Is the health of this community at risk?
The alarming news that the level of cancer-causing benzene shot to more than ten times the EU target level raises the question if Gibraltar would have found out had it not been for the Environmental Safety Group (ESG) which made public a letter they had written about it to the environmental minister.
As they rightly say, this is a most serious matter. What is equally serious is that the relevant authorities should have apparently been caught napping while this most serious presence of benzene was measured at high levels for 8 hours.
For how long must this cancer-causing substance contaminate the air we breathe before the official authorities are woken up?
Apart from other considerations, the high level of benzene coincided with offensive smells being reported at St Joseph’s First School, with cases of children reporting headaches and nausea, which are two of the immediate effects from benzene.
What is going on - or not going on? What action is taken when something as serious as this emerges? Has any action been taken?
The ESG must be applauded for their alertness and the action they have taken. But what about those who are paid from public funds to watch over these things?
Bird Flu
This reminds us of the bird flu situation. It took regular exposure in the media, including a campaign in PANORAMA, before the high-faluting Civil Contingency Committee met.
Now, we know that they have increased their order of antiviral vaccines to “cover the whole population”, although they have not said what is the quantity involved.
Grit
Again, the Government and its agencies allowed a mountain of gritto pile up, in the open air, at theCammell Laird shipyard. The substance has been described as a health hazard.
Is there no monitoring of what goes on in the shipyard? Can the shipyard do as it likes and there is no control over their activities?
We now find that the removal of the grit is to cost the tax-payer £360,000 because the company do not have funds to pay for its removal, yet it was they who caused the problem and who should have included a fee for grit-blasting to the estimates in their ship repairing.
And lying there in the shipyard is a ship laden with asbestos, a highly dangerous substance. Why was this contract acquired in the first place - was it that other yards would not touch it with a barge pole?
Wherever you look, you find an absence of proper controls by the Government and its agencies in matters that affect the health of this community and are of the maximum public importance.
What next?
From Panorama, Gibraltar’s Online Daily Newspaper
Related Articles and Links:
Gibraltar Government Air Quality Monitoring Website
Normal flu still ‘greater threat to Gibraltar’
WHO Avian Influenza Pandemic Threat Recommendations
Avian Influenza - FAQs
NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) UK - Factsheets on Oseltamivir (Tamiflu) Vaccine
Roche Laboratories Inc. - Tamiflu
29 September 2005 - Government prepares against threat of Avian Influenza
28 October 2005 - ESG publish concerns about high Benzene levels in ‘Open Letter’ to Minister for Environment
01 October 2005 - ESG welcome Cammel Laird grit mountain “going at long lastâ€
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