The March 4 edition of the Gazette mentioned my concern that the burning of tyres and Recycled Liquid Fuels (hazardous waste), by Lafarge's Westbury cement works would adversely affect our children's health.

Tyre burning gives off very fine sooty particles called Particle Matter 2.5 micron (PM 2.5), which is much smaller than soot produced by coal burning. The body has no defence against these fine particles (as it does against the courser coal particles).

When you breathe in they lodge in the deepest regions of the lungs, the alveoli, where oxygen passes into the blood and where they deliver the toxins they carry from the hazardous waste. The effect is lung cancers, heart disease and it has also been linked to asthma and other circulatory diseases.

In 1998, independent advisory Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP) to the Government estimated that between 12,000 to 24,000 deaths were brought forward due to air pollution.

So if the Government knows about the dangers, why not stop it? Since EU legislation stopped landfill, the Government needed another way to get rid of tyre and hazardous waste.

So now it pays Lafarge to burn tyres, four million tyres in Westbury, out of your money. Lafarge also saves money on the cost of buying fuel.

So why do we pay tax on our fuel and they do not? Because it's not a fuel. But it's still hazardous waste? No, if it were hazardous it would have to meet the incineration directive which is much more stringent. So the hazardous waste companies go out of business. There are also far better ways to recycle tyres, pyrolysis being one, which is cleaner and produces oil. But the Government taxes the oil produced. If the consequences for health were not so tragic, it would make a sketch for Yes Minister.

If you want to know more go to www.airwebreathe.0catch.com

Ted Hatala

Devizes