Dumping of industrial waste - Enviro-crime unit investigate.

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/103956/outrage-as-former-asbestos-site-becomes-unauthorised-waste-dumping-ground

What's an 'Enviro-crime unit' then, is it run by or part of the local council?

Don't know the answer to your question. I suspect it's aligned with the Environmental Agency which is a government run organisation and that it tracks down fly-tipping and other types of disgusting behaviour. TBA site is only any good for land-fill unless millions are spent on it removing the asbestos waste of the last century which I suspect is why some bright spark thought it was almost a safe bet to fly-tip without raising eyebrows. Just goes to show - Big Bro is watching everybody -

Depends what's being dumped I suppose.

Whatever it is it cannot be worse than what is underneath it. Bio-Waste could be a problem but I would guess it's building site and clearance waste. Whoever owns the site should have fenced it off properly and could then have prosecuted for criminal damage which carries a heftier sentence? The site has been a problem for years but there isn't enough money to sort it out due to giving large sums of money to other nations as a priority. Homeless, old people, asbestos ridden land, public toilets, libraries are not important any more -. You really should get your priorities right.

If it's clean, harmless stuff being tipped on top of asbestos-contaminated land that is never going to be cleared, that, in a common sense way is a good thing, thousands more lorry loads of clean rocks and earth would be even better.

However, industrial and demolition waste is quite likely to contain asbestos and other unpleasant ingredients, so who knows what is being tipped? If the press report is right and it's stuff being temporarily stored, it might be as well to note that the most dangerous thing to do with asbestos contaminated land is disturb it.

A council that doesn't know what's going on in it's own back yard isn't much good. Even on a purely financial calculation, they could eventually end up paying out more millions
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/ticking-timebomb-asbestos-compensation-crisis-7832859
by not following procedures. Being 'unaware' can be a thin legal argument.

You are quite right. Ignorance is no defence in law. Although mitigating circumstance can get you off - with a fine.

It's fairly well known that huge numbers of people have died from asbestos. Inhaling a small number of asbestos fibres will definitely kill, though it may take many years. Once inhaled no medicine can remove it. It's a surprising thing about human nature that we are so accepting of death, as long as it's not immediate and visible.

It seems the length of time it takes to kill is vaguely proportional to the amount inhaled. Those who inhale an appreciable amount usually die within about ten to forty years. Traditionally, politicians deny that it's dangerous, as Cyril Smith famously did.

Asbestos is created undergound by volcanic activity and didn't much exist above ground until people started to mine it in the 19th century. Humans were never exposed to it before then, so never evolved immunity to it.

It would probably make sense to treat asbestos with the same sort of regulations and safety procedures as radioactive waste, it's similarly dangerous, and similarly, ignoring it doesn't make it go away.

I think you will find that the authorities already do just that. If you find asbestos within your curtilage you would be well advised not to report it. Otherwise you could end up bankrupt.

Yes, it's a problem one way or the other, and getting worse.

As part of Mesothelioma Day (1 July) The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is raising awareness of the disease and its current research work.

UK has the world’s highest mesothelioma incidence, more than two thousand five hundred people every year, and the number increasing, estimated there will be sixty thousand to seventy-five thousand new cases by 2050. In contrast to many cancers, treatments are limited and outlook for most patients remains bleak.

Mesothelioma cancer mainly affects the lining of the lungs (pleural mesothelioma), although it can also affect the lining of the tummy (peritoneal mesothelioma), heart or testicles.

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/103838/action-mesothelioma-day

Sins of the fathers - albeit through ignorance in the main. It's the price we pay for progress. It's by no means the first and by no means the last.

There are estimated statistics for deaths from industrial pollutants of various kinds. What is more difficult to calculate is the suffering that blights peoples lives as they are dying. Asbestosis has caused enough misery. If Rochdale council, as it appears, aren't entirely on the case, applying vigilance and regulations, something needs doing about it.

It's always a question of who pays -. We know who pays in the first instance - we do. In the second the council or the government or the private company itself which is all going to be coming from 'us' yet again one way or another. Man's folly is paid in spades by man himself.