22 January 2013: Lyn Brown, MP for West Ham, asked the following question in relation to the South East London Combined Heat and Power plant (SELCHP):
Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what discussions he has had on the potential effects on human health in Newham of the operation of the South East London Combined Heat and Power incinerator.
Richard Benyon: The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for North Shropshire (Mr Paterson), has not held any discussions on the potential effects on human health in Newham of the South East London Combined Heat and Power incinerator.
Energy from waste incinerators are regulated under environmental permits granted by the Environment Agency to meet the strict emissions standards of the waste incineration directive. The Environment Agency currently has no regulatory or compliance concerns regarding the performance of the South East London Combined Heat and Power incinerator and is not aware of any public health issues. Any potential effects on health would be a matter for the Environment Agency to assess in conjunction with the Health Protection Agency.
More on SELCHP here.
Here’s letter e-mailed to Newham Recorder after reading about Lyn Brown’s PQ:
Dear Sir,
This year marks two decades of emissions from SELCHP incinerator
landing on the residents of Newham with every south-westerly wind
and yet no-one at Defra has bothered to check whether or not there’d been
any adverse health effects.
Lyn Brown MP asked this Parliamentary Question:
“To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what discussions he has had on the potential
effects on human health in Newham of the operation of the South East London Combined Heat and Power incinerator.”
and had this reply on 22 January 2013:
The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for North Shropshire (Mr Paterson),
has not held any discussions on the potential effects on human health in Newham of the South East London Combined Heat and Power incinerator.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmhansrd/cm130122/text/130122w0001.htm#13012252000038
Owen Paterson’s constituency includes Shawbury electoral ward where
there’s been zero infant deaths recorded by the Office for National Statistics
in each of the nineteen years 1993-2011, ie my entire record of data.
Veolia, who operate SELCHP, are constructing an incinerator at Shrewsbury
and Shawbury ward is downwind of the incinerator with south-westerly winds.
At the public inquiry for the Shrewsbury incinerator, I referred to the higher infant mortality rates in many of
Newham’s electoral wards after SELCHP started operating in 1993 and the Borough of Newham must have had also
noticed the increase in the graph on page 11 of the report, “Reducing infant deaths in Newham”.
http://mgov.newham.gov.uk/documents/s14114/Infant%20Mortality%20Working%20Group.pdf
Yours faithfully,
Michael Ryan
In December 2012, The Office for National Statistics released a set of infant mortality data for all London Boroughs for the forty-one year period 1970-2010:
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/about-ons/what-we-do/FOI/foi-requests/health-and-social-care/infant-mortality-rates-in-the/index.html
I’ve aggregated the data into 3-year rolling average, ie 1970-72, 1971-73 etc and seen that the infant mortality rate in the Boroughs of Newham, Lewisham, Tower Hamlets, and Wandsworth were all falling at a similar rate prior to SELCHP starting in 1993.
After SELCHP started, the infant death rate in Wandsworth continued to fall, but the rates in Lewisham (home to SELCHP), Newham (downwind of SELCHP with SW wind) and Tower Hamlets (close to SELCHP) stopped tracking the downward trend of Wandsworth and all rose.
Wandsworth is “upwind” of SELCHP most of the time. See graph via:
http://ukhr.eu/incineration/selchp.htm
and also see the incinerator/infant mortality PQs which have been “brushed aside”
http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200910/cmhansrd/cm091130/text/91130w0038.htm
Hansard link for 30 Nov 2009, Col 539W (Paul Holmes MP)
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmhansrd/cm070917/text/70917w0010.htm
Norman Baker MP, Hansard, 17 Sep 2007 : Column 2209W
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm110622/text/110622w0002.htm#11062262000090
Andy Love MP, Hansard, 22 June 2011, Column 224W
See written reply 18 Jan 2013 to PQ about infant mortality trend in Newham:
Lyn Brown (West Ham, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the trends in infant mortality rates in Newham.
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2013-01-18a.137790.h
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/what_has_lewisham_borough_counci/new
What has Lewisham Borough Council done to protect the health of those affected by emissions from the SELCHP incinerator?