The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was accused yesterday of trying to prevent its record of monitoring emissions being examined at the oral hearing into objections to the granting of a licence to Indaver Ireland for a waste incinerator at Carranstown, Co Meath.
The claim was made by Ollan Herr of Louth People Against Incineration after the chairwoman of the hearing, Marie O'Connor, said only information relevant to the Indaver project could be heard.
She said the issues raised were historical and referred to Limerick, and not relevant to the issue before the hearing.
She made the ruling after Sheila McNamara from Askeaton in Limerick, called by the Louth group, was asked about monitoring by the EPA of heavy metals and other chemicals on her family farm in Limerick.
Her family believes it has suffered serious health problems as a result of contamination from chemicals related to industry.
Ms McNamara said she was not aware of the EPA monitoring dust or other matter on their farm and said that no monitors were left on it. She described deformities found in animals and outlined how, after the Department of Agriculture detected a rare form of salmonella in milk from their herd, they were told not to drink it. However, the same milk was taken from the farm to dairies to be turned into cheese and milk for public consumption.
She agreed with Mr Herr that the EPA should check for heavy metals and dioxins in the milk of animals in Louth and Meath because, otherwise, it will get into the food chain and affect human health.
Mr Herr said that what happened in Limerick was mismanagement by the EPA and others and an example of how Government bodies failed to protect the health of the people of the State.
He said there were concerns that dioxins would interfere with mothers having healthy babies and that there is no laboratory in Ireland at the moment that can measure dioxins.
Afterwards Mr Herr said the whole process was flawed and the historical record of the EPA could not be scrutinised: "We can criticise anyone till the cows come home but we are not allowed to criticise the EPA and they are the primary guardians of the environment."
Dr Fergal Callaghan, for Indaver, said that the amount of dioxins from inhaling dioxins from the incinerator would be equivalent to an adult or child drinking an additional 1/200th of a glass of milk a day.
He said an EU report in 2000 found that 90 per cent of human dioxin intake is from food and 80 per cent of that is from fish, meat and milk.
He concluded that the dioxin exposure for humans from the incinerator is insignificant.