Benchmarking

national | environment | opinion/analysis

Saturday December 10, 2005 13:53

by Sean Crudden - Cooley Environmental and Health Group

sean at cooleyehg dot com

Jenkinstown, Dundalk, Co Louth.

042 93 71310

"The Winds that Blow Across the Seas from Ireland..."

Arthur Morgan TD as well as Shane McEntee TD passionately expressed during the week in Drogheda, at a meeting organised by Meath Community Forum, their oppostition to incineration. But what if the incinerator at Carranstown (or the one in Cork) goes ahead?

There was an excellent meeting organised by Meath Community Forum held in The Boyne Valley Hotel on Tuesday night last 6 December 2005. The meeting was intended to deal with the waste disposal plan for the North-East Region (Meath Monaghan Louth and Cavan) but, as you might expect, a lot of the discussion centred around the planned incinerator at Carranstown near Drogheda. And, indeed, there is no need for me to rehearse here the arguments against incineration.

A key point made by a speaker from the IFA concerned the need to monitor the environment as the years go by in the event of the incinerator going into "production." Obviously to accomplish that some kind of "benchmark" needs to be established now or very soon. A doctor who spoke also underlined the importance of assessing the impact of such facilities as the proposed incinerator on the health of the human population. It seems to me that, at present, such assessments - even if carried out by reputable practitioners - are nothing more than rather speculative projections. So in the case of human health, too, there is a need for some kind of a benchmark.

Here in Cooley we have reason (we think) to be thankful for the work of The National Cancer Registry and recent research by Dr Dennis Pringle based on statistics from that source helped to dispel at least temporarily an unusually high public fear of cancer in this community. As a result of his research the installations at Sellafield seem rightly or wrongly to be less of an insidious threat today than they were perceived to be even five years ago.

Naturally there are a lot of things affecting the environment and its human denizens apart from the proposed incinerator (or Sellafield). However, from a purely defensive point of view, there is obviously a need for benchmarking, monitoring and assessment to ensure that the environment and the human race here in Ireland are not losing their elasticity and restorative powers of recovery.

So at the meeting I called for a broadening of the work of The National Cancer Registry to involve a wide range of illnesses other than cancer including, even, things like mental illness and obesity. I would also like to see - in addition to the EPA and RPII - some kind of coherent "National Environment Register" to note and record changes in the environment nationally (at the level of District Electoral Division).

You may caution that the result of this kind of work would be simply an assembly of a dense mass of impenetrable statistics. But of course the most important step in any kind of scientific process is to count, measure and record. After that there are brilliant analytical minds (like Dr Pringle) to whom such statistics would simply be meat and drink.

And I am keen on a systematic use of a photographic record. For example, who will know in 50 years time what a mental patient of today looks like?

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Comments (2 of 2)

What is Morgan's alternative to incineration?

by Jim Cousins

Mon Dec 12, 2005 14:09

Dundalk

Well Deputy Morgan I understand putting it in a nutshall wants all to recycle, reuse and reduce waste. Very good Arthur in theory. But wait a minute. Who on low income is going to adhere to that policy? Some will but their will be the many who will literally fuck their waste wherever they can get a quiet spot to dump it when they feel nobody is looking. After doing al of that Deputy Morgan has said we need to burn what is left of the fecking stuff and in doing this we need an incinerator. Arthur we cannot do without the cremating process. Well! Maybe as an alternative we could fill land and reclaim land seaward like say in the Philippines where many airports have been made out of reclaimed land which was sea a few years back. Get your head together folks and solve this waste problem for once and for all and quit the point scoring politics for fecks sake.

Jim

For Health Sake.

by maire

Mon Dec 12, 2005 20:04

Jim,
What we all fear is an industry being set up which may have to be fed by bringing waste from outside, as an incinerator is only safe burning 24/7/365 and cannot be turned on and off because waste may not be available in sufficient quantities.
Why not only give a licence to a polluting industry that can deal with its own waste. The public have shown they are more than willing to manage their waste given a bit of help, but not penalising them.
In Cork industry have already 6 incinerators - polluter pays policy and we are being rewarded by a Toxic monopoly tolling industry for the whole country, placed at the collection gate which is Cork Harbour . This defeats any effort industry is making. One third of everything burned will be ash and has to be landfilled. Where is this ash going to go ?
Please log on to www.chaseireland.org to see the alternatives to incineration.
We did not inherit this earth, we borrowed it for our children.

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Comments (2 of 2)