Locals need answers and support

THE cloud of mystery surrounding unexplained animal deaths and human health problems in a Co Limerick farming community has deepened amid alarming claims that the area is now a cancer hotspot.

Doubtless, it is all too easy to be alarmist when dealing with issues relating to cancer. Nevertheless, the fears of people around Askeaton who believe their lives were radically affected by industrial pollution are easy to understand, as they continue a relentless search for answers to questions which medical and environmental probes have failed to explain.

Despite a three-year, €5 million investigation by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), no conclusive cause has yet been identified for the abnormal problems experienced by both humans and farm animals in this rich agricultural heartland.