5 November 2004

Scotland’s first toxic tour reveals life ‘within the glow’

The first toxic tour round some of Scotland’s top pollution sites was conducted by Scottish Women’s Environmental Network (WEN) on Wednesday 3 November 2004. As well as bringing a diverse range of environmental and community activists together for the first time, it uniquely highlighted the connections between poverty, the environment and occupational and public health.

More than 40 people boarded the bus at South Queensferry for the day trip through towns and villages in central Scotland. They included Green MSP Eleanor Scott, who talked about the European REACH proposals to reform chemicals legislation ⁽¹⁾, Professor Andrew Watterson of Stirling University, an expert on occupational health, and Kathy McCormack, who made the connection between poor health, poor environment and poverty while campaigning for warmer homes on the Easterhouse estate in Glasgow.

The Forth Valley and estuary is home to eight out of 10 of Scotland's top polluters ⁽²⁾ and workers, residents and consumers are daily exposed to a cocktail of toxic and potentially harmful chemicals. ⁽³⁾

Dr Morag Parnell of the new SWEN group said: “There is now abundant evidence that each and every one of us - including the newborn - is contaminated with a range of toxic substances and that these substances are strongly associated with a range of human and animal diseases, including cancers, reproductive disorders and physical, mental, emotional and behavioural developmental disorders in the young.

“We are failing to heed the warning signs as we see escalating rates of these serious illnesses. It is outrageous that people have to live and work in such a toxic environment, that the poorest communities suffer most and the scales of justice are heavily weighted in favour of the polluters rather than the people. Communities are fighting back and their testimonies and successes are an inspiration to others to refuse to go on living in such conditions or to accept the continuing toll of preventable illness.”

At Grangemouth the tour met resident and local activist Norman Philip, who talked about growing up in the shadow of the three-mile wide petrochemicals complex (the biggest oil refinery and processing centre in Britain) and across the river from Scotland’s top polluter, Longannet power station. He was involved in compiling a booklet of residents’ tales, called Living Within the Glow ⁽³⁾

“Everyone has a story,” he said. “we all have stories about when there is a mass of flaring [burning off waste materials from stacks]; there are times when windows can start vibrating and people have had fears that the whole place is going to blow up at times.”

BP was fined £1 million for health and safety breaches during three incidents in 2000 ⁽⁴⁾ but now residents fear valuable expertise at the hazardous site will be lost as BP plans to sub-contract and sell off parts of the operation.

Neil Findlay, a local councillor at Fauldhouse showed a map of the many opencast and landfill developments around the village and spoke of the hard work and vigilance of residents in challenging what seemed a constant stream of planning applications for new mines. Developers were given public money to draw up plans but “nobody comes and hands you £6m to fight them”, he said. And he spoke of the injustice of siting so many hazardous operations in the area. “A landfill in Morningside won’t have the same effect as a new one in Fauldhouse because we are already starting from a low level of health.”

Eleanor Scott, Green Party MSP for the Highlands and Islands said the current legislative system for chemicals was ‘very unsatisfactory’, with few controls on the use of the 100,000-plus chemicals already in use before 1981. The REACH proposals will bring in controls on chemicals that persist in the environment, build up in body fat and disrupt hormones but have been strongly resisted by the chemicals industry. “The most important thing you can do is lobby your MEPs and get them to vote for more stringent regulations,” she said.

The tour also heard the story of women workers at the DAKS factory at Polbeth, West Lothian who suffered skin, breathing and other health problems from using formaldehyde to make crease-proof clothing. They won improved working conditions and formaldehyde has now been classified as a human carcinogen (cancer-causing agent)⁽⁶⁾ but the factory has since closed and production been moved to the Far East.

A campaign by women from the Phase Two campaign at Greenock, concerned at high rates of miscarriages and certain cancers in the micro-electronics industry, led to research by the Health & Safety Executive and worldwide action that wouldn’t otherwise have happened, the tour heard.

Finally, Eirig Scandrett of Friends of the Earth Scotland talked about their work for environmental justice. “This is not a local phenomoenon to central Scotland, it’s something that’s been happening all over the world,” he said. “The people who suffer the worst impacts of pollution are not normally the people who get the benefit of the processes that produce the pollution. It’s important to identify where the worst injustices are happening so they can be tackled.” FoE Scotland runs a course on environmental justice for community activists, trade unionists and interested individuals ⁽⁷⁾.

ENDS

For further information please contact:
Lorraine Gray, Scottish WEN, 0775 112 8420, Morag Parnell, Scottish WEN 01506 843839 or
Liz Sutton, WEN Press & Information Co-ordinator 020 7481 9004

Notes to editors:
1. Draft legislation proposing a framework for the Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals (REACH) is going through committee and European Council stages at the moment and is not expected to become law until 2006.

2. 1) Longannet power station, Kincardine, 3) Cockenzie power station, East Lothian, 4) BP Oil Grangemouth, 5) BP Chemicals, Grangemouth, 6) Grangemouth CHP power station, 7) Lafarge cement works, Dunbar, 8) ExxonMobil, Mossmoran, Fife, 9) BP Exploration, Grangemouth. Source: FoE Scotland press release 1/6/03 quoting Scottish Environment Protection Agency pollution data inventory)

3. Chemicals released into the air and water, and contaminating people through exposure at work and home include hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), benzene, dioxins and many other known or suspected carcinogens, hormone disruptors and environmental pollutants. They have contaminated humans and there is growing concern about rising rates of cancer, asthma, allergies and other health problems. Scotland saw a 13% rise in the number of breast cancer cases and a 36% rise in prostate cancer (two hormonally-related cancers) between 1990 and 2000.

4. Living Within the Glow is available via email from norman.philip@btopenworld.com

5. A major power failure, a steam leak and a leak of hydrocarbons which caused a vapour cloud and a major fire. See Health & Safety Executive, Major Incident Investigation Report, BP Grangemouth Scotland : 29th May - 10th June 2000: www.hse.gov.uk/comah/bpgrange/contents.htm. Grangemouth is the only BP site that includes all the processing operations, from storing and refining crude oil, to creating chemicals for use in pesticides, paints, solvents, fuels, clothing, furnishings and other applications. Grangemouth is also home to 10 other major chemicals companies including Syngenta and Avecia biotech.

6. WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer www.iarc.fr

7. See www.foe-scotland.org.uk

8. WEN is a national membership charity that campaigns on environmental and health issues from a women’s perspective. It educates, informs and empowers women and men who care about the environment. Scottish WEN is a new group, dedicated to getting peole involved in campaigns for environmental justice.