Askeaton group takes issue with doctor’s findings
Our group, Cappagh Farmers Support Group, takes issue with the contents of this letter as cancer is now rampant in the area of Cappagh/Croagh.
Our members are outraged that Dr Kelleher is continuing to use the national cancer register from 1994-1999 without reference to the up-to-date situation. The view of the people who live in this area is that a four-month lapse is unacceptable not to mind four years as the situation on the ground is changing so fast.
In 1997, Dr Kelleher had discussions with the GPs in the area. He was informed by two of them that they had concerns regarding cancer in young people not alone that, but another doctor later wrote to Dr Kelleher regarding the increase in cancer detected in that particular practice. These doctors saw a problem developing fast, and Dr Kelleher is fully aware that only a few doctors practise in this area.
Why did he not take these doctors' concerns on board and immediately draw up a health study of each family in this area?
Instead he chose the option of using the national cancer registry figures for 1994, which were three years behind the years 1997-98 that he was investigating at a total cost of €1.5 million.
Dr Kelleher failed to mention in his letter to you that the most recent cancer registry report (1999), published at a health board meeting in 2002, showed that the district electoral divisions of Croagh, Pallaskenry, Kilcornan, Ballyallin, Kildimo and Riddlestown (which are all in the vicinity of Askeaton) had cancer rates above the national average. The three doctors were treating patients from these electoral divisions back in 1997. Their worries back then were proven right.
Our group has repeatedly told Dr Kelleher that a problem exists in Croagh.
How then can he say in his letter to you that our members' claims have been repeatedly repudiated by the facts from the National Cancer Registry when, in fact, they support our figures in black and white?
On publication of the EPA report in August 2001 costing €6 million, the Consumer Association of Ireland was so alarmed by its findings they held a press conference in Limerick that November to draw attention to the high rate of cancer.
We quote from their report: "The gravity of the situation for the health and life expectancy of residents in Co Limerick cannot be understated judging by the comparative county-wide deaths from cancer data which is buried in this report."
How right they were.
Early this year a report was published called The Health and Environmental Effects of Landfilling and Incineration of Waste. Its investigators and researchers incIuded the top doctors, professors and medical experts in their fields. They felt it necessary to address the Askeaton investigation and again we quote directly from the report. "This episode (Askeaton) showed clearly the severe lack of capacity for the assessment of human health in relation to environmental exposure in Ireland. This is still a major problem."
A statement by Dr Kelleher carried in the EPA report reads as follows: "The presence of animal health problems is the best indicator of alleged exposure currently available and has been used to define the geographical area of the human health investigation."
Dr Kelleher should reacquaint himself with this statement and may we remind him that three of the six worse affected farms studied in the EPA report were located in the Cappagh/Croagh area. Animals are still dying in this area in large numbers.
In conclusion our group fully stands by our findings which are backed up by knowledge of our area. Two years ago our cancer findings stood at 39 in this small rural community. It now stands at 70 with, sadly, over 50 deaths. That's the reality people face living here.
The Askeaton investigation, which cost over 6 million, was one of the biggest miscarriages of justice ever against a small community by the state. Now the families in this area are paying a high price for it and will continue to do so for many years to come.
Pat Geoghegan,
Boolaglass,
Askeaton,
Co Limerick.
