Sending out mixed messages on pollution (From Kidderminster Shuttle)

Sending out mixed messages on pollution

10:00am Thursday 10th January 2013 in Letters

I AM mystified by the apparent opposite views of two local authorities.

Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council are collecting leaves but not composting them because there is a possibility that they may be contaminated from car exhausts.

With an opposite view, Worcestershire County Council are proposing to erect an incinerator that will allow the ‘fall-out’of pollutant particulates from the chimney to be spread over parts of Kidderminster and surrounding areas.

Does this mean we will have to stop composting for fear of our compost being contaminated?

In its recent Health Protection Agency report on Energy from Waste facilities and human health, one particular sentence stuck in my mind – “The evidence suggests that any potential damage to health of those living close to incinerators is likely to be very small, if detectable. The agency therefore does not believe that studies of public health around individual incinerators are scientifically justifiable.”

With no incinerator there would be no potential damage to health.

PETER BROWN Bittern Wood Road Kidderminster