CONCERNS for the past, present and future health of people in West Devon and East Cornwall have been voiced by a prominent local environmental scientist.
In his latest paper, published in The Science of the Total Environment recently, Dr Eric Hamilton, of the Milton Abbot-based Phoenix research laboratory, said new laws designed to deal with contaminated land were inadequate.
A West Devon Borough Council spokesman said they shared some of Dr Hamilton's concerns but did not entirely agree with his conclusions.
Dr Hamilton believes that increasingly people will be exposed to large quantities of historic toxic mine waste dumped in the area over hundreds of years.
'Before April 1999, legislation with respect to the use of contaminated land was archaic and, in practice, had no scientific basis. Post-April 1999, the new legislation doesn't seem to have improved matters,' he said.
Dr Hamilton said the new laws required a 'significant harm to human health' before any action was taken. An unacceptable stance, he claimed, because the connection between the onset of cancer, for example, and exposure to toxins up to 20 years previously was difficult to make.
The work was prompted by the finding of unusual and unexpected concentrations of toxic mine by-products in household dust in unexpected areas, coupled with the knowledge that multiple toxic elements acting together exacerbated the harmful effects.
Dr Hamilton said it was widely accepted that radon, common in the South West, caused lung cancer — but believed simultaneous exposure to arsenic dust could increase significantly the chances of getting the disease.
In his report, Dr Hamilton argued local authorities, which had been given much of the responsibility for dealing with contaminated land, did not have the relevant expertise, though he admitted that was beginning to change.
Dr Hamilton was very concerned about the future spread of toxic wastes in the borough as a result of changing weather patterns.
'This region is likely to be affected by weather changes over the next decade leading to widespread distribution of toxic mine wastes over large inhabited areas through flooding and contaminated dust.
'My overall view is that it is not possible to use human health as a criteria for concern and action. It is a fact that no illnesses are known in the SW that can be attributed to exposure to mine waste.
'If this were true, then the wastes are not of major concern. In practice this is not acceptable and requires proper scientific study. My own limited studies indicate that there is cause for concern and ill-effects probably do occur,' said Dr Hamilton.
He said it was ironic that vast sums of money were spent on radon gas, despite there being no single case where an illness could be unequivocally attributed to the gas, and called for a similar approach to toxic waste to be implemented.
Dr Hamilton said the borough contains some of the largest areas in the country of heavily-contaminated land from historic mine wastes.
He said toxic wastes had been used for land fill and area-surfacing throughout the borough
West Devon environmental health manager David Banks said the council had investigated Dr Hamilton's complaints.
'We share some of his concerns about arsenic and the risks associated with it,' said Mr Banks. 'And we have worked with Dr Hamilton in the past, but we don't entirely agree with his conclusions. I can assure people the council takes this matter very seriously and is developing a strategy to deal with it.'
Dr Hamilton intends to continue his studies to identify risks to the general population and those most highly exposed.