Eppynt Pyres - Not Everything Possible Being Done to Reduce Health Risk

Environmental pressure group Friends of the Earth Cymru are again warning of the significant public health threats posed by dioxins and other pollutants in smoke from animal carcass pyres. The warnings come after MAFF and the Environment Agency confirmed on Friday (1) that the remaining 20,000 animal carcasses on the Eppynt are to be burnt despite continued concerns expressed throughout the week in the media about dioxins in particular.

FOE Cymru point out that Minister Geoff Hoon said in the media on Friday that 'the government were doing everything possible to reduce health risks'. The group believe that 'everything possible' should certainly include an end to pyres due to the large dioxin releases in particular.

Furthermore, dioxin problems would not necessarily show up immediately in patients visiting local surgery's so such visits are no guide to the scale or nature of the risk. Also, at Eppynt the results of dioxin monitoring is only just becoming available, unlike the data from monitoring of other air pollutants such as particulates which show only a few exceedences of safety levels.

All the carcasses, mainly sheep, are expected to be burned over the coming 7 days and the pyres would likely produce several grams of dioxins according to Environment Agency figures. FOE Cymru are also concerned that any delay in removal of carcasses from the Eppynt would result in many or all of the animals decomposing beyond feasible handling.

Dioxins are an extremely toxic and persistent chemical which accumulate over time in humans to levels which can cause cancers and hormonal illnesses (2). Worryingly, the public health limits for dioxins set by the Environment Agency are 100 to 1,000 times less stringent than limits used by authorities in the United States (3).

The group say that rendering and incineration are the best disposal methods but are probably operating at capacity and so disposal at regulated landfill sites (4) would be preferable as it would be much safer than burning.

Neil Crumpton, spokesperson for Friends of the Earth Cymru said:
"The dioxin dose released as the burning continues could amount to several grams and would likely pose a significant public health risk to surrounding communities and beyond depending on wind directions. We call for the burning to stop at Eppynt and elsewhere if it all possible and a safer disposal strategy implemented rapidly. Due to the thousands of carcasses already burned, concerted public health warnings and advice should be given about dioxin contamination of land."

Notes

1) As of Friday 3pm

2) Dioxins are extremely toxic, persistent and bioaccumulative. Human populations in industrialised countries are generally accepted to be unavoidably carrying a certain amount of dioxins ingested in food grown on contaminated land. Worryingly, some of the health effects that are linked to dioxins (cancers, hormonal effects such as endometriosis, reduced sperm counts and possibly foetal development) are seen in people at levels not much higher than the amount many people have anyway. Consequently, any increase towards or above what is termed the tolerable daily intake (TDI) is a public health risk and should be avoided if possible.

The UK Government/Environment Agency considers that there is little dioxin or other air or ground water pollution health risk from the pyres. This position is presumably based on the UK's TDI. However, this limit is based on experiments on rats and does not make enough allowance for the fact that dioxin breaks down in rats' bodies much more quickly than in humans according to the US EPA (Environmental Protection Agency).

3) The UK TDI is about 100 times less stringent than the US EPA considers to be safe for non-cancer health risks (fertility, endometriosis) and about 1,000 times less stringent than they calculate to give a cancer risk of one-in-one million (their usual benchmark).

4) So far only uninfected carcasses (culled for welfare reasons) are being sent to landfill in Wales. However infected carcasses are unlikely to pose a health risk as leachate would be held for 40 days in which time the disease dies.

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UK confirms health risks from carcass pyres
ENDS Daily - 25/04/01
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The UK health ministry risk has admitted that current mass burning of livestock to control foot and mouth disease is probably causing exceedence of air quality standards downwind from pyres.

Anyone less than 2 kilometres downwind of fires is likely to have dioxin intake above officially determined safe levels, according to a health ministry computer model. The model also suggests that levels in air of sulphur dioxide and fine particulates (PM10) will both exceed health limits up to 3.5km and 3km from fires respectively.

In a separate initiative, the ministry yesterday recommended keeping any pyre burning over 250 animals at least 2km away from habitations and large pyres of more than 1,000 carcasses at least 3km away. It warned that asthma sufferers might experience a "temporary worsening of their condition". Residents less than 0.5km from a fire would be "exposed to high concentrations of irritants including sulphur dioxide and particles".

Follow-up: UK health ministry tel: +44 20 7210 4850 and
Effects on Health of Emissions from Pyres Used for Disposal of Animals
and Measures to minimise risk to Public Health from Slaughter and Disposal of Animals