Incinerator health fears
Thursday 15th April 2010, 2:59PM BST.
The incinerator is being built at La Collette
A CONSTABLE has raised fresh fears that emissions from the new incinerator could have long-term physical and psychological effects on people.
St John Constable Graeme Butcher voiced his concerns in response to Transport Minister Mike Jackson saying that he was willing to leave the door open for discussions with other islands about burning their waste.
Mr Butcher, who used to work in the marine industry, said: ‘I for one will not support burning other islands’ waste until I am 100 per cent confident that the discharge is safe.
‘Irrespective of all of the comments about how pure the emissions are, there is still the psychological effect of the longer the incinerator is in use the more the people in the path of the discharge will feel that it is affecting their health.’
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“psychological effect” how ridiculous, there are some pretty stupid reasons against burning Guernseys rubbish but this has to be the worst. Whether we burn the extra waste in Jersey or a few miles away in Guernsey it would make absolutely no difference to the heath of people living in the Channel Islands or the slightest bit of difference to marine life.
Perhaps Mr Butcher should return to his home planet and then he won’t need to worry about the safety of the incinerator discharge.
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Iceland & ash come to mind!!
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I do not support burning other islands’ waste the plant might be safe whilst it is NEW but how long will it remain safe.
We all know that maintenance here is slack to say the least, just look at all the other infrastructures-roads etc that haven’t been maintained !!
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Sorry B.R. he is actually correct for people know that downwind of the incineration breathing in the deadly P.M. 2.5 particulates is indeed very bad for the health both physicaly and mentally,the fine particles are similar to those being belched out of the Icelandic fissure,,so fine the filters can not contain them and they lodge in the upper respiratory system.it is often claimed,usually by those who incinerate that all is well,but it is not,the additional psychological effect is two fold,breathing it in causes chemical depression and the thought that living in the path of toxins means you are a target for it’s ills and are constantly inhaling it.is a very real worry But hey why believe me ? read for yourself. http://www.whale.to/vaccine/steenis 2.html
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Is it true that the pretty incinerator which compliments the North coastline,was debated for 3 years and cost over 30 million, might actually effect the health of the people of Jersey. Whatever will Mr de Faye say about that.
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well said br(1).
the cost of living and the cost of a home, has a far bigger psycholgical effect on me, than the burning of tons and tons of waste.
god forbid there was accident at flamville or cap del la hague.
the force of nature is more of a threat, volcanoes and earthquakes come to mind.
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No7 Maybe those who think it won’t have a psychological effect underestimate the madness of the public
Just about everything causes hysteria among some group or other nowadays.
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first the banks ..now a volcano tourism might be good as ours!
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“I for one will not support burning other islands’ waste until I am 100 per cent confident that the discharge is safe.”
What a load of tosh! What’s the difference between Guernsey’s waste and ours?!!!!
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@ 4 Truthseeker.
Thanks for that link, didn’t work for me, but read other articles on the web site. There is some great info and quotes on the site. It just about sums up the USA problems to health and health care.
“Most Astonishing Health Disaster of the 20th Century. For over 100 years conventional medicine has seized control of the US health care system and as a result we have over 800,000 people who are killed by interacting with this system. It is likely that over 50 million Americans have died prematurely from this abuse”
I do however like this quote from the same web site.
“I am dying with the help of too many physicians.—Alexander the Great”
There are many arguments for and against and it would take a lot of research to understand the true consequences of how our waste is disposed of.
I for one think we should educate ourselves and especially supermarkets and manufacturers to create less packaging. As consumers do we really need things “double wrapped” to keep them fresh. You can buy cakes and other goodies that are all double and triple wrapped, yet they have more chemicals in the product that would keep it “fresh”. We buy fish from a market and it only gets wrapped once.
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Leah (7) I quite agree – look at the mass hysteria that very nearly broke out at christmas when those two mega-stars switched on the lights
Further to the comments about reducing packaging from supermarkets; I’d suggest buying produce from the excellent Holme Grown farm shop in St Clement, their stock is stored loosely in freezers and one can simply fill a small bag. Takes up a lot less space in the freezer as there are no cardboard boxes with pretty pictures, better for the environment, the vast majority of their produce is produced without pesticides or chemical additives, and as such it all tastes great too.
BTW I don’t own shares in the company, just passing on good information
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#10 Rozeljoe, I totally agree, especially about the packaging situations, it drives me potty.
I’m guessing that health and safety laws are to blame for most of it, product life for the rest. I think the public will need to really push hard to get Government’s to resort back to common sense and minimum packaging but it’s worth pushing surely?
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10 Rozel Joe…o.k. simply googe
Incinerator deaths Dr.Dick Van Steenis…it will take you right there….The truth is out there.
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What is the point of all the comments about recycling and less packaging. An Expensive incinerator is under construction on the North Coastline and we will never need to worry about recycling ever again.
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Agree with the comments on plastic wrappings.
2 lots of plastic on a cucumber cracks me up,trying to take off the plastic without losing the rag only to find another lot of plastic to content with,and the cucumber goes rotten after a day or two,due to the packaging.
Do the supermarkets think we haven’t the brains to work out how to wash fruit and veg.
And they have the cheek to charge for plastic bags!
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Am I missing something or is someone having a laugh?
Since when has the new incinerator site been on the North Coast?
This would have been the ideal location for a new plant – high ground and low density population but nobody would allow this blot on the landscape up in the elite parishes – too much traffic/inferior road system!
If people are so concerned about the very low level emissions that will come from the new plant should they not be considering how our government are ok with knowingly emitting seriously dangerous levels now in a failing plant that would be illegal in Europe?
The quality of the current emissions could be improved by not burning electricals, electronics, batteries, plastics and rubber.
Perhaps we should be looking at the damage that has been done over the last 15 years – what health problems are we storing up for the future.
Please realise our children have been exposed to these emmissions on a daily basis.
The plant burns 24/7, 365 days per year!
The site at Bellozanne is in a central/ southerly, densely populated location on the island – where and how far do you think the fallout occurs?
Just watch the smoketrail from the stack to see where it travels! (here’s a clue: Predominantly east and west but how far?)
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Mère-Terre, see my reply to Toasted Teacakes on the Teachers March thread.
The bottom of Ronez Quarry would be ideal. There’s even a wharf for the Guernsey boat to unload.
States, please send my consultancy fee via my email address supplied to You Say.
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Thanks R.B.B. for directing me to your reply to T.T.
Unfortunately for you, I put forward the suggestion of Ronez in aprox 2003/4 so any consultancy fee would be mine! (ha! ha!)
That is why I knew the official excuses, sorry ‘reasons’ given for not using that site.
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That’s O.K. Mère-Terre.
A happy life is worth more to me than money from that bunch!
The Ronez site was probably, even back then, earmarked for the construction of a Brecqhou style castle with it’s own superyacht berth.
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BR (1), Leah Holmes (7)(12), parry gashley (9), Rozeljoe (10), Tobias (11). Spot on, we all agree.
Graeme Butcher may want 100% certainty in a risk averse world, but until utopia arrive we will need the incinerator, the best solution for the Channel Isles. Certainly lets burn less plastic wrapping by making the polluter pay, but we will still have refuse in need of disposal. BURN IT.
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Talking of contamination, on C.T.V. yesterday, it mentioned that Jersey lobsters are not allowed in Italy, does anyone know more about this story, is it just lobsters or all sea food, and what is the reason the Italian government give for this?
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So what is going to happen to the Toxic Ash after
the incineration process?
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Has anyone seen the SIZE of the incinerator.. every day it gets bigger.. are the states planning on burning France’s and half of Europes rubbish too!
REUSE and RECYCLE
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I do not think that this is the best place for an insanerator, right next to a Ramsar Site, at the gateway to Jersey. I am also led to believe that it is being built in a toxic waste tip as well.
Oh by the way no one concerned that for well over £100M they couldn’t afford a chimney?
Jersey should be recyling much more and plastics should be banned from normal use wherever possible. This consumer based society is destroying the planet. What are we all going to do about it? Carry on as normal or change our ways?
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20 Mark…we could have burnt it safely and for far less money,and no environmental damage or carbuncle..in a Plasma Gasifier….generates the equivalent of a welding arc so hot all the nasties in tyres etc get properly dealt with…generates 6x times more electricity than so called efw. produces no mountains of Toxic Flyash…why would we want to import a disposal problem..we can’t handle what we have safely which is why tons of it are in plastic bags at the waterfront and were recently breached… the plasma unit burns so hot it simply produces small vitreous pebbles as the end product which can safely be mixed with tarmac for road covering,very hard wearing and better than was laid recently on the avenue..the Swedes have been doing it for ages….we have bought the most expensive dinosaur on the planet.
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The popular perception is that our politicians and their advisors have failed horribly with the choice of incinerator. The only way we will ever know for sure who was right is to follow the progress of waste disposal in Guernsey which Deputy Tadier advises that even now is an example to which we should aspire. That they presently pump their sewerage untreated into the sea and pile solid waist into a toxic pit that has been burning uncontrolled for the last 20 years being an irrelevant fact, but then he has nothing good to say about our Island.
If Plasma systems, recycling etc are going to work economically then let Guernsey show us the way and if successful our leaders will have to admit to their error and follow. In the meantime if we allow Guernsey to copout and use our incinerator we will never know the truth and any chance of a totally eco-friendly waste disposal will be lost.
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