Local resdents want Director of Public Health to launch full inquiry

Levels of pollution around the Horn Lane Industrial Site are frequently high and an ongoing cause for concern.

( Cement works is situated next to London Bunka Yochien Japanese nursery)

With reports of a local rise in asthma and respiratory illnesses there've been calls for Ealing Council's Director of Public Health, Dr Jackie Chin, to press for a Public Health Inquiry.  

Local resident, Maire Lowe, says there is still time to contact Dr Chin and stress the importance of such an investigation:

We are about to hear whether the Director of Public Health for Ealing believes there is sufficient evidence of serious pollution in Horn Lane to warrant a full inquiry. She will not take that decision lightly. A full enquiry will cost money at a time of scarce resources, may delay plans for regeneration of areas around the future Crossrail station and may require some of the heavy industry to relocate out of Acton.

Balanced against that is the assertion that an increasing number of young children have to be admitted to hospital with breathing problems. that the local pharmacies fill up to three times the number of prescriptions for inhalers than they would expect and that the coating of dirt on cars, windows and gardens is looking increasingly thick. Local GPs and pharmacies have been expressing concern for years. Even if we personally do not have breathing problems, there ara many who do.

There is a small nursery school almost next door to the site. West Acton and St. Vincent's schools are very near and many children and their parents walk past the site twice a day. Any of us who use Acton Main Line Station or the 266 bus route breathe the same air.

Oddly enough we learned quite recently that the staff working on the site are required by law to have their health checked twice a year. As one of them said to me. "Effectively I work in a quarry, of course I need a regular chest X ray" If the staff are being monitored, what should we be doing for the general population? What do you think?

A number of you wrote to Dr. Chin with your individual stores of how pollution is affecting you. The liaison group set up by our former MP continues to facilitate dialogue between residents, industry and that statutory agencies. Monitoring equipement has been set up which shows that pollution is certainly very high and that the amount of PM10 in the air is abnormal. That's the really nasty pollutant but it has proved difficult to pinpoint which industry is producing these pollutants. We can't smell or taste them. We just know they are there.

We are looking forward with some trepidation to hearing Dr. Chin's conclusions. If you have a personal story to tell but haven't yet written to her, there is still time.

Do it now. Email: chinj@ealing. gov. uk

Maire Lowe

November 25th 2015