Harlescott incinerator health cover-up scandal in which Shropshire Star has no apparent interest. Why do you suppose that is and is it an appropriate attitude for a newspaper?

Professor Rod Thomson, Director of Public Health at Shropshire County Primary Care Trust, has accepted the "expert" advice from the Health Protection Agency and given the "green light" to Harlescott incinerator in his letter of 8 April 2010 to Malcolm Bell, of Shropshire Council. Click here to read the letter.

Michael Ryan has written to Professor Thomson (click here to read the letter) to ask him to withdraw his letter of 8 April 2010 and also to get the Environment Agency to cancel the IPPC permit that's been wrongly issued to Veolia.

Mr Ryan has also written to Kim Ryley, CEO of Shropshire Council (click here to read the letter), to alert him to failure of the HPA to examine any data around incinerators and also the false advice/opinion on Shropshire Council's website as well as the letter sent to Professor Rod Thomson.

The Shropshire Star has banned Michael Ryan from their letters pages and blogs and that paper seems determined to keep the people of Shropshire in the dark over the link between incinerator emissions and high rates of infant mortality.

Click here to read the letter sent from Michael Ryan to Sarah Jane Smith, Editor of the Shropshire Star.

Here's text of written reply to the "incinerator" Parliamentary Question by Paul Holmes MP (Hansard, 30 November 2009, Column 539W)

Incinerators: Health Hazards

Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what recent assessment his Department has made of the effect on public health of emissions from a functioning incinerator; [302956]

(2) with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for Lewes of 17 September 2007, Official Report, column 2209W, on infant mortality: incineration, what recent assessment his Department has made of the correlation between the presence of a functioning incinerator and the incidence of infant mortality in that area. [302957]

Ann Keen: The Department has made no recent assessments of the effect on public health of emissions from incinerators, or the effects on infant mortality.

The health protection agency (HPA) recently reviewed the latest research on the impact on health of emissions to air from modern municipal waste incinerators and published a statement in September 2009. It concluded that, while it is not possible to rule out adverse health effects completely, any potential damage from modern, well-run and regulated incinerators is likely to be so small that it would be undetectable. The advice is available on the agency's website at:

www.hpa.org.uk/web/HPAweb&;HPAwebStandard/HPAweb_C/1251473372175

The HPA also advised that studies of public health around modern, well managed municipal waste incinerators are not recommended, since any possible health effects are likely to be small.