Labour seeks dumps study over concern at birth defects

The Labour Party has called for a comprehensive study of dumps in the Republic following concern over birth defects in children born within 2 km of such landfills.

The concern arose after the publication of a study on Thursday in the British Medical Journal which alleged there were small but measurable increases in birth defects, according to research carried out by Imperial College, London.

Yesterday the Labour Party spokesman, Mr Eamon Gilmore, warned that the situation in the Republic might be worse than that in the UK. He said in Britain about 80 per cent of waste was dumped as landfill, while the corresponding figure in the Republic was 90 per cent.

There was no real regulation of what went into dumps in the Republic until the Waste Management Act of 1996. He said dumps which opened before 1996 or dumps which were now closed might be a health hazard. In many cases, housing estates had been built close to the boundaries of such dumps.

The Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, has announced a new study of thermal treatment and dumps, but Mr Gilmore claims it is confined to an evaluation of the already recorded impacts on health and the environment, rather than new research. The Labour Party has now called for a comprehensive study of all existing and closed landfill sites.

The Fine Gael spokeswoman on environmental protection, Ms Deirdre Clune, said the results of the Imperial College study were a cause of concern. She called on Mr Dempsey to ensure that the survey was examined by the Health Research Board when examining emissions from waste management facilities.

A spokesman for the Department of Environment said Mr Dempsey had asked the Health Research Bureau to look at all available data, "and that will of course include the Imperial College report". The results of the survey are expected early next year.