As the Isle of Thanet Gazette published a story about the leak I thought I ought to expand on it slightly, and answer as many questions as I can about it.
How dangerous is Cyclohexanone? The affects of exposure to this chemical are thought to cause neurological damage, damage to unborn children, altered immune system function, adverse effects on the respiratory system and affect the sensory system.
How much of the chemical would be dangerous? If you have to work in a contaminated environment in industry, you would have to wear a chemical protection suit and breathing apparatus where the concentration of the chemical exceeds 20 parts per million.
How much was spilt? No one really knows they have been extracting it from the chalk under Westwood since 2007 and have so far recovered about 500 tons of the chemical from the water pumped out of the chalk.
Has it got into our drinking water, water used for crop irrigation and washing or water used for industry? No one really seems to know the complete answer to this one, most of the water used in Thanet is pumped from the porous chalk underground, as the leak went undetected for nearly 30 years and as there seems to be little regulation of private boreholes, it’s a bit of a grey area.
Is the vapour coming out of the ground? I have asked the council and some of the local politicians, but haven’t yet received an answer
Have there been any surveys of the health of the people living and working in the effected area because of the spillage? Once again I have asked the council and some of the local politicians, but haven’t yet received an answer.
What is this information based on?
The freedom of information request response from the environment agency click here to read
The International Labour Organization, part of the UN that produces regulatory information for member states click here to read
Scorecard the web's most popular resource for information about pollution problems and toxic chemicals click here to read
The British Geographical survey’s internal report on the Thanet underground water reservoir click here to read
News, Local history and Thanet issues from Michael's Bookshop in Ramsgate see www.michaelsbookshop.com I publish over 200 books about the history of this area click here to look at them.
The recovery has been since 1996 and, from the products of the process, the Environment Agency derives the figure of 470 tonnes recovered so far in 12 years (that is my understanding).
ReplyDeleteAssuming a rough exponential of recovery that would imply that when Sericol were requested in 1998 to report to police on internal inquiries about forged (georged was the joke) engineering qualifications and stock thefts, Sericol directors must already have had a figure for recovered cyclohexanone in the 70 tonnes or greater region, for the first two years of remediation, with an exponential projection predicting that another 400 tonnes would be recovered in the next decade.
Any chance of an email copy of the Gazette report ?
I have long said that epidemiological study is meritted. This was not an incident of leakage. This was an incident of discovery of continuous leakage over years or decades before the water abstraction was switched off as part of the clean up operation.
In those years there appears anecdotally to have been a disproportionate number of young adult aneurism or stroke death.
There may have been as many as five from Westwood to Quantock Gdns and across to Newington.
As I said this is only anecdotal and could be wrong. It appears that two or three of the tragedies may have been in families where the child was brought up in the area AND the father worked in the area AND of course the mother lived in the area.
There are unexplained effects in our environment. For example children who live near high voltage installations develop certain illnesses at double the risk rate. But oddly so do children who do not live near high voltage but whose fathers are high voltage electricians ?
I doubt any actionable cause and effect would be established but some sort of epidemiological inquiry must be meritted. So well done Michael and keep fighting.
I have put in FOI requests now re Thor as you know.
Is Freddie Barr still about Michael ? He had a chemist shop along that main road. He would know of three of these deaths.
ReplyDeleteOK end of my comments give others a chance !
quick post relates
ReplyDeleteMan alive this is serious stuff.
ReplyDeleteSericol More than stink...Pollution
ReplyDelete