Health timebomb over hazardous waste

A new report today highlighted the dangers of toxic waste - and raised fears that thousands of tonnes are being dumped illegally.

And environment chiefs have admitted there is no longer anywhere in London where hazardous substances - which have been linked to leukaemia, tumours and birth defects - can be legally disposed of. Details of the crisis were exposed after an investigation by the Liberal Democrats, who will today highlight the issue at their party conference in Bournemouth.

Lib-Dem MPs have compiled a dossier using information from the Government's Environment Agency. They found British factories and farms produced almost five million tonnes of hazardous

waste in 2002 - the latest year for which data is available. Of that, 458,579 tonnes was produced in London.

New EU environmental laws ban producers from sending the toxic waste to ordinary landfill sites. Instead it was hoped companies would ferry the waste to new tips with special facilities for processing it safely.

But there are only 11 such sites in the UK able to process a total of 1.8 million tonnes of toxic waste - leaving up to three million tonnes with nowhere to go.

And none of the sites is in London.

Experts now fear thousands of tonnes of toxic waste are being dumped illegally. The materials involved are defined by the Environment Agency as explosive, carcinogenic, highly flammable, harmful, infectious, harmful to reproduction or corrosive. Some release toxic gases if they come into contact with water, air or acid.

Lib-Dem environment spokesman Sue Doughty will today warn of a potential health timebomb and call on the Government to make a Commons statement. She said: "There are simply not enough facilities for processing this dangerous

rubbish. We do not know what threat it could be to health.

"This could be devastating, with a huge rise in illegal fly-tipping by cowboy waste contractors. Serious questions must be asked of ministers about where this waste is going."

Although two regions in the UK - the East Midlands and the South West - have spare capacity for processing toxic waste, experts believe many companies will be reluctant to pay for the material to be transported so far.

When the new EU directive on waste was introduced in July, Environment Minister Elliot Morley acknowledged it could raise " shortterm" problems with capacity.

Today the Environment Department confirmed there was no longer anywhere in London for the rubbish to go, and said officials were "monitoring" the situation.

A spokesman insisted there were enough facilities to deal with the waste in the Home Counties, and dismissed fears of a health crisis. "There is currently sufficient landfill capacity to deal with hazardous waste," he said.

"The majority of this has traditionally never been disposed of in London itself, but outside the capital, at facilities in Essex, Buckinghamshire and Kent, depending on the nature of the waste."