Thanks to a certain Mr Anonymous, I was able to gather the following material for the Leziate meeting last month:
The following is a statement produced in response to a comment left on the Save East Winch Website, www.saveeastwinch.blogspot.com
“Maybe once youve finished polishing your pitchfork in preparation for your witch hunt you could open your eyes to the real culprit's - every one of us.”
Mr Anonymous,
Thank you for expressing your views on this blog.
Some further "proper research" from yourself would not go amiss either.
Frankly, your ignorance astounds me.
Just to reassure you, I don't have a pitchfork. Although if I did, a quick prod in your gluteus maximus might wake you up to what's really going on here. Wakey Wakey!
Why was there a conference in Stirling on Friday about Occupational Cancers?
http://www.hazards.org/cancer/conference/index.htm
“Despite occupational cancer being the single largest cause of work-related deaths, the risks have been downplayed by governments, health and safety enforcement agencies and employers. The end result has been a wholly preventable epidemic of cancers,” says International Metalworker’s Federation (IMF) general secretary Marcello Malentacchi.
“the red line does NOT mean they will mine up to peoples back fences. Im certain the councils would ensure the correct mitigation measures - it is nieve to think that the council would allow extraction very close to properties without mitigation measures to protect our residents”
That is a dangerous assumption to make, though you have raised a valid point about mitigation measures. Let’s be factual and objective. Let’s find out what mitigation measures are currently in force at existing sites, assess if they are adequate, and establish what additional measures, if any, are needed in future to further reduce risks.
“You quoted the mining companies Safety man as stating that it is perfectly safe when unprocesse- every thing points to this being very true.”
Re WBB’s Andy Price – Comments in EDP 21/04/08
"Silica sand as it exists in the ground is completely harmless because the sand grains are obviously too course to be breathed in."
No problem with that. Pretty obvious really, and a great argument for not digging it up in the first place. According to the man at WBB on the video from the Lynn News dated 150507, the sand lies beneath the topsoil and the overburden. When it’s left undisturbed under the ground it obviously does not form “particulates” (tiny airborne particles) of less than 10 micrometers in diameter (PM10’s) which are small enough to be ingested into the lungs. Next?
“also it would take many years of 'proper' exposure to result in any damage.”
Is that supposed to make us feel better?
How many years would the quarry be open for? 8 years? 10 years?
Is that long enough do you think to get ‘proper’ exposure?
HSE Construction Information Sheet No 36 Revision 1 states:
“Exposure to silica
The health hazards of silica come from breathing in the
dust. Activities which can expose workers or members
of the public to the dust include:
● stone masonry;
● facade renovation;
● blast cleaning of buildings, especially using sand;
● many demolition processes;
● concrete scabbling, cutting or drilling;
● tunnelling.”
And also
“Breathing in the very fine dust of crystalline silica can lead
to the development of silicosis. This involves scarring of
the lung tissue and can lead to breathing difficulties.
Exposure to very high concentrations over a relatively
short period of time can cause acute silicosis, resulting in
rapidly progressive breathlessness and death within a few
months of onset.”
http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/cis36.pdf
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Public Health Service
National Toxicology Program
The Report on Carcinogens 11th Edition states:
Silica, Crystalline (Respirable size) "is known to be a human carcinogen".
"The link between human lung cancer and exposure to Respirable crystalline silica (RCS) was strongest in studies of quarry and granite workers..."
"Residents near quarries and sand and gravel operations are potentially exposed to respirable crystalline silica."
“In humans, respirable crystalline silica persists in the lungs, culminating in the development of chronic silicosis, emphysema, obstructive airway
disease, and lymph node fibrosis.”
http://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/roc/eleventh/profiles/s161sili.pdf
T P Brown & L Rushton, in their paper, Mortality in the UK silica sand industry: Assessment of exposure to RCS say:
“The health consequences of exposure to RCS are well documented in many industries; In addition to silicosis, RCS has been associated with lung cancer, non malignant respiratory disease, non malignant renal disease, and autoimmune disease
However, there have been no studies published of silica sand workers in the UK.
The silica sand industry is engaged in quarrying and refining a product of high silica content and at quarries where silica flour and cristobalite are produced.
Thus the possible respiratory risk may be higher than in other quarrying industries.
During 1986 The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) assembled a cohort of 4749 individuals who had ever been at seven quarries owned by a large UK industrial sand company, but did not collect any exposure data.
An analysis of mortality was undertaken in 1991 but never published.”
Why not?
We can argue this until we are blue in the face.
Is it possible that in the real world, in a number of situations throughout human history, that shareholder's interests, owners of companies, have been put ahead of the long term welfare of the general public, that profit has been put before public safety?
Think of Thalidomide. Think of asbestos, Think of coal-mining. Are we to conclude that there were no risks or consequences from these events either?
It took many, many shattered lives to get governments to take notice of asbestos, including incidentally, my own father who passed away on 13th Dec 2007 at the age of 77, in Southampton General Hospital. He died directly as a result of working with asbestos which we can trace to being well over 40 years ago.
When he left school in 1945, he said in his first job, he and his colleague used to sit on sacks of asbestos. By 1963, he was working in a factory at Neilson’s Yard in Bridge Road, East Molesey which had asbestos corrugated sheeting in its roof. We conclude therefore that he had at least 18 years of intermittent exposure to asbestos.
Would that qualify as being under your definition of “proper exposure”?
For him and many others, the reforms made to ban asbestos in the 1970’s were too little, too late. The seeds were already sown. The time bomb was already ticking.
Personally, I hate the thought of history repeating itself, don’t you?
So I have a question for you, would you like to see a friend or a member of your family in intensive care, sedated, on a ventilator with a huge tube inserted into their mouth and throat, unable to talk, ashen grey, and being told by the doctors that they will take them off the ventilator in the morning to see if they can breathe unaided? Which in most cases, they can't? Being told that they are riddled with cancer, that’s spread rapidly from their lungs to other parts of their body, a cancer which is extremely difficult to detect before it’s too late? A cancer which the doctor told me is only detected early enough if found by chance. My father was allowed a week on the ventilator before he was taken off it as there is a continuous queue of other people coming in to take their place on the machine. I wonder why?
Would you also deny the truth of the story of the man who was paid just £3,750 in compensation for contracting silicosis at work?
HSE inspector Andrea Robbins said: "Breathing in the very fine dust of crystalline silica can lead to the development of silicosis, which in its most acute form can result in premature death.
"It is vital employers monitor dust levels to assess the risk of exposure and that they put control measures in place to reduce the levels to which employees are exposed.
"What makes this particular situation worse is that the company had previously commissioned the services of an external company to carry out atmospheric monitoring of dust levels, but did nothing to act upon the findings."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/7099771.stm
Are all these quoted sources, in your opinion, including HSE’s own published documentation, "less than Half truths?"
What exactly do you define as “a little proper research”?
That still leaves many other risks in the workplace.
If you are so convinced there's no risk then go and stand in the quarry at Ashwicken without any protective clothing, masks etc. and then tell me there's no risk.
Preventing occupational cancer
A new cancer prevention guide, reveals that over 600,000 deaths a year – one death every 52 seconds – are caused by occupational cancer, making up almost one-third of all work-related deaths.
GLOBAL: A worldwide epidemic of occupational cancer is claiming at least one life every 52 seconds, but this tragedy is being ignored by both official regulators and employers.
http://www.imfmetal.org/main/index.cfm?n=47&l=2&c=15708
If all of us are in fact to blame, then we should be seeking a solution together to stop workers dying of preventable cancers every 52 seconds, and that means lobbying the government and becoming educated about the risks, not simply denying them.
Every denial now leads to another pointless death, and another. Every 52 seconds. Just consider for a moment how many more people will die due to asbestos, alone, over the next 20 years or so, let alone the other illnesses we have mentioned.
And that only applies to workers in the workplace. It doesn't cover
people who are trapped living next to a quarry with the dust blowing into their gardens where their children play.
Every denial might aspire to be a half truth, but it is not. It is a simply a lie. An untruth.
And you will have to take your head out of the (silica) sand long enough to recognise it.
Martin Luther King said words to the effect of "man's inhumanity to man is not only perpetrated by the actions of those who are bad, but also by the inaction of those who are good."
To say there is no risk is to protract this argument and in so doing to condemn many more people to a pointless, slow & painful death, and to deprive today’s children of their parents in later life many years earlier than necessary.
Since we started the “Save East Winch” website I have been accused of making "ignorant statements", though I recognise that I am not alone in my ignorance, and I am at least prepared to do something about it. A little proper research, for example.
Are you?
“Scare tactics based on not even half truths should not be published until the full story is known.”
How much of the full story do we need to know?
1) We know that MIN40 is a proposal, which could get the go ahead as a preferred site in a matter of weeks.
2) We know that Grandcourt Farm West has been granted planning permission as of 7/9/07, without the majority of the local resident’s knowledge. We do know that 3 parish councils, (Middleton Leziate and East Winch) the RSPB, NWT, HSE and our local councillors were there, amongst others, and raised no objections on Health grounds or any other grounds for that matter with the exception of a Middleton Parish Council’s comment about a haul route off the A47. Why not?
3) We know that the Quarry on the Ashwicken/East Winch Road is in full operation, and we have established from previous evidence that the risk comes from live quarries, not from the ones they haven’t dug yet.
To quote Andy Price from EDP 21/04/08 “Silica only becomes potentially harmful when fine dust is generated during industrial processes which cause grains of silica to be broken down into microscopic particles.”
That is, when they come and dig it up. Which they are already doing at Ashwicken and also, we believe at the land to the west of Grandcourt Farm. WBB can confirm.
Andy also states: “No cases of silicosis have ever been recorded among members of the public in great Britain.” Compare with Brown & Rushton’s comment “there have been no studies published of silica sand workers in the UK.”
So despite the talk in the papers and from officials of the so called “wish list”, the so called “consultation” and silicosis only being seen in industries, according to Andy Price “where there is a significant exposure to silica dust” (e.g. silica sand quarrying)
the risk is real.
It exists, here and now.
Not in the summer.
Now.
In the air that we breathe.
Here & Now.
The clock is set.
This time bomb is already ticking.
And as for scare tactics, if we waited to publish everything until the full story is known, it would be too late to save anybody. But by then of course, Norfolk County Council will have met the Government’s quota (a win for them), WBB will have got their sand (a win), The Landowner will have got his money (a win), and oh yes, the villagers will have been left with ALL THE RISK from the transaction, none of the benefits and more than likely, a whole host of unpleasant and incurable respiratory diseases.
Like laboratory rats in a trap.
With no countryside, no wildlife nearby, a reduced net worth and an impoverished way of life. Not such a great result for East Winch and its neighbours then. That’s known as a win win win win lose situation for the ordinary people of Norfolk!
I do however, have the full story on my father Eric. Eric is dead. If he was still alive today he was undoubtedly have his own story to tell, and his own unique way of expressing himself. And to those of you who still deny the dangers of ingestion of particles into the lungs he would probably simply say this.
His was a life wasted, cut short by a good 5 – 10 years. My question to you is how many others have to suffer before we collectively face up to our responsibilities to future generations, the evidence, and to the truth?
My Dad & I in happier times. A real person, killed by a real threat. Killed by "proper exposure" to asbestos which was well over 40 years ago. He was already unwittingly carrying the seeds of his destruction in his body, when this picture was taken, and possibly before I was even born.
It makes you think, doesn't it?
And by the time you have finished hearing/(reading) this, another 12 people will have died needlessly. How many more have to die? (The answer is blowing in the wind).
A couple of final points:
Asbestos & Respirable Crystalline Silica (RCS)
What’s the difference?
They both enter the lungs.
They both Debilitate.
They both KILL.
One is recognized as such by HSE, one has no UK published studies available.
Why not?
What’s the difference?
What is the truth?
“So in answer to whos the culprits??? - the fact is its all of us.”
So if that’s true - what are we going to do about it?
Thank you for your attention.
***
POSTSCRIPT - A FINAL POINT
“It will not settle your mind as you are far to enraged but a little proper research on the issue of sand causing cancer told me this is simply not the case.”
And as for being enraged, that’s not me you need to talk to. That will be Julia Green of Ditchingham Parish Council and her local group.
ENRAGED stands for (Norfolk residents against gravel extraction at Ditchingham)
See the article in EDP 23/04/08. We have a link on our blog.
http://new.edp24.co.uk/search/story.aspx?brand=EDPOnline&category=News&itemid=NOED23%20Apr%202008%2009:01:27:070&tBrand=EDPOnline&tCategory=search
After all, we pride ourselves on doing “a little proper research”!
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