Edmonton incinerator

• PROTESTERS against the new incinerator seem unaware that after the original Edmonton incinerator started in 1971, there was a sudden worsening of infant death rates in the boroughs of Enfield and Waltham Forest.

Similar post-incinerator rises in rates of infant deaths have occurred in council areas exposed to emissions during the last 50 years, while those paid to protect public health have either been asleep on the job or chosen to keep silent.

Sajid Javid MP, the recent secretary of state for health, is the Member of Parliament for Bromsgrove and his department and its predecessors have failed the country on the incinerator issue.

There was a sudden post-incinerator rise in Enfield’s infant mortality rate after the Edmonton incinerator started in 1971.

Bromsgrove is downwind of the Hartlebury incinerator, which started in 2017, and Office for National Statistics data show the following infant death rates in the 10 years 2011-2020:

2011: 1.1 per 1,000 live births
2012: 2.2 per 1,000
2013: 2.3 per 1,000
2014: 6.6 per 1,000
2015: 3.3 per 1,000
2016: 6.4 per 1,000
2017: 3.2 per 1,000
2018: 5.2 per 1,000
2019: 10.9 per 1,000
2020: 8.8 per 1,000 live births

If the above data are plotted as three-year rolling averages, a sudden post-incinerator rise in infant death rates can be clearly seen.

MICHAEL RYAN
Address supplied