Pollution may be linked to animal deaths

INDUSTRIAL pollution may have been partly responsible for hundreds of unexplained animal deaths in Limerick, according to a report commissioned by the IFA.

The study was also heavily critical of a €5.3m report by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which failed to identify the cause of deaths among farm animals in Askeaton.

Hundreds of animals have died mysteriously in Askeaton over the last 13 years. Health Minister Micheál Martin has refused to launch an inquiry into how vital pathology samples were mislaid by the Mid-Western Health Board. Local families claim the blood samples could have provided vital clues as to the cause of the health problems.

In his independent review yesterday, Professor Brian Alloway, of the Imperial College of London Consultants said the suggestion of bad farm practices was over-emphasised by the EPA, while possible pollution problems weren’t fully examined. The EPA report ruled out any connection between industrial pollution and the deaths.

“The role of pollution is not clear, but from the information given in the reports, it has not been conclusively proven that pollution has not played at least a contributory role in the illness syndrome in cattle, horses, sheep and goats in the Askeaton area,” Prof Alloway said.

Other criticism of the report include:

* Equipment used to monitor pollutants may not have been placed in the right positions.

* The failure by the EPA to monitor pollutants like nitrogen dioxide and ozone.

* The high number of deaths among suckler cows was not examined.

* The farm used to study soils and herbage was unsuitable.

The report was commissioned by the IFA following farmers’ anger with the EPA report, published in August 2001.

“There’s scepticism among the farming community in Askeaton at the conclusions arrived at by the EPA, and other agencies, which continued the pattern of placing blame on farmers for the animal and environmental problems,” IFA president John Dillon said. The IFA plans to meet with the EPA in an effort to increase the level of environmental monitoring in the area in a renewed bid to find the reasons for the deaths.

The Department of Agriculture has refused to introduce ongoing animal testing in Askeaton, even though health experts believe this is the most likely way of finding the root cause of the problem. Animals are still falling ill. Four cattle on a farm owned by Liam Somers developed skin lesions in the past two weeks.

Somers and the Askeaton Ballysteen Animal Health Committee welcomed the IFA report, which confirmed some of their worst fears. However, the ABAHC and the Cappagh Farmers Support Group expressed reservations about the EPA carrying out further monitoring in the area.