Sonae and the high incidences of cancer in Kirkby.
spitthedog | 23.04.2008 19:20
The article below though a local story needs national coverage as you will see from the comments to it.In regards to expert assistance.
Sonae and the high incidences of cancer in Kirkby.
Fri 18 Apr 2008
Posted by admin under: Sonae
Time to get rid of this filthy polluting factory owned by criminals.
The past week has been a bad one as far as the pollution from Sonae is concerned. The smell of that filthy factory once again spread itself over Kirkby, with Northwood as usual faring the worse due to the close proximity.
The world could actually get a glimpse of Sonae as the Grand National event took place. As the horses ran around the track, the camera caught the chimney with its cloud of God knows what pouring from it 24/7, apart from yearly maintenance, accidents and perhaps another explosion. The actual smell from Sonae can reach Aintree if the winds prevail.
Sonae wood dust 2002 and 2008
Since 2002, we have reported on the Sonae situation. For the most part, the only other websites reporting on environmental pollution are environmental websites, but we’re seeing a quickening of pace with the number of campaigning websites going up.
Environmental issues are something Knowsley Council has a strange relationship with. At one moment, there they are, the ‘green’ council – knowingly advising local kids to ‘eat more healthily’, telling parents how to set a ‘healthy lifestyle example’ – and then there they are, shaking hands with Sonae, roping in Milly Molly Mandleson the prince of Darkness to slip Sonae a £1.95 million DTI grant.
The decision to bring Sonae here was reckless and a short-sighted view from a council which never did see any value in Kirkby. Knowsley Council sold off hundreds of plots of land, great and small, some for prices which would make your jaw drop.
The deals by the council to bring jobs to Kirkby, have been dismal – with most firms coming here on the strength of EU grants, DTI grants and a myriad of grants always there for some rich business concern to grab – when we’d see more jobs created just dishing the cash out, and seeing a few people maybe establish successful businesses.
The jobs bought by Sonae came at a price which has seen Kirkby polluted since 2001, with local schools and old peoples homes bearing the brunt of that filthy polluting plant. Knowsley council cannot even say how many jobs Sonae bought to Kirkby people.
Sonae dust April 2008
One of the biggest concerns about Sonae comes with the growing number of young people in the Northwood area and Kirkby in general who have cancer. Each week in the churches, it seems more young people are in the ‘prayers for the Parish sick’. We all know of the heart breaking tales of the young kids in Kirkby who have fell victim to or who are struggling with cancer.
For years, there have been concerns raised about this issue but since the 80s the council has been loath to touch anything which might clash with their scheming, dealing, fiddling and diddling.
Perhaps with new councillors, not indebted to the devious Keight and Round and the cabal of political delinquents in Huyton, Kirkby might find the truth out. To even think that our political masters and those in the highest remits of public office could cover up such a thing, really does make you think about China and their [sometimes] harsh penalties for corrupt local officials.
More than a few UK councillors would be shot in China. The former and now dead leader of Kirkby council, Dave Tempest, certainly would have been grimly contemplating the afterlife as he was led out to some field, with officials gathered and a smartly dressed solider putting his lights out.
As it happens, on the On 27 Feb 2007, George Howarth MP sponsored a debate in the House of Commons on the unusually high incidence of cancer in Kirkby. During the debate, he stated…
“Kirkby has a long and unhappy history of health problems, most particularly of cancer. A debate is currently under way locally about the causes of the high rates of certain kinds of cancer. I have recently been responsible, along with others, for the establishment of a monitoring group to consider what action is being taken and to monitor the research that is under way. However, there is a widespread belief in Kirkby that industrial pollution is at least part of the problem, and the name most often mentioned is, sad to say, Sonae.”
Sad to say George, it was your mates who bought Sonae here.
Even sadder is the fact that children in Kirkby are getting cancer at a rate which all seem to agree is higher than other areas. Sadder still is that were just debating it, and the local MP is only yet at the stage of pointing to ‘widespread beliefs’.
In other words, it’s only Kirkby, a working class town whose residents are the disposable working class on the outskirts of Liverpool. Even if the local children and the entire town might be in some cancer hotspot – the diggers are still busy building more homes so more people can be polluted by Sonae.
My first Sonae wood dust
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4 Responses to “Sonae and the high incidences of cancer in Kirkby.”
1. spitthedog Says: April 21st, 2008 at 9:33 am
Maybe it’s time for a class action.A long drawn out thing to do. You have to research your case well.Gathering and testing the evidence.Writing to experts in the particular field the evidence seems to support. And having them test it and agree to testify in court. It can be very costly in more ways than cash. But there are a lot of qualified people who will help for free if it is for a cause like this,like the legal work done by solicitors and researchers in cases like John Kamara.At the same time though the kids need to be educated towards employment in clean industry’s like computers,hardware and software.I’ve wrote a little piece about qualifying as a systems engineer in the computer help section.And I think a lot of kids out there will be surprised about just how easy it is to do.
2. PC Says: April 22nd, 2008 at 4:47 pm
In reply to Spitthedog. I agree wholeheartedly with your suggestions. A class action really is the only way forward but you need good solicitors not door steppers just interested in how much they can make from our suffering. We just need a few brave souls initially to come forward and the rest will follow! There is strength and safety in numbers! A good Investigative Journalist would be a good start too.
For what good it will do, I am willing to give my time and skills as a researcher voluntarily to any solicitor or Law Centre or Investigative Journalist who will at least look at the possibilities that Sonae is causing illness for residents and also for the wood workers who machine, saw and sand this toxic board that they produce. I already have masses of information and there is a clear link and PROVEN link with wood dust and cancer and many respiratory illnesses and other diseases. I have written and contacted many such experts in this particular field both in the UK and America and gained a good deal of support already.
The I.A.R.C. (International Agency for Research on Cancer) who designated ‘wood dust’ as carcinogenic did so because of British research into British wood workers suffering from nasal cancer caused by wood dust. Other diseases are strongly implicated too.
The wood dust piles that are seen outside the Sonae plant that blow freely over Kirkby, instead of being contained as they should be, polluting your town and poisoning your young and old alike is the same dust that is emitted when it’s machined by wood workers and is then taken home to poison their families. Sadly, the injustice goes way beyond the good folk of Kirkby.
Myself and my family live nowhere near the Sonae plant but are still victims of it’s pollution we believe and there are many, many more who may be too but do not realise it due to their employers not telling them the truth. I wonder how many woodworkers actually are made aware that ‘wood dust’, any wood dust, is carcinogenic? The wood composite boards, much despised MDF and chipboard, particleboard, OS board, and the like, are even more toxic, more poisonous due to the many carcinogenic chemicals that may also be added in it’s manufacture such as silica and formaldehyde. Would anyone continue to breath it in if they knew the truth? I think not.
WHY AREN’T THE UNIONS AT LEAST DOING SOMETHING TO PROTECT ITS WOOD WORKING MEMBERS? Come on all you mighty and influential Unions get a grip for the sake of all them and their families before many more die or become severely disabled, choking for every breath due to scarred lungs, unable to walk, unable to work, unable to provide for their families.
Do they really deserve to be thrown on the scrap heap because they can no longer work due to another’s negligence, because their bodies are so badly damaged by the wood dust and other chemicals? Forced to beg and battle to get the sickness and disability benefits that they are now sadly fully entitled to but very often aren’t allowed. Money that the Government were more than willing and were very quick to take out of their wages every month with a promise to give some of it back should their hour of need ever arise but then when that time sadly comes, when they do urgently need it, the Government are no where to be seen, instead found hiding in the back benches no doubt. All promises forgotten, lost in the mountains of legislation. Mention claiming their expenses and look out for the stampede! No hiding then.
That is what our esteemed Government do, our very own elected members, force the chronically sick and disabled to do just that. How dare they? Whilst they AND often their family members too literally get away with what is tantamount to theft by dishonestly claiming vast amounts of expenses they are not entitled to at the tax payers expense. Promises not forgotten then it seems. Married MP’s and Councillors are laughing all the way to the bank with often a double load of ill-gotten gains in their greedy clutches. How much of our tax-payers money is lost in this way as opposed to that from falsely claimed sickness and disability benefits? Yet they get away with it Scot free. Even if the culprits are reluctantly forced by their peers to resign they invariably are allowed back in via the back door when the dust settles only to reappear somewhere else in Government. Old boys/girls network looking after their own as always. No justice there either.
Whilst we pay for the wife of the Leader of the House to claim for taxi’s for shopping trips and first class travel for his family for example and don’t even insist on receipts or proof, sick and disabled people are denied the help they so desperately need, denied the medications that are vital to their health refused due to their cost and then left to live and die in abject poverty. Disparaged by our Government for being a burden to society, a financial drain. How dare they?
Why are these culprits, our most trusted members of society, our MP’s and local Councillors who are found to be guilty of this crime (for that is what it is, it’s a crime and they are criminals in every sense of the word) why are they not thrown into prison as those quite rightly are who falsely claim benefits? Why as a society do we tolerate that kind of behaviour from those who we honour with our vote, that we elect in a supposedly democratic system and entrust to run our country?
What is the difference between an MP or Councillor claiming expenses and a person claiming disability benefits? Well the truth is MP’s have ensured they are not accountable for much of what they claim whereas they ensured that the sick and disabled always are? Even when their own ‘indiscretions’ are brought out into the open we allow them to investigate themselves! Like they’re ever going to own up to it or at the very least ‘dob in their mates’. Where’s the justice in that?
Why should the ‘powers that be’ be above the very laws that they themselves make? Why should the likes of Kirkby residents and the wood workers be subject to something that our MP’s are not? After all MP’s and local Councillors are responsible for allowing companies such as Sonae to do what they do in the first place, not only to pollute and devastate our lives but to continue to allow them do so, encouraging them even by way of massive grants. Reward them for polluting your town and poisoning young and old alike. I’ll bet we don’t see Sonae for dust when the grants run out! We the tax-payers pay them to poison us! How do our duly elected members all sleep at night I wonder? Maybe the vast expenses they claim make it more bearable for them. After all with all that extra cash, our cash, they won’t have to live in these godforsaken polluted towns or have to work in employment where they and their families are continuously poisoned until they drop or die.
Some of the forgotten victims too are the wood workers, joiners, etc who daily breath in the toxic, ultra fine dust that their board gives off when it’s sawn and machined. A toxic, carcinogenic dust that is then taken home on clothes, hair and skin to invade homes, staying suspended invisibly in the air and then breathed in too by the rest of the family. Family members who get sick are very rarely considered when any environmental cause or pollution of any kind is suspected to be to blame. Also, because genetics often plays a big part in diseases it is often the case too that family members end up with a different illness than the key worker and the link may never be suspected let alone looked into.
Until that is perhaps you get the unique situation where two close family members like us who may provide that link, that key to proof that something more sinister is at play and who end up suffering from the very same rare incurable devastating illness which cannot be put down to coincidence or be put down to Kirkby’s previous industrial past. We’ve never lived in Kirkby. When the only real link between them is the wood dust and toxic chemicals from the wood composite boards made from the mountains of wood dust like the one at the Sonae plant. Mountains of a carcinogenic substance left to blow around a town and that’s not expected to make someone ill? Yeah right! We may be the proof that others have been looking for that definitely links certain devastating and often fatal diseases and illnesses to wood dust and more importantly the board produced by Sonae and other board producers like them.
The evidence is out there if only someone would only care to look as we have. One day someone will care enough to look and then Sonae’s days in Kirkby are numbered.
We are considering taking legal action for the suffering we have endured due to the negligence of others. I urge anyone who thinks that their illnesses may be caused by the wood dust and pollution from Sonae or any wood worker working with any wood composite board who suspects that their illness is work related to do the same. If everyone did that then you might have a better chance of getting Sonae out of your town and adequate, safer H & S practices within the wood working industries.
I also would urge any ex Sonae worker or indeed anyone who knows anything that might be helpful to come forward. Some of you must have consciences. Help these people now!
One day you will wake up and not be able to live with the knowledge you have but by then it will be too late for many, maybe even for you. Remember - you breathed in Sonae’s wood dust too!!
3. spitthedog Says: April 23rd, 2008 at 5:29 am
PC.
Your comment is the most eloquent and thought provoking I have ever read on this site. I am sure it will have the same effect on others who read it. Your offer to donate your time and research free supports what I have written. That their are good professional people out there who will give their time and hard work for free for the right cause.I feel certain that admin will promote this.One part I would like to look at first is the fact that wood dust is particle fibres.And the consideration of linking it to the evidence of the particle fibre asbestos. It maybe a quicker route to evidence.I am willing to donate my time in any way I can.And whatever funds I can afford.Number one priority on the list is lets get organised.If anyone else has suggestions please add them.
4. spitthedog Says: April 23rd, 2008 at 6:20 am
Here is Spekes air quality.I know there is a kerbside station on Lower lane but I can’t find it online.I have emailed bv-aurnsiteinfo.co.uk for the info re it.
Leave a Reply
Sonae and the high incidences of cancer in Kirkby.
Fri 18 Apr 2008
Posted by admin under: Sonae
Time to get rid of this filthy polluting factory owned by criminals.
The past week has been a bad one as far as the pollution from Sonae is concerned. The smell of that filthy factory once again spread itself over Kirkby, with Northwood as usual faring the worse due to the close proximity.
The world could actually get a glimpse of Sonae as the Grand National event took place. As the horses ran around the track, the camera caught the chimney with its cloud of God knows what pouring from it 24/7, apart from yearly maintenance, accidents and perhaps another explosion. The actual smell from Sonae can reach Aintree if the winds prevail.
Sonae wood dust 2002 and 2008
Since 2002, we have reported on the Sonae situation. For the most part, the only other websites reporting on environmental pollution are environmental websites, but we’re seeing a quickening of pace with the number of campaigning websites going up.
Environmental issues are something Knowsley Council has a strange relationship with. At one moment, there they are, the ‘green’ council – knowingly advising local kids to ‘eat more healthily’, telling parents how to set a ‘healthy lifestyle example’ – and then there they are, shaking hands with Sonae, roping in Milly Molly Mandleson the prince of Darkness to slip Sonae a £1.95 million DTI grant.
The decision to bring Sonae here was reckless and a short-sighted view from a council which never did see any value in Kirkby. Knowsley Council sold off hundreds of plots of land, great and small, some for prices which would make your jaw drop.
The deals by the council to bring jobs to Kirkby, have been dismal – with most firms coming here on the strength of EU grants, DTI grants and a myriad of grants always there for some rich business concern to grab – when we’d see more jobs created just dishing the cash out, and seeing a few people maybe establish successful businesses.
The jobs bought by Sonae came at a price which has seen Kirkby polluted since 2001, with local schools and old peoples homes bearing the brunt of that filthy polluting plant. Knowsley council cannot even say how many jobs Sonae bought to Kirkby people.
Sonae dust April 2008
One of the biggest concerns about Sonae comes with the growing number of young people in the Northwood area and Kirkby in general who have cancer. Each week in the churches, it seems more young people are in the ‘prayers for the Parish sick’. We all know of the heart breaking tales of the young kids in Kirkby who have fell victim to or who are struggling with cancer.
For years, there have been concerns raised about this issue but since the 80s the council has been loath to touch anything which might clash with their scheming, dealing, fiddling and diddling.
Perhaps with new councillors, not indebted to the devious Keight and Round and the cabal of political delinquents in Huyton, Kirkby might find the truth out. To even think that our political masters and those in the highest remits of public office could cover up such a thing, really does make you think about China and their [sometimes] harsh penalties for corrupt local officials.
More than a few UK councillors would be shot in China. The former and now dead leader of Kirkby council, Dave Tempest, certainly would have been grimly contemplating the afterlife as he was led out to some field, with officials gathered and a smartly dressed solider putting his lights out.
As it happens, on the On 27 Feb 2007, George Howarth MP sponsored a debate in the House of Commons on the unusually high incidence of cancer in Kirkby. During the debate, he stated…
“Kirkby has a long and unhappy history of health problems, most particularly of cancer. A debate is currently under way locally about the causes of the high rates of certain kinds of cancer. I have recently been responsible, along with others, for the establishment of a monitoring group to consider what action is being taken and to monitor the research that is under way. However, there is a widespread belief in Kirkby that industrial pollution is at least part of the problem, and the name most often mentioned is, sad to say, Sonae.”
Sad to say George, it was your mates who bought Sonae here.
Even sadder is the fact that children in Kirkby are getting cancer at a rate which all seem to agree is higher than other areas. Sadder still is that were just debating it, and the local MP is only yet at the stage of pointing to ‘widespread beliefs’.
In other words, it’s only Kirkby, a working class town whose residents are the disposable working class on the outskirts of Liverpool. Even if the local children and the entire town might be in some cancer hotspot – the diggers are still busy building more homes so more people can be polluted by Sonae.
My first Sonae wood dust
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4 Responses to “Sonae and the high incidences of cancer in Kirkby.”
1. spitthedog Says: April 21st, 2008 at 9:33 am
Maybe it’s time for a class action.A long drawn out thing to do. You have to research your case well.Gathering and testing the evidence.Writing to experts in the particular field the evidence seems to support. And having them test it and agree to testify in court. It can be very costly in more ways than cash. But there are a lot of qualified people who will help for free if it is for a cause like this,like the legal work done by solicitors and researchers in cases like John Kamara.At the same time though the kids need to be educated towards employment in clean industry’s like computers,hardware and software.I’ve wrote a little piece about qualifying as a systems engineer in the computer help section.And I think a lot of kids out there will be surprised about just how easy it is to do.
2. PC Says: April 22nd, 2008 at 4:47 pm
In reply to Spitthedog. I agree wholeheartedly with your suggestions. A class action really is the only way forward but you need good solicitors not door steppers just interested in how much they can make from our suffering. We just need a few brave souls initially to come forward and the rest will follow! There is strength and safety in numbers! A good Investigative Journalist would be a good start too.
For what good it will do, I am willing to give my time and skills as a researcher voluntarily to any solicitor or Law Centre or Investigative Journalist who will at least look at the possibilities that Sonae is causing illness for residents and also for the wood workers who machine, saw and sand this toxic board that they produce. I already have masses of information and there is a clear link and PROVEN link with wood dust and cancer and many respiratory illnesses and other diseases. I have written and contacted many such experts in this particular field both in the UK and America and gained a good deal of support already.
The I.A.R.C. (International Agency for Research on Cancer) who designated ‘wood dust’ as carcinogenic did so because of British research into British wood workers suffering from nasal cancer caused by wood dust. Other diseases are strongly implicated too.
The wood dust piles that are seen outside the Sonae plant that blow freely over Kirkby, instead of being contained as they should be, polluting your town and poisoning your young and old alike is the same dust that is emitted when it’s machined by wood workers and is then taken home to poison their families. Sadly, the injustice goes way beyond the good folk of Kirkby.
Myself and my family live nowhere near the Sonae plant but are still victims of it’s pollution we believe and there are many, many more who may be too but do not realise it due to their employers not telling them the truth. I wonder how many woodworkers actually are made aware that ‘wood dust’, any wood dust, is carcinogenic? The wood composite boards, much despised MDF and chipboard, particleboard, OS board, and the like, are even more toxic, more poisonous due to the many carcinogenic chemicals that may also be added in it’s manufacture such as silica and formaldehyde. Would anyone continue to breath it in if they knew the truth? I think not.
WHY AREN’T THE UNIONS AT LEAST DOING SOMETHING TO PROTECT ITS WOOD WORKING MEMBERS? Come on all you mighty and influential Unions get a grip for the sake of all them and their families before many more die or become severely disabled, choking for every breath due to scarred lungs, unable to walk, unable to work, unable to provide for their families.
Do they really deserve to be thrown on the scrap heap because they can no longer work due to another’s negligence, because their bodies are so badly damaged by the wood dust and other chemicals? Forced to beg and battle to get the sickness and disability benefits that they are now sadly fully entitled to but very often aren’t allowed. Money that the Government were more than willing and were very quick to take out of their wages every month with a promise to give some of it back should their hour of need ever arise but then when that time sadly comes, when they do urgently need it, the Government are no where to be seen, instead found hiding in the back benches no doubt. All promises forgotten, lost in the mountains of legislation. Mention claiming their expenses and look out for the stampede! No hiding then.
That is what our esteemed Government do, our very own elected members, force the chronically sick and disabled to do just that. How dare they? Whilst they AND often their family members too literally get away with what is tantamount to theft by dishonestly claiming vast amounts of expenses they are not entitled to at the tax payers expense. Promises not forgotten then it seems. Married MP’s and Councillors are laughing all the way to the bank with often a double load of ill-gotten gains in their greedy clutches. How much of our tax-payers money is lost in this way as opposed to that from falsely claimed sickness and disability benefits? Yet they get away with it Scot free. Even if the culprits are reluctantly forced by their peers to resign they invariably are allowed back in via the back door when the dust settles only to reappear somewhere else in Government. Old boys/girls network looking after their own as always. No justice there either.
Whilst we pay for the wife of the Leader of the House to claim for taxi’s for shopping trips and first class travel for his family for example and don’t even insist on receipts or proof, sick and disabled people are denied the help they so desperately need, denied the medications that are vital to their health refused due to their cost and then left to live and die in abject poverty. Disparaged by our Government for being a burden to society, a financial drain. How dare they?
Why are these culprits, our most trusted members of society, our MP’s and local Councillors who are found to be guilty of this crime (for that is what it is, it’s a crime and they are criminals in every sense of the word) why are they not thrown into prison as those quite rightly are who falsely claim benefits? Why as a society do we tolerate that kind of behaviour from those who we honour with our vote, that we elect in a supposedly democratic system and entrust to run our country?
What is the difference between an MP or Councillor claiming expenses and a person claiming disability benefits? Well the truth is MP’s have ensured they are not accountable for much of what they claim whereas they ensured that the sick and disabled always are? Even when their own ‘indiscretions’ are brought out into the open we allow them to investigate themselves! Like they’re ever going to own up to it or at the very least ‘dob in their mates’. Where’s the justice in that?
Why should the ‘powers that be’ be above the very laws that they themselves make? Why should the likes of Kirkby residents and the wood workers be subject to something that our MP’s are not? After all MP’s and local Councillors are responsible for allowing companies such as Sonae to do what they do in the first place, not only to pollute and devastate our lives but to continue to allow them do so, encouraging them even by way of massive grants. Reward them for polluting your town and poisoning young and old alike. I’ll bet we don’t see Sonae for dust when the grants run out! We the tax-payers pay them to poison us! How do our duly elected members all sleep at night I wonder? Maybe the vast expenses they claim make it more bearable for them. After all with all that extra cash, our cash, they won’t have to live in these godforsaken polluted towns or have to work in employment where they and their families are continuously poisoned until they drop or die.
Some of the forgotten victims too are the wood workers, joiners, etc who daily breath in the toxic, ultra fine dust that their board gives off when it’s sawn and machined. A toxic, carcinogenic dust that is then taken home on clothes, hair and skin to invade homes, staying suspended invisibly in the air and then breathed in too by the rest of the family. Family members who get sick are very rarely considered when any environmental cause or pollution of any kind is suspected to be to blame. Also, because genetics often plays a big part in diseases it is often the case too that family members end up with a different illness than the key worker and the link may never be suspected let alone looked into.
Until that is perhaps you get the unique situation where two close family members like us who may provide that link, that key to proof that something more sinister is at play and who end up suffering from the very same rare incurable devastating illness which cannot be put down to coincidence or be put down to Kirkby’s previous industrial past. We’ve never lived in Kirkby. When the only real link between them is the wood dust and toxic chemicals from the wood composite boards made from the mountains of wood dust like the one at the Sonae plant. Mountains of a carcinogenic substance left to blow around a town and that’s not expected to make someone ill? Yeah right! We may be the proof that others have been looking for that definitely links certain devastating and often fatal diseases and illnesses to wood dust and more importantly the board produced by Sonae and other board producers like them.
The evidence is out there if only someone would only care to look as we have. One day someone will care enough to look and then Sonae’s days in Kirkby are numbered.
We are considering taking legal action for the suffering we have endured due to the negligence of others. I urge anyone who thinks that their illnesses may be caused by the wood dust and pollution from Sonae or any wood worker working with any wood composite board who suspects that their illness is work related to do the same. If everyone did that then you might have a better chance of getting Sonae out of your town and adequate, safer H & S practices within the wood working industries.
I also would urge any ex Sonae worker or indeed anyone who knows anything that might be helpful to come forward. Some of you must have consciences. Help these people now!
One day you will wake up and not be able to live with the knowledge you have but by then it will be too late for many, maybe even for you. Remember - you breathed in Sonae’s wood dust too!!
3. spitthedog Says: April 23rd, 2008 at 5:29 am
PC.
Your comment is the most eloquent and thought provoking I have ever read on this site. I am sure it will have the same effect on others who read it. Your offer to donate your time and research free supports what I have written. That their are good professional people out there who will give their time and hard work for free for the right cause.I feel certain that admin will promote this.One part I would like to look at first is the fact that wood dust is particle fibres.And the consideration of linking it to the evidence of the particle fibre asbestos. It maybe a quicker route to evidence.I am willing to donate my time in any way I can.And whatever funds I can afford.Number one priority on the list is lets get organised.If anyone else has suggestions please add them.
4. spitthedog Says: April 23rd, 2008 at 6:20 am
Here is Spekes air quality.I know there is a kerbside station on Lower lane but I can’t find it online.I have emailed bv-aurnsiteinfo.co.uk for the info re it.
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spitthedog
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Come on! Wake up and smell the coffee or should I say the wood dust!
28.04.2008 23:53
After reading the many articles and reports written about Sonae, on this website and many others, regarding its wood dust fume emitting production plants, my heart went out to the people of Kirby and beyond. Their nightmare continues and their lives devastated all for the sake of company profits. By the time the public and the relevant authorities finally wake up and realise the true extent of the damage done, possible deaths caused, the lives ruined, the likes of Sonae and other wood composite board manufacturers will be long gone. Leaving behind them a truly horrific unimaginable legacy, a trail of destruction, equalled only maybe by that previously trodden sadly by the many asbestos victims.
‘Wood dust’ per se is officially classified as carcinogenic as is Formaldehyde and Silica! Wood composite boards, often made from toxic recycled waste wood, contain a cocktail of many toxic poisons in the waste wood, resins, glue’s, within their composition. When they are then laminated, veneered and coated then more toxic substances are added to the highly toxic ‘sandwich’. Producing, machining and sawing this stuff will make people seriously ill, disabled and will kill. Carcinogens are killers. Cancer kills people! Carcinogenic means there are no safe levels. You cannot breath in or ingest a safe amount. Also, your body takes in these toxic substances in other ways too, your skin for example, is your body’s largest breathing organ not your lungs. These toxic chemicals don’t just cause cancer; they also cause other equally devastating, often rare and incurable, tragic illnesses such as autoimmune diseases (systemic vasculitis, rheumatoid arthritis, Lupus, Wegener’s Granulomatosis, psoriasis, etc), renal/nephritic (kidney) disease, leukaemia, respiratory/lung disease, asthma and many other illnesses too. Cancer kills but these do too! These are the diseases/illnesses that the residents of Kirby should be aware of. Some of these serious diseases start off as something seemingly innocent like a cold or cough that won’t go away, it may be diagnosed as sinusitis (some autoimmune diseases start this way), fatigue (extreme tiredness), joint pains, etc. At this point the time bomb is ticking within you.
Sadly, it isn’t just the residents living near these wood composite board-producing plants that are affected. Something not considered is the affect that this is having on the health of the many thousands of employees involved in the furniture industry who saw and machine this board and who ultimately breath in this deadly toxic dust every day of their working lives. What about the wood machinists, wood workers, joiners, etc that machine, router, edge, laminate, these wood composite toxic sandwiches? Maybe furniture made from it is fairly safe as an end product (although even that’s debateable) as in kitchen cabinets, office and bedroom furniture but when it’s machined, sanded; sawed, etc it emits the finest of toxic dusts. It isn’t the dust you can see that does the most damage, it’s the dust you can’t see, microns small, that your lungs can’t cope with and cannot expel. It stays suspended in the air almost permanently. That fine dust and its toxins stay in your nasal passages, on your skin, in your lungs to damage vital organs. Some of this wood dust and its many toxins are then taken by your body to other parts where those too become affected and damaged. EVERY resident and every wood machinist, wood worker, joiner is at risk, and it’s not just from the much despised MDF boards, it’s also the chipboards or particleboards, cement boards that are just as deadly. Employees of companies who manufacture the board will be at risk in exactly the same way too. Some may be gloating that they’ve worked in the wood trade for years and have never been ill but that doesn’t mean they won’t be in the future. These things take a long time and some have a ‘latency period’ of up to 40 years or more. What that means is that it can take anything up to and over 40 years before you even start to notice the symptoms let alone get a diagnosis and by the time you get a diagnosis it’s too late, damage has been done and will continue to be. By then lots of irreversible organ and tissue damage will have been done and sadly there will be no going back. Also, employees then take it home on their clothes, on their skin and in their hair and these TOXIC chemicals and CARCINOGENS then go on to contaminate and poison their own homes and families. The industry doesn’t want employees to know the dangers they face daily. If wood workers are not given any thought or protection then family members don’t stand a chance. Just in case you were wondering, I’m speaking from experience and have done lots of research into the subject. After 33 years in the wood industry my family and myself have been left diseased and devastated by it. For us it’s too late.
Lets face it, if a worker were to take home any other toxic carcinogenic substance on their clothes and bodies then there would be a public outcry. Then politicians would jump on the proverbial bandwagon and protest (one would hope), for the sake of votes if nothing else. Rarely, if ever, were these wood workers given adequate protective work clothing and/or respirators. For years they got nothing, even more recently they were given totally inadequate ‘nuisance’ dust masks that provided little or no protection from wood dust and solvents and companies had little or ineffective dust extraction. Even the HSE warned employers not to provide these cheaper ‘nuisance’ dust masks, as they were not in any way suitable. Few listened. The H.S.E. threatened to take action against employers who did provide these but have they ever taken action against unscrupulous employers whose only consideration is financial? Rarely are employees given adequate training and guidance on the dangers of these toxic chemicals and that ‘wood dust’ is classified as a human carcinogen. IT’S OFFICIALLY CLASSIFIED TO BE CARCINOGENIC SO WHY ARE THEY BEING ALLOWED TO BREATHE IT IN AND TAKE IT HOME WITH THEM ON THEIR HAIR, CLOTHES AND SKIN WHERE IT THEN CONTAMINATES THEIR HOMES AND MAY ALSO AFFECT THEIR FAMILIES?
WHY ARE THEY ALLOWING THE RESIDENTS LIVING NEARBY TO THESE PLANTS TO BE SUBJECTED TO THIS POLLUTION AND FORCED TO BREATHE IN THE TOXIC CARCINOGEN CONTAINING DUST AND FUMES AND HAVE IT POLLUTE THEIR LIVING ENVIRONMENT TOO? WHY ARE THE H.S.E. ALLOWING THIS TO HAPPEN? No dust is safe to breathe in no matter what it contains. Don’t be fooled into thinking these are only recent discoveries because they’re not. The industry, authorities and the insurance companies have known for many years. ‘Wood dust’ has been known to cause cancer for many years and suspected of it doing so for far longer. Whilst they wait for the rest of society to catch up they’ve been speedily covering their tracks, as other industries and polluters have done before them.
The Wood Composite Board Industry has for years been largely unregulated according to the Environment Agency (EA) in their recent report. So who knows what toxic wood waste has been used in their manufacture before. Maybe even CCA (copper, chromium, arsenic) treated wood has been getting in there, old railway sleepers treated with preservatives/pesticides, etc? Who has been monitoring this – No one! Who now advises the Environment Agency who are supposed to safeguard our health and ensure that these processes are as safe as possible, for both us and the environment? The Technical Advisory Group (TAG) set up to advise the EA are largely made up of – yes you’ve guessed it – the companies and manufacturers of the board themselves who have a vested interest in there being as little regulation of them as possible. Forgive me but doesn’t this mean that they’ll be ever so slightly biased when expressing their ‘so called’ expert opinions and giving advice? Ultimately doesn’t this mean that they are regulating themselves and we all know the dangers of that. They are advising that wood composite board manufacture needs few regulations, as they say they would serve no purpose because they already regulate themselves. BUT then they would advise that wouldn’t they? DUR!
They don’t even want furniture made from these wood composite boards to go into landfill because the end product is so toxic! That speaks volumes. Much of it has already been placed in landfills. They can’t be sure what has gone into it, particularly the older furniture which may have contained very toxic chemicals in the waste woods used in its manufacture including pesticides, insecticides, preservatives, etc. Many of these chemicals have since been banned but may be allowed back into the system this way. Old furniture too may also be covered in lead based poisonous paints. They’re trying desperately to find a way of getting rid of it either by further recycling back into furniture, as a compost or mulch for gardens (all those poisons in the soil!) or by burning it as a Biomass fuel. Just think, all those toxins and more besides emitted into the very air we breath. So if the toxic wood dust doesn’t get you the toxic smoke will. Also, when toxic chemicals and poisons are heated it can change them considerably into something far worse than what they started out as. Mixed together as a combination like this, then even the scientists don’t know what that will do to people’s health. They have absolutely no idea, no one does! They’re just trying to work out which is the most financially viable and which is likely to harm or maybe even kill the least amount of people. Finances first, people last, as ever.
Don’t take my word for it. There are many good peer reviewed publications, reports, etc, out there for all to see. Google search ‘Wood dust’, ‘toxic wood dust’, ‘ill health effects of wood dust’, ‘is wood dust carcinogenic?’, ‘MDF’, ‘ill health effects of Formaldehyde’, ‘wood composite boards’, ‘ill health effects of silica’, ‘wood workers and wood dust’ try every possible combination you can think of and more. I guarantee one thing. You will be shocked by what you find. What is more concerning is, this is what they ALLOW you to see. Just think of what horrors lie beneath, what is being hidden from us, all that they don’t want us to know and why not?
They are producing a ticking time bomb and they know it! You need to know too. Wouldn’t you think everyone would learn from past tragedies such as that experienced with asbestos and the many completely avoidable deaths there but they never will it seems. How many have to get incurably sick, disabled or die this time before someone will realise and take action to stop it? By the time the ‘dust’ settles on this, it will be too late for many more. It needn’t be.
PC
Sonae lies to South African residents about Sonae plant at Kirkby
19.05.2008 14:55
SONAE LIES TO SOUTH AFRICAN RESIDENTS ABOUT KIRKBY!
As promised I have made contact with South African residents and other concerned organisations there (referred to by Sonae in their report as IAP’s Interested Affected Parties. Not bad considering they profess that no one is ‘affected’ by their actions and emissions!), who are also suffering at the hands of Sonae. They are currently fighting a proposed expansion of the plant there which local residents are assured will not increase the dust and fumes problem that they already suffer from.
Only it’s not so much a ‘proposed’ expansion any more as Sonae went ahead and built it anyway, despite not having the relevant permissions from the authorities, DESPITE holding Public Consultations and EIA’s (Environmental Impact Assessments). Sounds familiar doesn’t it, they profess to be considering carefully and sympathetically the impact on local residents promising to address problems and concerns of those they affect, when all along they’re doing exactly what they want to regardless. No change there then. They continue to flout the laws no matter which country they are operating in. Sonae have no regard or respect for anything or anyone not even the law of the land but we all know that don’t we, sadly to our detriment.
Our South African friends tell me that they had read a little about the problems at the Kirkby plant, had picked up a bit from the Internet and had mentioned this to Sonae officials. Apparently Sonae have told them that the problems at Kirkby are ‘all in the past’ and that they have ‘all been dealt with satisfactorily’. Lies, lies and yet more lies. Satisfactorily for whom I wonder? I think not! Presumably this was in an attempt to reassure them in some way. Aren’t you all thrilled in Kirkby to finally know that they’ve stopped making your lives a misery, that they’ve stopped polluting your town and poisoning your family and friends?
I’ve directed them to the LT web site to let them see the truth for themselves and maybe even to post some of their own comments too. I’m a great believer in ‘The truth will out’ and that ‘the pen is mightier than the sword’ – even more so thanks to the Internet. Surely Sonae must have realised that fellow sufferers of Sonae will one day be able to unite together and to communicate with each other no matter where in the world they might be? Lets hope there truly is strength and safety in numbers!
So everything in the gardens rosy is it? Kirkby’s free of problems is it, no wood dust, no fumes, no stench of formaldehyde, no ill health problems, no noise nuisances? Wonderful! Yeah right! Strange how all the roses in this ever so rosy garden are all still covered in dust and smell of wood and formaldehyde don’t you think? Poisoned Ivy more like or should that be poisoned wood dust!
They also say that ‘the EIA process it has been shown that Sonae has been spewing out Formaldehyde gas at a rate well above acceptable – from their resins – and wood particulate matter all over the adjoining industrial estate. We have also proved that they have contravened the local noise abatement laws as well. Formaldehyde emissions have been high enough to cause skin rashes on nearby residents when they exercise or are out of doors at the wrong time of day, and if the wind is in the wrong direction.’
Why should there be a wrong time of the day to be outdoors? Why should anyone have to live in fear of going outside at any time of the day for fear of what they might breathe in and what the consequences of that might be on their health either now or in years to come? Why should anyone have to worry about which direction the wind is blowing before stepping outside your home? Are we not all entitled to have good clean air to breathe without fear of damage to our health?
Thankfully for SA residents, although Sonae have once again shown their true colours and flouted the laws and built what they didn’t have permission for, they have been successful in managing to stop Sonae from using the new drier and therefore stopping them from expanding production to the extent Sonae wished for. For how long is yet to be seen. Sonae they say are also reluctant to accept that what they are doing is causing problems for residents and that it is detrimental to health but then they will say that won’t they as they hide behind their own wood dust mountains. After all, they’ve got away with it so far and have done so all over the world it seems but hopefully for not much longer! Hopefully the ‘net’ is closing in on them thanks to the ‘Net’.
For at least 2 Sonae plants thousands of miles apart to be experiencing the same problems cannot be put down to coincidence any more. Especially when you add to the mix the ill health of the guys who have to work with the toxic stuff they produce. This surely proves that something more sinister is going on. Maybe one day we’ll hear from other residents living nearby other similar Sonae production/manufacturing plants from all over the world. Maybe one day there will be too many affected residents coming forward for it to be ignored any longer? Too many to argue with or fob off or pay off as Sonae have managed to do in the past.
Maybe even the odd disillusioned employee, will come forward to spill the beans and tell the truth, ex or otherwise. They can’t all have been brainwashed, some must have consciences and morals and may not be able to live with themselves any longer knowing the harm and possible death they could be causing to young and old alike by keeping quiet, even to their own family members who they have been taking the same deadly toxic carcinogenic dust home to for years. No is spared not even employees of their families!
I mentioned to you in a previous post, a reply to Spitthedog, that a public document mentioned that a Doctor had medical evidence that Sonae’s toxic emissions were causing ill health problems for residents in SA. It’s looking more hopeful that we will soon be able to make contact with him (no name or other identifying means will be given). I’ll keep you posted via Admin when and if we do. So keep your fingers crossed!!
The more evidence we have to bury Sonae with the better!
PC
PC
South African Doctor replies re:Sonae wood dust
19.05.2008 15:02
SOUTH AFRICAN DOCTORS REPLY RE: SONAE
I'm really pleased to see that Dr Evered from WESSA in South Africa has taken my advice and decided to let you all know that they too are having horrendous problems with Sonae. You can see his reply on www.liverpooltimes.net .I was appalled but not surprised when he told me that Sonae were blatantly lying to them and making out that every problem at the Kirkby plant had been resolved to the satisfaction of residents and that all in the garden was rosy when it obviously is not. I very quickly informed him (I hope the good people of Kirkby don't mind) that the problems are continuing in Kirkby despite promises to the contrary from Sonae. Promises that they forget as soon as they've passed their lips it seems.
Whilst we wouldn't wish this on anyone it may help everyone to show Sonae that people all over the world suffering at the hands of Sonae are starting to unite and communicate and share information. To be informed can be the one of the most empowering of tools to have in a situation such as this and the more informed people there are the less Sonae will be able to get away with their insidious acts. We need to begin to take back some of the control, little by little and not allow Sonae to get away with murder, to coin a phrase. No doubt they will now retaliate and try the 'Divide and Conquer' bully tactic but by being aware of that we should be able to overcome that by sticking together. It shouldn't matter where in the world us Sonae victims are, only that we stand together. Safety in numbers and all that! Maybe we can all learn from each others experiences and turn the tables on Sonae for a change then at least something positive might come from all the misery they cause us.
So my thanks to Dr Evered for sharing this with you all. Maybe now others will take note too and join us in our quest to make Sonae accountable for their what some may deem to be, me included, criminalistic actions against us and the environment in which we live.
PC