Pluming Awful

THIS IS NOT FOG.. THERE WAS NO FOG ON THIS DAY.

28TH NOVEMBER 2008

MP CALLS FOR DUST EXPLANATION:

Rugby MP Jeremy Wright is demanding a full explanation from Cemex over claims of another dust fall out from the plant. Several home owners in Long Lawford reported cars being showered in dust last Monday, some claiming it was the worst covering ever.

And now Mr Wright has asked company bosses to explain the fallout and is seeking urgent talks with the environment agency, which is investigating the incident. "I am becoming increasingly concerned with these incidents" Mr Wright said. "Of course it is true that things will occasionally go wrong in every industrial process, but Cemex have a particular responsibility to maintain the highest standards due to the plant's closeness to residential areas. It is highly inconvenient to people living near the plant to have dust on their cars and other property, but it is also perfectly rational for them to worry about what goes into their lungs. I have asked the management of the Cemex plant for an early explanation of this incident and I will be speaking next week to the Environment Agency about the action they intend to take. If the facts warrant it prosecutions should be brought against Cemex."
Reported in the Rugby Observer 27th November 2008.

PUBLISHED LETTER - DUST - CHROMIUM VI?

With the tedious regularity we have come to expect, Long Lawford and the surrounding area is yet again this week covered with thick, possibly dangerous dust. Cemex, the usual culprit for these health threatening assaults on our community have immediately taken their expected stance of “not our fault guv” unless of course you can prove it! The Environment Agency, possibly with an eye on easing Cemex’s ongoing plans for a massive refuse processing plant in Rugby, have likewise adopted the time honoured approach of saying they are carrying out tests on the dust, thus taking weeks to come up with a decision, and hoping the residents will have forgotten about it over the excessive period taken, then arriving at the blindingly obvious culprit of the fallout.

We may however be treated to one of the bizarre explanations they tend the favour recently in their desperate attempt to remove any blame from Cemex. Who can forget the recent explanation that pollen was the culprit, or the hilarious Sahara desert sand incident, where we were expected to believe that sand was lifted up from the Sahara desert, blown across the Mediterranean Sea, up the Bay of Biscay, across the Home Counties and London and was then deposited squarely onto Rugby, really!

There is however a serious side to all this, Cemex have recently had issues in Davenport in America where their cement plant was closed for a long period of time due to the local residents being exposed to 10 times the safe level (if there is such a thing) of Chromium 6, which is found in the cement process. This substance has known long term carcinogenic effects, and is the subject of possible legal action by the residents. To date, several concerned residents have written to the Environment agency to enquire if this substance is monitored in any fashion by the Agency at the Rugby plant and have met a wall of silence, I personally have contacted the Agency twice on this matter and have yet to receive a reply. I would strongly advise anybody with concerns for their families’ welfare to contact the agency as a matter of urgency and try and establish their criteria for checking the levels of this substance at the site, silence is not always golden, neither, as the residents of Davenport thought, is it safe just to assume that the plant is in safe hands because a Government Agency is tasked with monitoring it.