Saturday 27 October 2012

Pollution on Cressington Heath?

People living on Cressington Heath complained recentl about dust or particles being blown across from the ABP site.  One little boy seemed to have more asthma than before.

When I looked there was at least one big pile just across the fence that could have been the source of the problem.

Anyway, my colleague Richard raised this at the City Council's environmental committee earlier this month.

The answer he got is long so I have pasted some of it below (although full minutes are available on www.liverpool.gov.uk)

(Extract from minutes begins)
 
Questions submitted by Councillor Richard Oglethorpe

i. Associated British Ports Site (APB).

Can the Cabinet Member please state what action is being

taken by the council to protect the health of residents in the

Cressington Heath estate who are currently experiencing

problems caused by breathing in material blown from the

Associated British Ports site?

Response;

....................
. It was explained that the

material in question was dust from the stockpiling of gravel by

Armitts who lease land from ABP.

The gravel dust is of a size that would not be ingested i.e. too big

in particle size that would be blocked by natural body defences

i.e. ears, nose and mouth. Only particles less than 10 micron in

diameter would be a concern i.e. invisible to the naked eye and

can be easily ingested, and they would not be associated with

this type of dust.

The District Officer had a further meeting with ABP and Armitts

and agreement was reached that Armitts would monitor the

situation. ABP manager asked the complainant to contact him

directly in future if any similar incidents occurred so that a swift

response could be given. The District Officer is happy with this

approach but has asked the ABP manager to keep him in the

loop if such events occurred.

.............
 
Two complaints

were received in May 2011 and October 2011 from a different

source to the most recent complaint about dust, but this was

from the other side to the ABP site in Garston.

If there is a recurrence then the service will look at some dust

monitoring for a limited period to ascertain nature of the dust and

its possible health impacts
.

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