Rail staff sold toxic sleepers to market

A FULL public inquiry has been called for into how staff at Irish Rail managed illegally to sell toxic railway sleepers into the domestic garden market.

The sleepers were sold by some rail staff carrying out renovation work at a former rail depot in Dublin. During 2006, a truck transporting the sleepers, which contain chemicals scientifically linked to skin cancer, was stopped by gardaí and it was discovered that the sale of sleepers by staff “was a continual and ongoing event”.

Labour TD Joe Costello said the illegal sale of sleepers was extremely serious, considering the use of sleepers in domestic gardens has been banned by the EU due to the link between materials they contain and cancer.