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| Ben Goldacre And The Bridgend Suicides | ||
The Bridgend suicides and the duty of a newspaper to inform  For publication please Michael Ryan BSc, C Eng, MICE 44 Gains Avenue, Bicton Heath, Shrewsbury, SY3 5AN 01743 366859 Dear Sir, Ben Goldacre's recent Guardian comments on the Bridgend suicides would have been more use if he'd first spoken to Professor Richard Weisler from the University of North Carolina. After the death of his mother, Professor Weisler mapped locations of cancer deaths and found them clustered around an asphalt plant and when he mapped the suicides, there was a similar cluster, which suggested that airborne pollution could be a common cause. See his December 2004 press release. A second suicide cluster in a different North Carolina location was identified after a paper mill started to incinerate waste residues instead of discharging into a watercourse. The Crymlyn Burrows incinerator in Neath Port Talbot, which started in 2002, has been an additional source of airborne pollution in Bridgend, and the age standardised suicide rate in Bridgend for persons ages 15 years and over jumped from 13.8 in the 3-year period 1999-2001 to 17.7 in 2002-2004, according to page 21 of the Bridgend suicide report 'Improving Futures', which I've obtained under FoI. In the latter half of 2007, Gnosall became the focus of media attention on suicide. It was unfortunate that Dr Dick van Steenis and I were unaware of Professor Weisler's research when we met Michael Gwynne, the coroner for Telford, in June 2005 when Dr van Steenis correctly predicted that the suicides would be mostly clustered in the electoral wards with high infant mortality rates - ie the ones with greatest exposure to industrial PM2.5 emissions. We were still unaware of the Weisler research when the Stafford Post featured us on the front page of the 22 November 2007 edition: 'Suicides 'linked' to power station'. The six Gnosall suicides are part a cluster of around one hundred suicides associated with emissions from Ironbridge power station: Power station report threat, Shropshire Star. Angie Fuller, one of the 'Bridgend suicides' had recently moved to Bridgend from Much Wenlock, and could have committed suicide here in Shropshire as she was reported to have attempted suicide twice before. All medical students learn about Dr John Snow and how he used the pattern of deaths to correctly deduce the means of transmission of cholera. I wonder if Ben Goldacre would classify Dr Snow's work, or that of Professor Weisler or Dr Dick van Steenis as 'junk science'? Yours faithfully, Michael Ryan BSc, C Eng, MICE Note: Ben Goldacre kept very quiet about the Sunday Express article 'Incinerator fumes link to hundreds of infant deaths', 29 April 2007. Why was that? There's a popular myth that infant mortality is linked to 'deprivation' and yet the London electoral ward with the highest infant morality rate in the 5-year period 2002-2006 is one of the wealthiest in London and the three highest infant mortality wards for this 5-year set are all in the upper quintile of 'non-deprived' wards according to the 2004 classification. The article below mentions Edmonton incinerator, which is in Edmonton Green ward and that ward is one of a cluster of six wards in a single group that all have 2002-2006 infant mortality rates greater than or equal to 9.0 per 1,0000 live births. The largest single cluster of London electoral wards which had zero infant deaths recorded in each of the 5 years 2002-2006 is a group of 4 wards which is 7 miles upwind [ie to the west] of the nearest incinerator. The London Health Observatory have written to tell me that their expert advisers have told them that air pollution isn't a factor in infant mortality, so why do they advise pregnant mothers to stop smoking? Maybe the 'expert advisers' were the Health Protection Agency, who promised [Dr Pat Troop] in Western Daily Press article of 6 Aug 2003 to investigate rates of illness around landfill sites and incinerators, but 'forgot' all about it as can be seen from following articles of 22 May 2008 in Dorking Advertiser & Surrey Mirror: INCINERATOR FURY AS BOSSES ADMIT TO NO HEALTH CHECKS CHILL WIND OVER FUMES RISK FROM INCINERATOR The Express On Sunday: Incinerator fumes link to hundreds of infant deaths Express on Sunday, The (London, England) - April 29, 2007 Author: Lucy Johnston and Martyn Halle HUNDREDS of baby deaths a year are being linked to pollution emitted by public waste incinerators. Researchers have established a significantly higher death rate among children up to one year old when they live undersmoke from an incinerator chimney. There is a lower death rate for children who live out of the path of incinerator emissions. The report comes after a detailed analysis of death rates across the country. Dr Dick van Steenis, a retired GP who helped head the study, said: 'The incinerators are burning all sorts of material from domestic waste to hazardous chemical and radioactive waste.' The danger comesfrom the particles released into the atmosphere. They are of a size that can be easily inhaled into the lung where they lodge and cause damage to the body.' The most damaging particle, known as PM 2.5, is particularly harmful to youngsters he said. 'Newborn babies are more likely to succumb to damage from chemical pollutants in these inhaled particles.' He added: 'Around every single incinerator, infant mortality rates, asthma rates and autism rates are sky-high. 'That's if you live under the smoke stream from the chimney. In areas nearby which don't get the smoke, the death rate is either at the national average or lower.' The data has been collectedfrom the latest official statistics covering the years 2003 to 2005. Enfield in north London has the UK's largest incinerator at Edmonton. The death rate for babies up one year old in west of the borough is virtually nil. But in eastern Enfield,which sits downwind of the incinerator and is exposed to smoke from the chimney, the death rate is between 10 and 12 per thousand of population. The national average death rate for babies up to a year is 5.2 per thousand. Dr van Steenis said that he had accounted for other factors that could increase the death rate such as social deprivation. He pointed out, for example, that 'leafy middle-class areas' of west London were affected by emissions from a big incinerator at Colnbrook near Slough. In some parts around this plant infant mortality rates are treble the national average. 'We compared those areas with nearby well-to-do wards that didn't get emissions and they were significantly lower than the national average.' Professor Vyvyan Howard, an expert on environmental pollution from the University of Ulster, said dioxins released in the burning of rubbish had been shown to be cancer causing. He said that while incinerator filters take out 99 per cent of particles, it is the ultra fine one per cent - the PM 2.5s - that can have chronic effectson health. London Waste, which owns the Edmonton incinerator, said it had not seen the van Steenis report. A spokesman said: 'We use a proven technology with a track record of safe operation and it is recognised throughout Europe as a safe and efficient method of energy generation. 'There is no consistent evidence that our facilities cause adverse health effects. 'We continually monitor particulates such as PM 2.5s and the levels released are lower than the maximum permitted.' *************** Information Provided: * Your Health On The Line Seminar Topics: Detailed effects of industrial air pollution from incinerators etc. and interaction with vaccines. Speakers: Dr Sarah Myhill, Dr Dick van Steenis, Michael Ryan. Date: 17 September 2008 * Cultural Dwarfs And Junk Journalism: Ben Goldacre, Quackbusting And Corporate Science Martin J Walker *************** |
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