A CEMENT works has been given a clean bill of health by experts.
Public Health Wales has led an 18-month long investigation into the workings of the Hanson Cement factory in Padeswood.
The probe, prompted by concerns from residents, sought to find whether emissions from the factory were affecting people’s health or whether there were any links between the plant and cancer rates in the surrounding area.
As the investigation draws to a close, health experts yesterday concluded that the factory was not impacting on people’s health.
Dr Roland Salmon, consultant epidemiologist for Public Health Wales, said people had nothing to fear from living by the factory.
“We can say that hand on heart now,” he said.
“The environmental and health side of the investigation have come up with a clean bill of health. There is no convincing evidence that Hanson Cement is harming the community’s health.”
In recent months the investigation has looked at the health of factory employees.
Jane Lassey, the Health and Safety Executive’s head of operations in Wales, said: “During this investigation, HSE found no evidence of raised levels of cancers among employees at the site in the past 12 years.”
Ms Lassey said hazardous substances which could be harmful to health, such as asbestos, were present at the site, but the HSE was satisfied with the controls in place to minimise workers’ exposure.
An investigation into company pension records found five employees’ deaths out of 63 in the past 12 years were as a result of cancer, which is lower than you would expect in the general population. It was also revealed that from 2000 to 2010, more than 2,000 complaints were made to Flintshire Council, the Environment Agency and Hanson Cement about the plant.
The majority of complaints related to noise, dust and odour from the plant.
Dr Judy Hart, consultant in communicable disease at Public Health Wales, said about half of the complaints came from a small number of people living close to the factory.
It was found that only 22 per cent of complaints about dust could be attributed to the factory and the majority had come from other sources such as pollen, salt and general dust.
There were breaches of noise levels at night on numerous occasions. Again, however, Dr Hart said these could not be attributed solely to the factory, but could be traffic or a “screeching owl”.
Dr Hart said the noise and dust levels were more of a nuisance to residents than a threat to health.
She said: “The impact of nuisance factors such as dust, odour, smoke and noise are likely to be annoyance-related for some people in the community, impacting upon broader wellbeing and quality of life, rather than physical health.”
A draft report of the findings has now been published with a final report expected in April.
Experts will now consult with members of the public in a bid to gauge their views on the investigation.
Andrew Jones, chair of the investigation team, added that the overall findings from the probe showed that emissions from the cement works were not harmful to health.
He said: “We recommend that communication and engagement is improved between Hanson Cement, public agencies, public bodies and the local community in order to rebuild trust.
“We also recommend that all relevant monitoring and sampling is reviewed by the regulatory agencies.
“Our results show that no more investigations are needed unless new information is found from routine monitoring and surveillance.”
A spokesman for Hanson Cement said: “We are very pleased with how the investigation is progressing and we are looking forward to the final report when it is published.
“We hope it will give local residents the reassurance we are seeking from this process.”
THE total cost of the long-running investigation, which has been funded by the taxpayer, will be revealed with the final report in April.