Cement Dust Monitoring Removed

Cllr Colin Bithell in The Leader

Link http://www.leaderlive.co.uk/news/131467/padeswood-cement-firm-under-fire-for-closing-monitoring-station.aspx

Hanson Cement open day today

Would have gone but I'm double booked. Here is the 2008 one. Mark Cox the boss is a very nice man, very approachable. Pity some of our councillors don't get worked up over village safety (speeding cars)  like they do over possible effects of Hanson Cement stack.

In 2008 I asked Mark if he would sponsor a big lump of concrete for traffic calming outside the Penyffordd Post Office to stop traffic hammering through the village. I suggested a big Hanson Cement logo on the middle of it..............

postscript: I notice the smoke out the stack seems rarely to blow to the middle of the village these days. We are supposed to get the most fallout due to prevailing winds.

Mark Isherwood's daughter in the news

Link Walesonline

Questions.
1. Has Penyffordd the most exposure from Hanson Cement ?
2. Has anyone in Penyffordd got or had the same condition as Mark Isherwood's daughter
who lives nr Pontybodkin which is in a  different wind and geographic direction to Penyffordd ?


Link
Follicular Thyroid Cancer
Thyroid Cancer

Castle Cement Probe Starts

Quote " Just 2% of cancers are caused by environmental factors, the rest by life-styles, the meeting was told. "
 
If the above is true are counclillors chasing fairy dust?

On the other hand

"Flintshire council leader Arnold Woolley, who is also a Buckley Town Council, warned many residents were sceptical of the latest investigation.
He said: “For 12 years our serious requests for information have been deferred and delayed.
“We have never been able to get any information that we can relate to our communities."



Link The Daily Post

Team set-up to tackle Flintshire cement plant concerns

Link Daily Post

Andrew Jones, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board’s Executive Director of Public Health, will chair the response team.
He said: “We are taking the views of the local community very seriously and would like to invite local residents to get in touch with us to share their public health concerns about the Hanson Cement works.”

But he refuses to answer an FOIE from Buckley Town Council on respiritory disease.

keyword: John Thornton

Climbing Kiln 4 for beginners

in  The Leader
or by Francesca Elliot in The Flintshire Chronicle

28 Days Later visit Hanson Cement Kiln 4 at Padeswood

Link here ( Kiln 4 photos )

The group involved do what they call urban exploration. This sort of stuff is big in the USA.

 

This is the view from the top of Kiln 4 where they took this photograph. The link has various photos of the inside of Kiln 4 all the way to the top. These groups usually leave some sort of mark and photograph it that proves they have been there. Research is normally done first to weigh up security and worker movements so that they do not get caught on the exploration. A little unfair on Hanson Cement as normally no one would want to break into a kiln.

I found the link by accident when looking at my blog log which shows who looks at the blog. Heidleberg in Germany had done a search on  Hanson Cement Padeswood on which I am fairly high on Google.

Postscript. I was going to ask Mark Cox whether I could go up in the Kiln 4 lift sometime to take a few photos of Penyffordd from the top.............................

Hanson Cement in the news over emissions

Question. How many emissions currently come out of Kiln 4 and how many emissions are created by vehicles on Penyffordd Bypass. What effect does the noise from Penyffordd Bypass have on health. Why haven't the WAG done a noise map of the bypass. South Wales has noise maps for various areas N Wales has none.

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the following key issues concerning human exposure to dioxins and furans emitted from typical, modern MSW incinerators: (1) Are MSW incinerators the major source of PCDD/PCDF input into the environment? (2) Are environmental concentrations around MSW incinerators substantially elevated relative to background levels? And (3) are MSW incinerators the major source of human exposure to PCDDs and PCDFs? Current scientific evidence indicates that (1) combustion sources in general (including steel mills, copper smelting plants, motor vehicles, pulp and paper mills, and MSW incinerators) are major sources of PCDD/PCDF input in the environment; (2) environmental concentrations of PCDDs and PCDFs around operating MSW incinerators are not substantially elevated; and (3) 99% of human exposure to PCDDs and PCDFs is from background contamination, even for individuals living near a modern MSW incinerator.

Links
The Leader 
A Perspective on Dioxin Emissions from Municipal Solid Waste Incinerators

Waste Incinerators

Since we have one ( Hanson Cement) and Flintshire County Council is exploring options to provide one for North Wales use I'd thought I'd do a little FOIE to see who to see who was responsible for proposing Kiln 4 at Flintshire County Council.

CASTLE Cement’s neighbours outline to Mold Crown Court how their quality of life was damaged by factory

CASTLE Cement’s neighbours outlined to Mold Crown Court how their quality of life was damaged.
In statements read to the court Anthony Poultney said he and his family had lived at Penyffordd for 40 years with a clear view of the site. He said: “Since Kiln Four was put into production there have been excessive dust emissions.
“My quality of life has been affected to the point where I have considered moving house.”
Dr Kenneth O’Hara said: “I’ve been reporting noise problems to Castle Cement and to the Environment Agency for nearly two years and the problem is still ongoing.
“The noise can reach a level such that on occasion we have had to move to sleep in another room at the other side of the house.”

Link The Daily Post

The fact is traffic noise off Penyffordd Bypass and traffic in Chester Rd is the main environment irritant NOT Castle Cement dust.

Castle Cement admit fallout charges

In The Daily Post

Castle Cement sentencing adjourned

Link Daily Post

Castle Cement Dust Outage continued

Hanson Cement (nee Castle Cement) have hired valeeters to deal with 100 vehicles with dust issues. One lady in the affected area was heard to say that her car had not had any dust on it. It might have had something to do with the fact she keeps car in a garage..................

Dust outage at Castle Cement

Cllr Colin Bithell on the war path in The Leader. Not sure if they are going to put it on their web pages. Anyway here's my letter. If Cllr Colin Bithell is standing as a county councillor at the next election he needs to get moving on speeding in the village.

Dear Leader

A letter for consideration.

It would be fair to say that Hanson Cement (formerly Castle Cement) have cleaned up their act very considerably with the new kiln in operation. Cement dust on cars has become a thing of the past. They make one small mistake that affects one small part of the village and Cllr Colin Bithell is out of his box like a greyhound out of the traps. It's a pity Cllr Colin Bithell can't get interested in the safety of children and older residents in our village centre. Last local election his literature said he "stood for the families of the village" Why does he continue to ignore our daily rat run on a major route to school?

Colin Hughes

Penyffordd District.

Postscript Link
The Leader
Daily Post

Postscript: Pity no one is interested in speeding through the village. Speeding kills people the dust will not.

BBC article on economic recovery in Penyffordd

In contrast, the most blunt message came from the Castle Cement works near Penyffordd. The manager there can even remember the date when the order book fell off a cliff: 15 March, 2008.

Mark Cox says at first they thought it was a blip but it quickly became apparent something more serious was happening with the downturn in construction. He's predicting another full year of recession.

Penyffordd is fortunate. It's in an area of north east Wales which, together with the M4 corridor, is the country's economic powerhouse. The proximity to the Airbus and Toyota plants and others has provided plenty of opportunities in the past and no doubt will continue to do so in the future.

Link BBC

Environment Agency Newsletter March 2009

Penyffordd drop-in sessions
Two drop-in sessions were held in
Penyffordd Memorial Hall on 30th September
and 1st October 2008.These gave a chance for
people living near the Castle Cement plant to
find out what we were doing and to raise their
concerns with us.People who attended said
they wanted the ability to contact us direct if
there is a pollution incident and also for us to
provide an update on our work in the area at
least once a year.
If there is a pollution incident contact us on our
24 hour incident line 0800 80 70 60 and we will
investigate.

Penyffordd drop-in sessions
An update on Castle Cement

During 2008,odour became a concern for some
people.The temporary nature of this type of
complaint makes it difficult to investigate.We
will continue to work with Castle Cement to
identify all possible causes of odour.We have
also identified other sources of odour nearby
including burning of cables and rubbish and
landspreading.

Complaints about noise and dust were
significantly down in 2008
Numbers of complaints 2007-08
Site audits.
We recently carried out audits of Castle
Cement's management system and their
arrangements for monitoring emissions from the
site. The management system audit was carried
out jointly with the Health &Safety Executive.
We examined how they manage risk,comply
with their permit,how well they monitor
airborne emissions and how to improve
environmental performance.
The control room at Castle Cement
In general the audits showed the site complies
with the permit,has effective systems to control
environmental risks and the people working
there have a positive attitude towards
environmental performance. They also showed
that some management systems need to be
reviewed to make sure they continue to
improve.
Arrangements for monitoring emissions to air
from the permitted release points were generally
satisfactory although some further information
on the calibration of the monitors has been
requested.
We have completed our investigations into the
noise,dust and fire incidents of 2007 and the
file is currently with our legal department.
For more information or if you wish to provide
comments or suggestions relating to the content
of future newsletters please contact Julia Frost
on 01244 894558 or email
julia.frost@environment-agency.wales.gov.uk.
www.environment-agency.gov.uk

Castle Cement to go

They are going to call it Hanson Cement instead. I think Hanson are to run Heidelberg's cement interests in the UK.

Castle Cement photo from Hope Mountain in the fog

Penyffordd Community Council Meeting October 2008

Tonight at 6. 30 pm.
It would appear the council may take a more enlightened view of the speeding in future, a big thank you to Cllr Tom Jones.

Cllr Colin Bithell launches into a tirade with regards my blog and what I have said about GNI Jones the Clerk to the Council. One supposes you read an online diary with your own baggage. Emails or blogs can be taken in various ways as they are one dimensional with no visual or other inputs.
Quote "The whole point of blogging is that people state their thoughts, opinions and observations. They state their likes and dislikes."

The Internet offers better democracy better transparency. My point of view being my own. In fact I like Nigel very much, a character in a world of faces.

Cllr Colin Bithell praised Castle Cement for its efforts to clean up fugitive dust.

Cllr David Williams is to be congratulated on trying to get "access only" signs for the village.
I think we need a regime change in Flintshire Highways.

It would appear there are a few on Corwen Rd who object to the speeding. If they fly past here they must get it too. Also noisy vehicles coming out the Red Lion

Castle Cement Jobs to go?

Jobs could go at Flintshire's Castle Cement due to credit crunch.

Click The Evening Leader