Rob Edwards

Council accused of breaking the law on contamination

from Sunday Herald, 08 August 2010

A major Scottish local authority has been accused of breaking the law by failing to clean up dangerous contamination and putting the health of hundreds of people at risk.

North Lanarkshire Council has been threatened with legal action by solicitors representing residents from an estate in Motherwell who believe that toxic waste left by a old wartime factory is making them sick.

The council has acted “negligently” and its remediation strategy was “severely flawed and badly implemented”, allege the lawyers. Its repeated insistence that there was nothing to worry about was “simply misleading”, they say.

But the council has hit back, accusing the lawyers of touting for business by inflaming the fears of local people. In the last few days investigators commissioned by the council have begun a 16-week programme of test-drilling in the area to check for contamination.

The Sunday Herald revealed in March that residents near Watling Street in north Motherwell were worried about pollution from a huge military plant in the area that used to handle toxic metals, hazardous chemicals and radioactive materials in the 1940s.

Widespread opposition to new coal plant

from Sunday Herald, 01 August 2010

Government-backed plans for a huge new coal plant are running into a rising tide of opposition from a powerful range of groups worried about pollution, wildlife and tourism.

The £3 billion scheme by Clydeport’s owners, Peel Holdings, to build Scotland’s first new fossil fuel power station for decades at Hunterston in North Ayrshire is facing thousands of objections from faith groups, international aid charities, wildlife agencies, environmentalists and businesses.

Amongst those who have now come out against the scheme are Christian Aid, Oxfam, the Scottish Wildlife Trust, Largs Yacht Haven and the Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park Authority. A new coal station would harm people in developing countries, they say, as well as threatening otters, birds and businesses locally.

The breadth of opposition to the Hunterston plant creates problems for the Scottish government, which has already endorsed it as part of Scotland’s National Planning Framework. The plant has also been rejected by a majority of the Scottish Parliament, and it is the subject of a court challenge from objectors.

A public consultation by Scottish ministers is to due to close on 20 August. But the Sunday Herald understands that well over 5,000 representations have already been received, the vast majority of which are objections.

Scotland: still polluted after all these years

from Caledonian Mercury, 1 June 2010

More than a quarter of a century after it was banned, the notorious pesticide, DDT, is still contaminating eels throughout Scotland, a new scientific study has revealed.

A range of other persistent pollutants, including PCBs and BDEs, have also been detected in a survey of eels from 26 Scottish rivers. The highest levels were found in the River Clyde in Glasgow and the River Don in Aberdeen, a legacy of their industrial pasts.

Although evidence suggests that most of the pollution is declining, there are a few places where it seems to be refusing to go away. Traces of DDT in River Don eels were higher than they were in 1986, while levels in eels from the River Cree at Newton Stewart hadn’t dropped.

DDT - dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane - holds a unique place in twentieth century history. It was seen as the farmers’ saviour in the 1940s and 1950s, and was widely used to kill agricultural pests.

But in the 1960s it was blamed for wiping out birds in Silent Spring, the famous book by US naturalist, Rachel Carson, credited with giving birth to the modern-day environmental movement. It was also said to cause cancer and other diseases.

Revealed: drinking water contaminated with slug toxin

from Sunday Herald, 23 May 2010

Drinking water in the north east of Scotland has been contaminated by a toxic slug pesticide in breach of safety limits, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

Many thousands of consumers in the Peterhead area have been drinking water containing excess levels of metaldehyde, a hazardous chemical compound widely used by farmers to kill slugs. Two other areas nearby in the north east are officially said to be “at risk” of pollution from the pesticide.

The revelation has sparked anxiety amongst local people and environmentalists, while the pesticide industry says it is taking the issue “extremely seriously”. Government watchdogs insist, however, that there is “no risk” to public health, though they are making concerted efforts to cut back on the contamination.

Slugs and snails pose a major problem for farmers and gardeners because they eat crops and plants. Metaldehyde is the pesticide most commonly used against them, often in distinctive bright blue pellets spread across the ground.

It has been blamed for accidentally poisoning pets and making children ill, and comes with a strongly-worded official health warning: “Since this product contains metaldehyde, which can kill if eaten, it must be kept away from children and pets.”

RBS chairman to meet protesters

from Caledonian Mercury, 27 April 2010

The chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Sir Philip Hampton, is to meet with environment and human rights campaigners this week in an attempt to defuse escalating protests about the bank’s “dirty” investments.

The bank’s annual general meeting (AGM) in Edinburgh on Wednesday has become the target for a wide range of protest groups. They accuse RBS of putting up to £10 billion of public money into fossil fuel and mining projects in Canada, India and elsewhere which wreck the environment and violate human rights.

RBS was bailed out for £45.5 billion by the UK government during the banking crisis and is now 84% owned by British taxpayers. It has argued in the past that it cannot be held responsible for all the actions of the companies in which it invests.

But by agreeing to meet with campaign groups in Edinburgh after the AGM, Hampton may be signalling a new approach. “We are keen to listen to their perspective,” said an RBS spokeswoman.

“We recognise that a broad range of stakeholders have a very legitimate interest in the way that we conduct our business. Although we will not always agree with the many different opinions expressed, we welcome feedback and constructive engagement.”

RBS under fire for more ‘dirty’ investments

from Sunday Herald, 25 April 2010

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is facing a welter of fresh allegations about its multi-million pound investments in dirty and dangerous industries as campaigners prepare to protest at its annual general meeting in Edinburgh this week.

The bank, which is 84% owned by British taxpayers, has now been accused of backing a highly controversial mining operation in India. It is also said to have invested in companies which make cluster bombs, which are to be banned worldwide because of their “horrific” impacts.

Campaigners are demanding that RBS totally rethinks its investments to respect human rights and the environment. The bank, however, believes it is being unfairly targeted, and is becoming privately frustrated at the attention it is receiving.

The human rights group, Amnesty International, says that RBS or its subsidiaries have provided financial support worth £163 million to Vedanta Resources, a British-owned mining company, since 2004-05. The company runs a large aluminium refinery in Orissa, an impoverished region in central India.

An investigation by Amnesty found that the refinery had flouted the law and undermined the rights of local communities in the Niyamgiri Hills. Vedanta was accused of displacing landless workers without compensation, and polluting water used by people for drinking and bathing.

Revealed: drastic cutbacks in pollution inspections

from Sunday Herald, 4 April 2010

Scotland’s environmental watchdog is planning to slash inspections at thousands of factories, waste plants and small businesses, prompting fears that pollution will go undetected and unpunished.

Information leaked to the Sunday Herald reveals that the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) is making major cutbacks in checks for pollution problems at industrial facilities across the country in order to save money.

The revelation has alarmed green groups, who allege that polluters will be allowed to get away with toxic leaks and environmental contamination. But this is strongly denied by Sepa, which insists that the changes will lead to better regulation.

Inspectors from Sepa currently visit over 1,900 of Scotland’s smaller industrial enterprises twice a year. The plan is to reduce this to once every three years for the large proportion deemed to be “compliant very low risk”.

Similarly, inspections of many of the 1,300 sites licensed for waste management will be cut by a third, a half or more, depending on how risky they are judged to be. Visits to over a hundred local authority sites could drop from up to 12 a year to just one.

High risk of contamination at Motherwell site, says council report

from Sunday Herald, 28 March 2010

There is a “medium high risk” that land underneath a housing estate in Motherwell is contaminated with radioactivity and toxic metals, according to an expert report for North Lanarkshire Council.

The report reinforces residents’ fears that their health is being harmed by pollution from a wartime munitions factory that used to be on the site near Watling Street.

Earlier this month, the Sunday Herald revealed evidence that a clean-up of the site in the 1990s had left patches of contamination. The council has launched an investigation to check the safety of the area.

The first stage of the investigation was an assessment by consultants, WSP Environmental (WSPE), in Edinburgh. Its report, a copy of which has been passed to the Sunday Herald, suggests that there could be major problems.

“The site represents a medium-high risk with respect to contaminated land liability issues,” the report concludes. “A radiological risk may exist”, it says, from the disposal of caesium-137 and cobalt-60 from the manufacture of x-ray and radiation therapy machines in the past.

Alarm over toxic military plant under Motherwell

from Sunday Herald, 14 March 2010

Public authorities have been accused of failing to protect people from an old wartime factory blamed for contamination and illness on a housing estate in Lanarkshire.

Homes for 400 people were built on a site near Watling Street in north Motherwell that used to house a huge military plant in the 1940s. There is evidence that it handled toxic metals, hazardous chemicals and radioactive materials.

But the plant was not mentioned in a series of environmental surveys in the 1980s and 1990s carried out for the government’s development agencies. Instead there were only vague references to an “engineering works”.

Reports released under freedom of information law show that attempts to clean up the site in 1993 and 1994 to make it ready for housing development left behind patches of contamination by arsenic, cadmium and other heavy metals in breach of safety limits. No surveys were done for radioactive pollution.

Residents from the area complain of severe headaches, nausea and diarrhoea, which they blame on contamination. They met with experts and lawyers last week and agreed to pursue legal action for the health problems they are suffering.

"There are so many serious unanswered questions about this site that people are suspicious,” said Elizabeth Craigmyle, a partner with BMK Wilson in Glasgow, which represents ten local families.

Health probe into contamination from wartime factory

from The Herald, 11 March 2010

An investigation is to be launched into allegations that toxic contamination from a secretive wartime factory in Lanarkshire is making local residents ill.

North Lanarkshire Council is planning to sample and monitor pollution near Watling Street in Motherwell. The area used to be the site of a munitions factory run by Metropolitan Vickers for the Ministry of Defence, and a waste dump.

Residents complain of severe headaches, nausea and diarrhoea. They are worried that they could be caused by heavy metal, radioactive and other contamination, and have hired a Glasgow law firm to represent them in pursuing legal action.

The lawyers, BMK Wilson, have assembled a team of experts, led by Robert Kalin, a professor of environmental engineering at Strathclyde University. They have also brought in the English lawyers, Des Collins and Danielle Holliday, who recently won a major court case against Corby Council on contamination at a former steelworks.

“Many residents are concerned that the ground underneath their homes may still be contaminated and that it is harming their health,” said Elizabeth Craigmyle a partner with BMK Wilson.

New gas plant runs into opposition on pollution

from Sunday Herald, 07 March 2010

 

Plans for a new gas-fired power station in Scotland have run into major opposition from environmental groups concerned about the climate pollution it will produce.

Spanish-owned Scottish Power wants to replace the dirty old coal plant at Cockenzie near Edinburgh with a cleaner gas plant. But it will still emit millions of tonnes of the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, and could end up wasting vast amounts of heat.

Three major environmental groups have lodged objections to the plant, which is currently being considered by the Scottish government. It is not needed, they argue, and will conflict with ministers’ plans to “decarbonise” electricity generation.

“This proposal is just not good enough to be built in Scotland,” said Dr Richard Dixon, the director of WWF Scotland. “With our tough climate targets we cannot afford to be locking ourselves into new power stations that will be major carbon emitters for many years to come.”

Thousands of school children at risk from pesticides

from Sunday Herald, 31 January 2010

The health of thousands children is being put at risk by the widespread use of toxic pesticides in Scottish schools, according to a new survey by environmental groups.

Local authorities across the country have admitted spraying chemicals suspected of causing cancers and other health problems on playing fields, paths and playgrounds to control weeds. They have also laid poisonous bait to try and get rid of rats.

Exposing children to such risks is “staggering” and “unacceptable”, say campaigners, who are demanding a ban. Some councils say they would prefer not to use pesticides, but manufacturers insist they are safe if properly used.

Councils across the UK were asked for the first time to identify which pesticides they used in schools. The survey was carried out at the end of last year by the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL), which brings together 65 organisations in 26 countries across Europe, along with the UK campaign group, Pesticides Action Network.

Bhopal protest comes to Grangemouth

from Sunday Herald, 15 November 2009

Dharmesh Shah has come all the way from India to Grangemouth this weekend for a purpose. He wants to stick it to one of the world’s biggest chemical companies.

The 26-year old Indian campaigner is outraged that the Dow Chemical Company seems to have washed its hands of the terrible disaster at Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, 25 years ago next month. So he is attending a protest today (Sunday) at the US multinational’s newly acquired Scottish factory in Wholeflats Road.

“We have not learnt the lessons we should have done, so it’s just a matter of time before another Bhopal happens because big companies have shown that they don’t respect human life,” he told the Sunday Herald. 

“There are still communities living around chemical plants, and companies are sending all their dangerous products to India, where the safety regulations are weak.”

People, pollution and profits

book review for New Scientist, 28 October 2009

 

'Green Intelligence: Creating environments that protect human health' by John Wargo

Published by: Yale University Press

Price: £25/ $32.50

The buses that take our children to school should be safe places. But according to John Wargo, a professor of environmental risk analysis and policy at Yale University, they are polluted by diesel exhausts.

Riding the buses with monitors, Wargo and his colleagues discovered that children were at "significant risk" from tiny particles of half-burnt diesel fuel sucked in through doors at bus stops or belched out by the bus in front. At its worst, when lines of idling buses dropped off and picked up students at schools, the pollution caused "a burning sensation at the back of the throat", he says.

Scotland’s major climate polluters exposed

from Sunday Herald, 01 November 2009

Scotland’s worst climate polluters have been unmasked as big-name energy companies including Scottish Power, Ineos, ExxonMobil, BP, Shell and E.ON.

The French multinational, Lafarge, paper mills and landfill sites are also amongst those outed by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) for belching the most global warming gases into the atmosphere in 2008.

In a long list of nearly 100 polluters, there are also famous distilleries, food companies, chemical plants, sewage works, glass manufacturers, the Michelin Tyre company and the nuclear submarine bases on the Clyde.

Pollution from some of the major plants has gone up, as at ScottishPower’s Cockenzie coal-fired power station in East Lothian. Its emissions have leapt nearly 60% from 2.8 million tonnes in 2005 to 4.45 million tonnes last year.

But it is still second in the pollution league to ScottishPower’s other coal plant at Longannet in Fife. Emissions from Longannet were nearly 6 million tonnes, a 30% drop compared to 2005.

Revealed: Scotland’s dirty three dozen

from Sunday Herald, 21 June 2009

A record number of stinking, rule-breaking, pollution-spewing industrial plants across the country are being unmasked, named and shamed by the government’s official green watchdog this weekend.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) is outing 36 sites from Shetland to the Borders as poor pollution performers in 2008. They include corporate giants like BP, Lafarge, Marine Harvest and INEOS, as well as 12 landfill dumps, nine food industry facilities and eight local authorities.

This is by far the highest number of sites ever fingered by Sepa, and it means that the agency has failed to meet its target to clean up industrial plants. Sepa points out that eight sites have flunked pollution assessments two years running and six have failed three years running (see below).

Companies and councils have frequently breached their legal permits, with equipment breakdowns, process failures, leaks, spills and nasty smells. Some have been served legal enforcement notices, and others taken to court.

Four of the offenders are in Grangemouth, three in Glasgow and three in Aberdeen. In Angus there is a trio of smelly and polluting meat factories and in Peterhead an offending oil waste plant and fish processor.

Perhaps the best known company named by Sepa is the oil multinational, BP, for failing to report and investigate incidents in line with its permits at the Sullom Voe oil terminal in Shetland. The company “cannot demonstrate a good knowledge of permit requirements,” says Sepa.

Thousands at risk of pollution from Forth bridge

from Sunday Herald, 22 February 2009

The government is facing a formal complaint to the United Nations about the thousands of people whose health could be endangered by pollution from the newly designed road bridge planned across the Firth of Forth.

Scottish ministers have re-routed the southern approach to the bridge to save money. But this has brought the dual carriageway much closer to local communities, threatening over 8,000 residents with increased risks of asthma, cancer and other diseases from exhaust fumes.

Now residents are preparing an appeal to the UN under the Aarhus Convention, which governs access to justice on environmental issues. The government agency, Transport Scotland, insists that it has not breached the convention.

Recent research from the Harvard School of Public Health in the US suggests that pollution from traffic can damage the health of people up to half a kilometre away. Toxic particles and gases can attack lungs, aggravate asthma in children and have been linked to higher rates of cancers.

Scottish power station ‘the dirtiest in Europe’

from Sunday Herald, 15 February 2009

One of Scotland’s coal-fired power stations has been labelled as the dirtiest in Europe, belching pollution that damages public health and spreads acid rain.

An expert report for the European Commission outs Cockenzie in East Lothian as by far the worst emitter of nitrogen oxides (NOX). Longannet power station, along the Firth of Forth in Fife, is also named as one of the biggest NOX polluters.

Industrial plants across the UK are responsible for much greater amounts of NOX pollution than any other country in Europe, emitting 100,000 tonnes a year more than their nearest rivals in Spain, Germany and Poland.

NOX causes breathing problems, aggravates heart conditions and stunts the growth of crops. The Institute of Occupational Medicine has estimated that air pollution from traffic and industry kills more than 600 people a year in Scotland’s central belt.

The new report was prepared by Entec consultants for the European Commission to assess emissions of NOX, sulphur dioxide and dust from large industrial plants in 27 European countries between 2004 and 2006.

The ‘scandal’ of the climate-wrecking gases in old buildings

from Sunday Herald, 08 February 2009

Pollution from the demolition of old buildings could blow a gaping hole in government attempts to tackle global warming, experts have warned.

Ministers have been accused of “a scandal and a cover-up” for failing to devise a strategy for dealing with the huge amount of hazardous chemicals contained in old insulation foam.

If the chemicals escape into the environment when buildings are knocked down they act as powerful greenhouse gases to disrupt the climate. They will also eat away at the ozone layer that protects the earth from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation.

More radioactive pollution at Dalgety Bay

from Sunday Herald, 28 September 2008