Why won't government Act

We have friends that have been living near a cement factory for over 25 years. This 54 year old plant has tall chimneys which spew out hundreds of tons of contaminated dust into our atmosphere every year.

In September 2006, I read a most interesting and informative article by Peter Montague "The Environment Causes of Cancer" : why we can't prevent cancer" He spoke about increases in cancers, and one possible cause being our industrial environment. The increased exposure to more cancer causing agents such as toluene, xylene, benzene, and PAH's.

This lead to checking the Cockburn Cement LTD "annual Emissions List" these agents were all included. This plant also releases over 34 tons of hydrochloric acid, nearly 2 tons of cyanide, 9.9 tons of sulphuric acid and formaldehyde, plus many other nasties into our atmosphere.

Residents have complained about acrid burning odours and pollution plumes, which travel great distances north and north east of the plant. Why isn't World's Best Practice Technology being used instead of electronic precipitator systems. One new precipitator was installed rather than installing filtration systems, the community were told it was to expensive.

There are residents with heavy metals in their blood, some suffer respiratory problems, others experience red eyes, coughs and of course we have lost friends to cancer.

It's felt that government should demand that industries such as Cockburn Cement use the latest and safest technology, Government must set lower emissions levels. Cost to industry should not be a consideration where people's health is at risk. We have the facts-we need to work harder at prevention of this dreadful disease, cancer.