Protest march over mystery illnesses

RESIDENTS will make a stand against Government legislation and a waste-timber recycling firm in Mossley tomorrow.

Mossley Environmental Action Group will march in protest at mysterious respiratory problems, which they claim stems from wood dust. The group is frustrated with what it calls a lack of action from Tameside Council and the Environment Agency against local plant R Plevin & Sons — though the firm adamantly denies it is the source of the problem

The march asks for a change in law which classes wood dust as a nuisance rather than a health risk.

Mossley resident and MEAG member Carl Dolan, said: “We get dust on our cars and in our houses regularly — you can smell it and taste it.

“If the wind’s blowing in this direction it’s like snow sometimes. If it was asbestos dust, people would be outraged, so why is this okay if it’s carcinogenic dust?”

MEAG suspected Plevin’s operations after several residents living near the Cheshire Street plant became ill with similar symptoms — including nose bleeds and migraines.

Plevin’s safety manager Michelle Barnes said in a recent company newsletter that the firm monitors dust emissions from the site and passes the results to the Environmental Agency.

She said “Our dust-emission readings are regularly less than one quarter of the amount that is classed as a nuisance in law.”

The firm sprays a fine water mist of water in the operating area to dust escaping from the site.

She added: “This fine water vapour can look like dust in the air but it isn’t. It is harmless.”