BREAST cancer rates in Jersey will soar because of emissions from the new £106 million incinerator, a UK doctor warned yesterday as a national campaign against its technology got under way.
Dr Dick Van Steenis, a member of a group campaigning against the building of energy-from-waste plants across Britain, said that local rates of infant mortality, asthma, lung cancer, heart attacks and other heath problems would also rise significantly. And he claimed that Island taxpayers would be left to pick up the bill as health costs rose massively. Island health officials have robustly rejected the claims and insist that the new energy-from-waste plant is safe.
Dr Van Steenis (pictured) made his comments as local pressure groups all over Britain voiced health concerns about plans to build up to 30 energy-from-waste plants similar to the one planned at La Collette. They are mobilising because councils are coming under pressure from Westminster to build new incinerators to meet EU waste targets by reducing reliance on landfill sites.
Dr Susan Turnbull, the Deputy Medical Officer of Health, said that she did not know of any links between breast cancer and air pollution. She stressed that the Health Protection team had been closely involved in discussions about the new energy-from-waste plant.
