areas with higher levels of child poverty and have a high IMD rank to have higher levels of infant mortality and visa versa. These relationships can be seen in London. For example, Newham had the highest infant mortality rate (6.5) of all London boroughs and was also the third most deprived London borough and had the fourth highest proportion of children living in income deprivation (0.52).”
On page 2 of the same report is a table of infant mortality rates for each Borough and the highest 2002-2008 infant mortality rate is correctly shown to be Southwark with an average rate of 7.2 per 1,000 live births for that 7-year period. When I alerted the GLA to these matters, there was no interest in correcting the report and I wrote to Sadiq Khan on 8 December 2016 and asked him to order a new report using data for the 12 years 2002-2013.
The reply from Dr Katie Hunter (25 January 2017) referred me to the incinerator study and made no comment on the content of my letter, which enclosed copies of correspondence with Ofsted’s Sir Michael Wilshaw and Rt Hon Justine Greening about the proven link between air pollution and higher rates of infant deaths, low birthweight babies, asthma, obesity and reduced IQ. I’d assumed that both Ofsted and DfE would be concerned about the IQ issue, if nothing else, but both preferred to claim it to be outside their remit.
The Sunday Times printed the following:
“SOMETHING IN THE AIR
If Sir Michael Wilshaw, the outgoing chief inspector of schools in England, is really concerned about us falling even further behind in a "premier league" of key global competitors, despite billions of pounds being spent, he should revisit my letter to him last September about air pollution causing depressed IQ and higher rates of asthma, infant mortality, low-birthweight babies and childhood obesity.
Anything that could adversely affect the wellbeing and academic performance of schoolchildren must be within Ofsted's remit and not passed to other government bodies that seem unaware of the current research.
Michael Ryan, Shrewsbury”
This is the text of the letter I sent:
“If Sir Michael Wilshaw is really concerned about “teenagers faliing even further behind…..despite billions of pounds being spent” (article, 4 December 2016), he should revisit my letter of 22 September 2016 about air pollution causing depressed IQ and higher rates of asthma, infant mortality, low birthweight babies and childhood obesity.
Anything that could adversely affect the wellbeing and academic performance of schoolchildren must be within Ofsted’s remit and not passed to Defra or Public Health England who seem unaware of the research by Professor Frederica Perera (Columbia) and Professor Paul Mohai (Michigan).”
Professor Mohai’s team had mapped the school exam performances for all public schools in the State of Michigan and also the attendance levels, which were used as a proxy for health. They then looked at the sources of industrial air pollution and saw that the schools exposed to such pollution had worse attendance and also worse exam results.
“Abstract
Exposing children to environmental pollutants during important times of physiological development can lead to long-lasting health problems, dysfunction, and disease. The location of children's schools can increase their exposure. We examined the extent of air pollution from industrial sources around public schools in Michigan to find out whether air pollution jeopardizes children's health and academic success. We found that schools located in areas with the highest air pollution levels had the lowest attendance rates-a potential indicator of poor health-and the highest proportions of students who failed to meet state educational testing standards. Michigan and many other states currently do not require officials considering a site for a new school to analyze its environmental quality. Our results show that such requirements are needed. For schools already in existence, we recommend that their environmental quality should be investigated and improved if necessary.”
(Air Pollution Around Schools Is Linked To Poorer Student Health And Academic Performance, Article (PDF Available) in Health Affairs 30(5):852-62 · May 2011)
Here in the UK, I’d expected Ofsted and DfE to be concerned as it\s been reported that low birthweight correlated with poor GCSE results.
“Birth weight affects exam results, claim researchers”, by Polly Curtis, The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2003/mar/25/research.highereducation
“In October 2013, Sir Michael Wilshaw, the Ofsted chief inspector, warned of the "incompetent and ineffective" leadership in some children's departments. He singled out Birmingham for its decade of failure in children's services, which he described as a "national disgrace", with an infant mortality rate worse than that of Cuba.”
(“Children's care chiefs cashing in after payoffs”, by Jon Ungoed-Thomas ; Josh Boswell, Sunday Times, 10 May 2015)
I’d written to Sir Michael Wilshaw on 22 September 2017 and the text of the first page of my letter is as follows:
“Dear Sir Michael,
Air pollution link with reduced IQ, worse exam results and
higher infant mortality rates are being ignored
I’ve read in the Sunday Times (10 May 2015), Independent (15 October 2013) and other news reports about your concern at the very high infant mortality rate in Birmingham and wish to alert you to research by Professor Frederica Perera, which resulted in her being awarded $250,000 by the Heinz Foundation last year.
“Dr. Perera’s research tracked the pre- and post-natal health of 720 mother-child pairs in New York City.
She found that in addition to causing infant mortality, low birth weight, allergies, asthma, slower brain development and respiratory illnesses, there is also a correlation between exposure to air pollutants and childhood obesity.
“Exposure to endocrine disruptors in the air can alter the normal hormonal signalling and affect growth and development, so there is a tendency for some children to become more obese,” said Dr. Perera who reviewed the findings of that study, first reported in 2013, at one of four public presentations by Heinz Award winners on Wednesday in Pittsburgh.
Dr. Perera, who founded and is the director of the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health, said Pittsburgh’s air quality remains a serious public health problem for regional residents, and noted that the region is the sixth worst nationally for airborne particle pollution.”
Birmingham has forty electoral wards and the four with lowest infant mortality rates for the 11-year period 2004-2014 form a single group that had minimal exposure to emissions from the Tyseley incinerator. I don’t know the childhood asthma rates for Birmingham electoral wards, or the low birthweight statistics, but the four wards with lowest infant mortality rate (Sutton Vesey, Sutton Trinity, Sutton New Hall and Sutton Four Oaks) also had the lowest proportion of obese children starting primary school (map on page 26 of report below) and also the highest “Proportion of 5 year olds achieving the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) goals 2009-2011” (page 23 in same report).
These cannot be chance events as ONS data consistently shows elevated infant mortality rates in electoral wards exposed to incinerator emissions and also worsening of infant mortality rates at Council level after incinerators started at Edmonton, Nottingham, SELCHP, Birmingham, Dudley, Bolton, Kirklees, Stoke-on-Trent, Sheffield, Wolverhampton and Coventry.
*****
The infant mortality rates in Birmingham’s forty electoral wards range from 3.3 per 1,000 live births (10 infant deaths) in Sutton Trinity to 16.1 per 1,000 in Washwood Heath (149 infant deaths). Washwood Heath ward is heavily exposed to supposedly safe emissions from the Tyseley incinerator.
The tables below show the Councils with the ten highest and ten lowest infant mortality rates for the six years 2009-2014. Nine of the ten highest (out of 348 in England & Wales) either have an incinerator that’s in the unpublished study or are adjacent to such a Council.
The burning of Cemfuel at the cement works in Clitheroe has been raised in the House of Commons.
HANSARD 1803–2005 → 1990s → 1996 → March 1996 → 20 March 1996 → Commons Sitting → PETITION
Castle Cement, Clitheroe (Cemfuel)
HC Deb 20 March 1996 vol 274 cc457-76
Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—[Mr. Wells.]
9.8 pm
Mr. Gordon Prentice (Pendle) I welcome the opportunity to raise the important issue of the burning of Cemfuel by Castle Cement at its works in Clitheroe. I have invited the hon. Member for Ribble Valley (Mr. Evans) and my hon. Friend the Member for Denton and Reddish (Mr. Bennett), who chairs the Environment Select Committee, to speak in the debate, with your permission, Mr. Deputy Speaker, as it is right that they should.
We have the benefit, of course, of the Government's strategy document, "Making Waste Work", but unfortunately in this debate we do not have the benefit of the Government's considered response to the Environment Select Committee's report on the burning of secondary liquid fuels in cement kilns, which was published about 10 months ago, on 7 June 1995. Perhaps I should explain my interests, as Clitheroe is not in my constituency; it is in Ribble Valley, which lies alongside Pendle, and the two constituencies are separated by the vast bulk of Pendle hill. But, of course, smoke and dust, like the wind and the rain, do not respect lines on maps. I have an interest, as the Member of Parliament next door, for environmental reasons. Indeed, on 10 January this year, Pendle's services committee, in my local authority, considered a report on the issue, so people's concerns about the burning of Cemfuel extend well beyond Ribble Valley.
The Library of the House tells me that the exact composition of Cemfuel—the generic name is secondary liquid fuel—is commercially confidential. However, it is chiefly based on distillation residues from the solvent recovery business, Solrec, blended with solid and liquid waste from the paint, plastics, chemical and car industries, with old solvents that are no longer in use. It can contain metals such as mercury and thallium and chlorine compounds, which may generate dioxins when burnt, although there is a limit, I am told, on the metal content that can go into cement kilns.
It is clear that we are talking about a real witches' brew in Cemfuel. I have no idea what else may or may not be in it, but I have a list of the substances that are present in the recycled liquid fuel that is burnt at Blue Circle's Weardale works. They include methanol, which is found in windscreen cleaners; acetone, a varnish remover; propyl acetate, commonly found in adhesives; nitrobenzines, dyestuffs; dichloroethane, in anti-knock petrol; styrene, in plastics, and so on. It is a terrible cocktail of ingredients. The issue that is at the centre of this is whether all that can be burnt safely.
Secondary liquid fuels are used by the cement industry because they are cheap. Instead of paying for coal or coke, the producers of hazardous waste pay the cement industry to take their waste away for burning. That makes tremendous economic sense for the cement industry, which tells me that it is struggling very hard to fend off competition from other countries in the European Union—from the Greeks, for example, who apparently have a highly developed cement industry—and from all corners of the globe. That infuriates the companies that
run and operate purpose-built incinerators. They have told me that the burning of hazardous waste in cement kilns is banned in Denmark, Finland and, in effect, the Netherlands. Castle Cement is partly owned by the Swedes, and in Sweden, mercury, thallium, bromine, iodine and fluorine are all banned from combustion in cement kilns. But not here, apparently. The Minister will want to come back on that point.
In this country, secondary liquid fuels are burnt at Cambridge by Rugby Cement, and at Ketton in Leicester and at Clitheroe by Castle Cement. Other plants are giving it a trial. What is happening in the nation's cement kilns will be the first real test of the new Environment Agency, which opens for business on 1 April.
According to Fred Pearce, writing in tomorrow's edition of New Scientist, chemical wastes are now being burnt permanently, or are on trial, in about half the country's cement works. Her Majesty's inspectorate of pollution, which is to become part of the new Environment Agency, is constantly reviewing what it may or may not be acceptable to burn in cement kilns. It is constantly reviewing national and international guidelines. Apparently, it is a moving target. It is feared that not just Cemfuel—secondary liquid fuel—will be going up the chimneys. In due course it may be joined by sewage sludge, shredded tyres, oil sludge and PCBs, although Castle Cement has told me that there is no question of polychlorinated biphenyls being burnt at Clitheroe….continues”
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1996/mar/20/castle-cement-clitheroe-cemfuel
I’d expected the Royal College of Midwives to be interested in the link between air pollution and “adverse birth outcomes” and wrote to Cathy Warwick, their CEO. My letter of 19 July 2017 started as follows and was never answered, despite being sent by recorded delivery.
Dear Ms Warwick,
The link between air pollution and higher infant mortality rates that was
written about in England & Wales in 1891 (1859 in Scotland), but
overlooked despite being of key relevance to midwives today
I’ve seen the article by Kat Lay: “Midwives are making 1,400 errors a week” (The Times, 10 July 2017) and she should be interested in the following which shows the usefulness of collecting data on births and deaths since Civil Registration started in Scotland in 1855:
“In Glasgow there died 13.08 children out of every 100 living under five years of age; in Aberdeen the mortality was only 4.83 out of 100 children. From whatever cause or causes it may arise, infantile mortality is nearly three times greater in Glasgow than in Aberdeen, and consequently Glasgow is a much more unhealthy town than Aberdeen; for it has been proved that, as a general rule, “the less the proportion of deaths among children under five years, the greater is the healthiness of a town or locality.” The report, in stating the causes of death, shows that the deaths from consumption were much greater in the towns than in the country districts, and that among the towns the lowest proportion was in the more exposed, and, therefore, better ventilated towns, such as Edinburgh and Aberdeen.”
Reports of the Registrar-General of Scotland for 1858
(The Vital Statistics of Scottish Towns, The Times, 28 February 1859, page 7)
I’ve enclosed a copy of page 61 of Dr Stephen Mosley’s “The Chimney of the World: A History of Smoke Pollution in Victorian and Edwardian England” as it has the following about Dr John Tatham:
"In Salford 598 people in every 100,000 of the population die annually of lung complaints, as compared with only 334 in Mid-Cheshire... The conditions of life in this district are not superior to those in Salford, with the one exception that the atmosphere is less contaminated by smoke... so that the extreme difference on mortality may be assumed to be mainly if not entirely due to the smoke nuisance".
Dr Tatham became the Superintendent of the General Register Office, which celebrates its 180th birthday this year. Dr Tatham's report on the registration year 1891 looked at the mortality rates in three industrial towns with high infant mortality and a group of three agricultural counties with low infant death rates. I’ve enclosed a copy of the cover, contents and pages x and xi of the “Fifty-Fourth Annual Report of the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages in England (1891)” and the following is at the bottom of page x and top of page xi:
“The (infant mortality) rates differed widely in different counties; and that these differences are not merely casual is shown by their being repeated with great persistence year after year, the general rule being that the rate is lowest in the purely agricultural and highest in the mining and those with textile industries.” continues
I wonder whether Professor Warwick or her colleagues read The Times?
Midwives and 'normal' delivery methods
Sir, I hope the "better births initiative" promised by Cathy Warwick will alert midwives to the fact that air pollution has been the dominant causal factor for infant deaths for more than a century. Her members may not have seen your report "Pollution blamed for lung cancer in people who have never smoked" (News, Aug 12), nor realised that pollution, other than from tobacco smoke, is also linked to infant deaths.
Michael Ryan Shrewsbury”
(The Times, 14 August 2017)
Britain could have been at the forefront of research into adverse health effects of air pollution, but it seems that profit has always been far more important than people.
If anyone on the EFRA Committee read Dr Stephen Mosley’s above book, they’ll find that “the rich” made sure that they lived where there was less pollution.
The collating of information on social class when births have been registered has encouraged researchers to make incorrect conclusions about the causes of ill-health and premature deaths.
The Carstairs and Townsend indices of deprivation are often applied to rates of illness and premature deaths and data are “adjusted” and the extent of damage caused by air pollution is obscured.
Dr William Brend was also concerned about women being wrongly suspected of having killed their babies, when air pollution had been the cause. As far as I’m aware, no legal team defending someone wrongly accused of causing the death of an infant has checked the ONS data at electoral ward level to see whether or infant death rates are higher than average, such as in the cases of Robert Ward (Telford, downwind of Ironbridge Power Station)) and Aaron Brooks (Nottingham, downwind of Nottingham incinerator). Note that Aaron Brooks was “persuaded” to plead guilty to a lesser charge and that his legal team would have had no idea of the impact of air pollution on infant mortality.
“A Man who said he could not remember harming his daughter has been jailed after admitting her manslaughter.
Aaron Brooks , 22, was sentenced to three years and three months for the manslaughter of 11-week-old Morgan Brooks at his home in Plantagenet Street, St Ann's.
Nottingham Crown Court heard Brooks had been charged with murder but the allegation was dropped when he entered a plea to manslaughter yesterday.
Medical evidence found a subdural haemorrhage, or bleeding in the brain, "as a result of trauma to Morgan's head" caused her death.
She was fully-clothed at the time she suffered slight internal head injuries, which could have happened in a second or two, the court heard.
Brooks had left Morgan on a bed while he smoked a cigarette in a bathroom and when he returned his daughter was "happy and smiling", the court was told.
Then Brooks noticed a bubble of blood and milk, wiped it away and held his daughter to wind her.
Suddenly, Morgan's left arm went stiff and then her whole body.
Brooks "panicked", put her in a pushchair and rushed her to his partner, who was visiting her mother a mile away.
Once at the house, attempts failed to resuscitate Morgan and she was pronounced dead at the Queen's Medical Centre at 4.04pm on March 7, last year.
Peter Joyce QC, prosecuting, said the child had been well-nourished and healthy and there were no signs of external violence or neglect.
"This was a shaking by this man of an 11-week-old baby ," he said.
Mr Justice Teare said the injuries had been slight compared to other shaken baby cases.
"Although you cannot remember what you did, you must have done something to harm Morgan." Brooks ' father, Phillip Green, who was in court, said after the case he still believed his son was innocent.
Mr Green, of St Ann's, said: "There were a few spots of blood in her brain and eye.
" I believe my son didn't do it.
"I would fight it...but Aaron doesn't want to. He has been frightened into thinking he would get 20 years for murder so he has admitted manslaughter.
"He accepts the medical evidence, but I don't know what he is supposed to have done." Also after the case, Nottinghamshire CPS reviewing lawyer Lesley Renfrew said: "As the case has progressed many expert opinions have been canvassed but have not been able to agree on a definitive answer to what happened on that day.
"The case has been reviewed in light of all the evidence now before the court and Brooks has accepted responsibility for the death of his daughter and pleaded guilty to manslaughter. His plea, which has only come today, has been carefully reviewed and is acceptable to the Crown.
"Any case involving the death of an infant is upsetting for the prosecution team to work on but our thoughts are with Morgan's mother and her family at this time."
(“Father is jailed for killing his baby girl”, by Rebecca Sherdley,Nottingham Post, 5 December 2007)
My Aunt Margaret, who was my mother’s younger sister, told me in 2006 about how she’d been born with rickets and how my grandparents had been advised by their GP to move out of London to somewhere with clean air. That GP can’t have been the only medical practioner in London who was aware of the adverse effects of air pollution, which had been and continue to be downplayed, overlooked or ignored.
“Plight of poor living in polluted industrial areas
IT’S a shame that such an outstanding publication as the Black Country Bugle isn’t published in other industrial heartlands, so that the current generation can see how our hardworking forebears struggled to live in highly polluted areas.
Many “experts” believe that being poor causes worse health, but “the poor” often have little choice where they live or work, as Dan Shaw’s article (20 September 2017, page 17 and 18) reminded us with the extract from Maud Pember Reeve’s 1913 study:
“Heavy industry in the town continually belched smoke into the air so that ‘only persons by force of circumstances were forced to live in the town were prepared to inhabit houses in proximity to the factories’”.
My aunt Margaret was the fourth girl born to my maternal grandfather and was the only child to be born in Limehouse, London – the first three being born in Watford where he worked at a paper mill. Margaret was a very poorly baby and also had rickets, whist her sisters had all been very healthy children.
The London GP told my grandparents: “If you want this child to live, you must move out of London to somewhere with clean air,” and that’s exactly what they did and my aunt lived into her 80s.
The General Register Office, who started collecting data on births, deaths and marriages in 1837 must have known within a few years where the high death-rate areas were in London, the Black Country and other industrial areas and been able to compare with the rural areas where infant death rates and premature death rates at all ages were much lower.
Michael Ryan”
(Black Country Bugle, 18 October 2017)
Rickets isn’t a disease of the past:
“A Mother has been left devastated after her baby son died of Rickets.
Beverley Thahane's son Noah had been suffering seizures that doctors had been unable to explain.
It was only just before Noah's death in January 2017 that he was diagnosed with severe vitamin D deficiency.
Speaking to the BBC about her son's death, Ms Thahane, from Telford, said: "He started changing colour again and I knew he was going to have another seizure but unfortunately it ended up being a heart attack.
"Vitamin D is a silent killer. I am without a child now and the sickness was silent, nobody knew, nobody picked it up." Ms Thahane had taken baby Noah to the doctors numerous times before he died.
Rickets is a bone disease which can be caused by Vitamin D deficiency and leads to deformed bones, stunted growth and general ill health. In severe cases it can affect the heart and become fatal.
The disease can also be caused by a lack of calcium and severe malnutrition in the first stages of childhood.
Though the disease was common in Victorian times, it was largely eradicated during the 1950s but has made a comeback in recent years.
Cases have more than doubled in the last decade, with 450 children now diagnosed with the disease every year, though it is still incredibly rare to die from the illness.
Afro-Carribbean and Asian communities are particularly vulnerable because their skin absorbs less sunlight, hampering the body's ability to produce vitamin D. Ms Thahane added: "We didn't know the severity of it, that it can actually kill somebody."
(“Vitamin D deficiency found in baby - Rickets caused Noah's death”, by Sophie Madden, Shropshire Star, 7 November 2017, page 5)
Airborne pollution masks sunlight.
“While a blanket of thick smog has enveloped Lahore and adjoining regions in central Punjab reducing visibility and resulting in breathing difficulties and irritation in eyes, health experts have advised people to take precautions to protect themselves from this type of air pollution.
"Smog is a yellowish or blackish fog that negatively affects both the environment and human health. Sometimes it can make breathing very difficult," they said, adding: "Smog can damage the ability of plants to store food and water that also damages the reproduction and plant's growth." They added that smog can create acid deposits in the form of acid rain, snow, fog, gas, and dust. These acidic deposits and acidic rain end up on soil and water that can hurt plants and animals.
Talking about smog effects on public health, experts said: "Smog can cause breathing problems and may cause surge in the incidence of asthma in children." They maintained that particles of toxic chemicals in smog are easily inhaled through lungs and can cause serious problems for health, thus, heavy smog results in a low production of vitamin-D leading to cases of rickets among people….continues”
(“Low visibility, health hazard emerge as smog chokes Lahore”
MUHAMMAD SALEEM NOV 1ST, 2017 LAHORE)
https://fp.brecorder.com/2017/11/20171101231308/
November 2017
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