It’s worth remembering that Thanet has the highest lung cancer rate in Kent. And a specialist cancer ward for specialist cancers such as leukaemias and the like.
And an 11 year early death rate.
11 years.
So in most parts of Kent and UK you’d die at around 80 years of age. But in Thanet you’d die around age 69.
That’s a massive statistical skew for just 100,000 people on a Kent population of 1.3M.
Off the scale.
Those are Third World death rates: Kazakhstan, Bolivia, Iraq - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy
Why is that?
Coal mines probably have something to do with that. Smoking wouldn’t really do it. But throw in an airport and a mercury factory and the most polluted drinking water in South East England and you’ve a toxic cocktail that endangers you. And kills you 11 years earlier.
Throw in removing the air and noise monitors by Infratil and Richard Samuel and Brian White and your councillors for unregulated airport expansion built on the water supply and you have to wonder what has been going on.
Add the former MOD fire safety range setting fire to jumbo jets near the water supply.
It's pretty clear isn't it.
Thanet. Open for pollution business.
And shortening the lives of the people around them.
Even KCC have walked away from the problem now.
But your children and elderly relatives lungs are more fragile, so the genetic effect of drinking polluted water and breathing polluted air, (the figure is a 57% higher chance of asthma and c.28% for other serious breathing difficulties for living near airports - let alone under the low-level flight paths) is a gift to pass on to their children and grand-children.
Our politicians and civil servants aren't loosening the safety standards are they? Of course they are.
Failed. Failed. Failed.
Time for Change.
2 comments:
You are right Tim. I would, however, like to add that the causative chain for asthma may be a bit more complex.
East Germany when in Soviet bloc was one of the most polluted places but had low asthma rates (high rates of other lung problems)
The West has a market driven health service. For decades it has been practice to treat all childhood breathing problems "As asthma".
This has been good news for the pharmaceutical industry.
The Russians, Professor Buteyko especially, told us after the Cold War that the cause of the asthma epidemic in the West is the use of asthma drugs to treat non asthma childhood respiratory problems.
The Russians argue that the asthma drugs themselves cause the child to become asthmatic.
Hence we should be aware that the cause and effect chain may start with the pollution you rightly highlight, the poor environment then causes lung problems which attract inappropriate treatment and thus creates asthma in addition to the original pollution or infection triggered lung disorder.
Fair point Richard.
Removing noise and air monitors and covering it up is worthy of the Stasi.
I never thought I'd see it in this country or in Kent.
A shade away form padlocking fire exits.
Apparanetly though fudging the data/monitors etc also goes on at Heathrow etc.
Ass we've seen at TDC to read their owen repiorts you'd think the place was one of the UK's best ruyn areas rather than abysmal.
Still, if councillors or the public don't exercise proper scrutiny it is a bean-feast for monopoly services.
I think the Civil Service/NHS allow a nominal "life cost" of £30,000 per citizen.
As much for allocating funding though rather than necessarily switching the life support machines off or denying drug treatments.
Some civil servants could interpret it that way though.
Budgets to balance. Careers to be made. Problems to gloss over.
Post a Comment