A top waste boss today defended the safety of a proposed £60 million incinerator in Shrewsbury as plans were unveiled to the public for the first time.
John Collis, a specialist with Veolia Environmental Services, said the proposed plant at Battlefield would cut the amount of waste going to landfill and would generate enough power to supply electricity to 10,000 homes.
Campaigners say they fear a rise in infant deaths, clusters of cancers and brain tumours because of emissions from the site.
But Mr Collis said he had lived downwind of a similar incinerator in Chineham, Hampshire, for years with no ill health effects and he would have no fears about living near the one proposed for Shrewsbury.
The plans were exclusively revealed on the Shropshire Star’s website early this morning, with a full planning application due to be submitted to Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council within days.
The plans can be seen at Battlefield Recycling Centre today from 3pm to 7pm and at The Lantern, Meadow Farm Drive, at the same time tomorrow and on Saturday between 9.30am and 1pm.
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11 Comments
NO INCINERATOR IN SHROPSHIRE!
They are NOT safe, they beltch out poisonous and toxic fumes that will kill.
More Carbon Dioxide emissions in the atmosphere to aid more Global Warming.
This country is supposed to be cutting down of emissions and caring about our people’s. The Government have again bowed down to make money.
Absolutely sickening that they put YOUR health and safety last.
DO NOT believe it’s a power plant. It will not power any homes at all. All it will do is burn, even though we recycle, that waste will be burnt too.
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What scientific evidence does Veolia have that incinerators don’t harm health?
The say-so of an employee isn’t very convincing.
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SO SAID THE OWNERS OF THE TITANIC. We all know what happened next.
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It is well worth having a look at…
http://www.ecomed.org.uk/pub_waste.php
The reports can be heavy going, but are well worth reading. I think they’re quite balanced, but do not support the idea that incinerators are safe.
I thing that this incinerator, like all of them is a bad idea. But please read yourself and form your own opinion.
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Don’t waste your time with the above junk report by Dr Jerry Thompson as it has no data whatsoever – despite the fact that Dr Thompson is a Slough GP where Cllr Margaret Stoklosinski was the only Cllr to oppose the new Colnbrook incinerator.
Slough used to be a healthy place with SMR=88 in 1990 when the first Colnbrook incinerator built and yet the standardised mortality ratio had risen to SMR=121 by 2001.
Unlike Dr Thompson, I’ve examined actual data, firstly the birth defect rates by PCT which were released to me by instruction of Treasury Minister Ruth Kelly in October 2004 and later by checking infant mortality rates at electoral ward level around polluting industries and comparing with places that are free from industrial PM2.5 emissions.
Dr Thompson has forgotten the basic principles of epidemiology which all medical students learn when they sit through a lecture about Dr John Snow and how he used mapping of cholera deaths to correctly deduce that the means of transmission of cholera must be contaminated water as no other mechanism would fit all the case studies.
Veolia couldn’t have convinced Daniel Kawczynski that incinerators don’t harm health – otherwise the proof would have been splashed all over the Shropshre Star before now.
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hear hear get rid of the stuff i say, its only socialist greenies that wont like this, its a sensible plan to rid us of this recycling nonesense
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If plasma gasification is used, there’s no toxic ash to landfill and no toxic emissions to inhale.
The process is also far cheaper than incineration and if health damage costs from incineration are included, the difference is over one hundred pounds per tonne of waste.
Shropshire County Council is planning to burn 90,000 tonnes of waste each year at Harlescott which means tossing away over 9 million pounds each year by not having plasma gasification.
Can anyone think of a suitable word for Shropshire CC?
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When the post-war Labour government decided to cut costs by exporting high-grade coal and burning low-grade coal here in UK, there was a massive increase in ill-health and also premature deaths which was “dealt with” by ignoring it and by altering the London deaths due to the 1952 smog from 12,000 down to 4,000.
We’ve had a massive increase in industrial PM2.5 air pollution in the last decade which has led to huge increase in asthma, diabetes 2, COPD, early cancers, depression and obesity. The current Labour government deals with this avoidable NHS overload by blaming “lifestyle”.
If you can’t understand the link between PM2.5s and obesity, take a look at http://www.ukhr.org/obesity
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W.E
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Monkman, i agree with Michael, that report isnt robust. The Health Protection Agency flagged some of the flaws and stands by its position that these facilities contribute little to ambient air quality and health.
Michael, the obesity link you sent through seems a little vauge. Is there any hard science that specifically links obesity to incineration?
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well, Veolia’s cats seem to be getting fat as the direct result of incinerating our resources…
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