An Taisce call on BSE carcasses

AN TAISCE has taken action in Europe in an attempt to get the Government to reclassify BSE material as infectious and hazardous waste.

The environmental lobby group is making a formal complaint to the European Commission. It wants to pressure the Department of Agriculture and Food to be more careful about the way it tracks, transports, stores and treats BSE material.

An Taisce wants the BSE material classified as hazardous waste, which would require it to be treated differently to current treatment.

The Department of Agriculture however, believes it is complying with all the relevant planning and environmental requirements in its handling of 570 BSE-positive carcasses in cold storage in a secure warehouse in Co Tipperary, the only facility of its kind in the country.

It also rejected claims from an Taisce that the department breached environmental laws in disposing of BSE-positive carcasses.

The department stressed the handling of all aspects of BSE fully accords with EU and national legislation, is the subject of ongoing scrutiny by independent bodies such as the EU's Food and Veterinary Office, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland and others, and has been recognised as comprehensive, rigorous and responsible.

But An Taisce said stricter rules must apply. It wants all risk material to be tracked, wherever it is, by requiring the department to have a licence to transport it.

And it wants the Environmental Protection Agency to be informed what counties such material is passing through and precisely where it ends up.

An Taisce boss, Frank Corcoran, said the licence granted to the national storage facility in Co Tipperary is for cold storage, not for hazardous waste facility. "If there was a fire at this facility in Tipperary, the firefighters would simply hose the debris into the environment. It should instead be foamed and removed for incineration. "

An Taisce doesn't want the Government to drag its heels for the six to eight months it may take the commission to make its ruling. And while the Government may argue such material is not hazardous because the minister has not classified it as such, the scientific and legal experts all say it is.

The department said it stopped burial of BSE carcasses in late 2000 in the absence of any suitable incineration facility within the State and such carcasses have since been frozen and stored in a secure, cold store which it owned in Co Tipperary.