News archive

For a quarter of a century the Environment Agency and its expert health advisers have failed to examine ONS data that shows infant death rates rising after incinerators start operating. This report sets out that history, from Alan Dalton's warnings in 2001 to the recent rise in Rugby's infant death rate after the CEMEX cement works switched to waste-derived fuel. It also includes the Environment Agency Chief Executive's May 2025 reply, which did not address the points raised. Click here to read the report.

This report details the varying perinatal mortality rates in Corby around the period of the notorious steelworks “clean-up”. The later data (FOI request of December 2025) showed a smaller perinatal death rate peak during the steelworks, which was surprising and so far unexplained. Click here to read more.

The post- Crossness incinerator rise in Bexley's birth defects was predictive of a corresponding rise of Bexley's infant death rate, which ONS data later showed to have occurred ‐ just like the rise in Bexley's infant death rate after Belvedere incinerator started operating in 2012.Click here to read the report.

Corby Council's Public Health advisers should have notified Corby Council of the significance of the infant mortality spike during the clean up of the steel works. They should have settled the class action brought by Des Collins very quickly and also offered compensation to those parents whose children died as a result of exposure to the pollution. Click here to read the report.

In August 2003, the newly formed Health Protection Agency was aware of health concerns around incinerators and landfill sites and promised to check data. In 2008 a Freedom of Information Act request revealed that no relevant data had been examined. Click here to read more.

The Greater London Authority were alerted to the link between incinerator emissions and infant mortality in November 2006. They have ignored incinerator emissions in their ULEZ calculations despite being reminded that a new incinerator started in 2019 in Beddington Lane. Click here to read the report.

In 2008, Dr Harry Burns, Chief Medical Officer for Scotland, and Dr Robert Maynard of the Health Protection Agency brushed my aside my research showing a link between exposure to incinerator emissions and infant mortality. See the letters they’d received and their dismissive replies. Click here to read the letter to Dr Robert Maynard.

Click here to read the report.

The Greater London Authority email dismissing the link between incinerator emissions and infant mortality in November 2006. Click here to read the GLA email.

In this podcast, Michael Ryan puts the case that after incinerators start operating that infant death rates rise in locations exposed to emissions. He feels well-placed to do so due to personal circumstances and extensive research over the last two decades. Click here for the podcast. Click here to read the transcript of the podcast.

The new UKHR incinerator study explores the correlation between incinerator emissions and elevated infant mortality rates. Published in March 2023, this report is intended to clearly illustrate how living downwind of a waste incinerator and exposure to the emissions results in elevated infant mortality rates. Click here to read the report.

The long-overdue incinerator study is due to be published in 2017 and this report is intended to help those who face the prospect of an incinerator, or who have been exposed to emissions and also politicians who might wonder why their constituents are concerned about health matters that experts have either played down or dismissed. Click here to read the report.

Click here to read Michael Ryan's letter to the Shropshire Star 13 November 2014 .

Click here to read the Shropshire Star article on the 'death of local democracy' titled " 'RIP Democracy' protest over Shrewsbury Incinerator"

The Greater London Authority's map [click here, page 8] shows wards with infant death rates of 9.0 per 1,000 live births and above for period 2002-2008 and this map shows how emissions from Edmonton incinerator cannot be excluded as a causal factor. Click here to learn more

Veolia want an incinerator in Shrewsbury. Look at the pattern of high infant death rates around their Tyseley incinerator - click here to see the map.

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.

Click here to read the submission to the Environment, Food & Rural Affairs Committee Waste Strategy for England 2007

The Health Protection Agency give 'expert' advice to Primary Care Trusts about the health effects of incineration and yet they haven't bothered to examine the rates of illness and premature deaths at electoral ward level around any incinerators. The PCTs accept the Health Protection Agency's worthless advice and make no objections to incinerator proposals on health grounds.

Click here to read how Office for National Statistics (ONS) data at electoral ward level shows a four-fold increase in rates of infant mortality downwind of Ironbridge Power Station compared with upwind for the five year period 2003 - 2007.

Examination of ONS data for years 1998 - 2005 has shown that electoral wards that are downwind of the Ironbridge Power Station had an average infant mortality rate three times that of the upwind wards.

This map illustrates the standardised mortality ratios for deaths of persons aged under 85 years, 1999-2003, in electoral wards around Ironbridge Power Station, Shropshire, UK.

The Shropshire Star Letters page has revealed that the UK's incineration policy is based on fraud and has no consideration for the provable adverse health effects of PM2.5 emissions including the significant reduction in life expectancy.

Jonathan Davies, of Enviros Consulting Ltd is a co-author of DEFRA's report about waste disposal and he has been exposed by the Shropshire Star's letters page. Click here to read letters which are a key part of Incinerators: A Few Home Truths.

Some opponents of waste incineration opt for processes that result in pelletized waste that is then burnt in incinerators or cement kilns resulting in high levels of toxic PM2.5 emissions.

The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health is the professional body of Environmental Health officers in local authorities who have a duty to monitor air quality. They seem unaware of the fact that the PM10s that they monitor are too large to get into the lungs and cause health damage. They should all have had ample opportunity to read this important article during the last 12 months.

Of the 31 Greater London PCTs, Bexley has had the highest rate of birth defects for each of the five years 1998 - 2002 a new report has shown.

The rate of babies recorded [by the Office of National Stastitics] as born with defects in Bexley during 2002 was between 15 and 59 times greater than Islington.

Research has found that one in every sixteen babies born in rural mid Devon in 2002 had at least one defect recorded by the Office of National Statistics [ONS], compared with less than 1 in 630 babies born in London’s Islington during the same year.

Data for every Primary Care Trust in England analysed.

Click here for press release

The Shropshire primary school asthma survey: Spring 2005 was part of a project to further test a known correlation between examination performance and life expectancy.

The survey looked at the numbers of children in Years 3 to 6 together with the numbers of children in those years bringing inhalers to school for asthma.

Childhood asthma rates are an accurate indicator of the general health of a community and primary school asthma surveys were recommended in "Airborne pollutants and acute health effects" [The Lancet, 8 April 1995] as a cheap and effective means of showing the prevalence of industrial PM2.5 pollution.

An explanation of the true reasons behind the alarming increase in obesity in the UK, which prompted press coverage on 26 December 2002 of the parliamentary report by Dr Howard Stoate MP, which stated: "around 10% of children in Britain are obese. Their lives are likely to be shorter than their parents, and they will enjoy fewer years free from chronic illness or disease."

The post-1995 upturn in the adjacent graph shows the lack of effective public health protection in the UK. The true birth defect rate is higher than this due to terminations and miscarriages.

The trend illustrated in this graph will be reflected for incidence of cancer, most solid cancers being delayed 15 years for adults and 5 years for children.

This report examines Office of National Statistics birth defect data and proves a significant decline in the health of the nation.

The US Clean Air Act was unpopular with industry, yet the White House Office of Management and Budget report for Congress showed that reducing harmful industrial PM2.5 emissions saved $193 billion between 1992 and 2002 in reduced hospital visits and fewer days off work [Washington Post, 27 September 2003].

The UK could save £24 billion per annum in NHS costs by following the US clean air strategy. For every £1 spent on reducing PM2.5s there will be a saving of £6 on reduced NHS costs and £4 on reduced Social Security costs as fewer people will be too sick to work [EC's 1999 OKOPOL Report].