Doctors' claim on cancer risks from dump rejected

Waste management consultants for Galway city and county have rejected a claim by a group of doctors and hospital consultants that proximity to landfills could pose increased risks of lung, liver and stomach cancer.

The medical professionals, mainly based in Ballinasloe and at Portiuncula Hospital, have criticised Ballinasloe Urban District Council for permitting the extended use of a landfill site in the town to take all Galway's waste.

Research carried out in Montreal and Europe indicated that people living near landfill sites were nearly 30 per cent more likely to get some form of cancer, the doctors state in a letter sent to the Connacht Tribune. "These studies showed increased risks of various forms of cancer (including lung, liver and stomach) and, disturbingly, also indicated an increased risk of congenital defects of the heart, lung and nervous system.

"We would do well to take cognisance of this research; it was similar work which first highlighted the link, so long denied, between smoking and lung cancer," the doctors write. "In the face of this evidence, we are dismayed at, and oppose, the decision by Ballinasloe Urban District Council to permit the extension of a small local dump (always badly managed) to accept all of Co Galway's refuse. We do not believe that short-term considerations of convenience and finance should be allowed to put at risk the future safety of the town as a place to live and work."

The letter was signed by Drs John Barton; Michael Brassil; Harry Bulger; Sheila Cassidy; Conor Carr; Michael Cassidy; Clare Connolly; John Corry; Margaret Gallagher; Annette Jennings; Dermot Kelly; John Monaghan; Eugene O'Beirn; David O'Flaherty; Vincent Parsons; Ian Surgeon; Kevin Connolly; Evelyn Francis; Aonrai Finnegan; Joe Groarke; Patricia Kearns; Jane McGauran; Colleen Murphy; Kieran J. Power; Michael O'Dowd and Donal Twohig.

The doctors' claim has been rejected by the local authorities on the grounds that landfills in North America have to take toxic waste, whereas the small amount of toxic waste produced here is exported.

A medical study of the effects of the Ballinasloe dump by Dr Julianne Byrne, which was commissioned as part of the environmental impact study carried out by M.C. O'Sullivan consultants for the local authorities, found that improvements to cater for an extension would go a long way towards reducing health risks.

Since the closure of dumps at Tuam and Carrowbrowne - the latter by High Court order - earlier this year, Poolboy in Ballina sloe has been taking all of the city and county waste and will continue to do so until December 2005. By then, M.C. O'Sullivan hopes to have reduced the dependence on landfill, to have increased recycling and to have built a thermal treatment plant.

Sites earmarked for the thermal plant or incinerator and new landfills will not be considered until after the local elections. The consultants have said the £60 million incinerator could cater for all Connacht, an idea opposed by organisations affiliated to the National Anti-Landfill Body.

Candidates for Galway County Council have been asked to oppose the local authorities' waste plan by the Ballinahistle/Kilric kle/Loughrea Anti-Super Dump and Incineration group in east Galway. It has said the plan is "contradictory", in that if the local authorities are serious about their target of 70 per cent waste recovery and recycling, they will not have the tonnage required to run an incinerator.