Investigations into the health impacts of the Launders Lane fires delayed for more than a year.

The handling of the fires on Launders Lane and their impact on the local community in Rainham has been one nightmare after another for residents.

This summer saw an urgent meeting held by the Launders Lane CRISI Group, where they openly expressed their anger at the Council and how they believe they have dragged their feet over the longstanding issues occuring on Launders Lane.

Throughout the last summer months, residents living near the fires have resorted to wearing masks inside their own homes due to breathing problems and parents have not allowed children to play in gardens, due to the poor air quality.

Now, a health investigation into the possible health risks caused by these fires to the community, has also been delayed for a year.

Local democracy reporter Josh Mellor writes:

Investigations into the health impacts of fires from an illegal dump in East London have been delayed for more than a year due to “GDPR concerns” at the NHS.

Some residents fear that fires from a towering unregulated waste site, known as Arnolds Field, in Launder’s Lane, Rainham are causing sore throats, nosebleeds and more serious respiratory illnesses.

But investigations launched by Havering Council last summer, after the number of fires increased dramatically, are yet to confirm whether increased pollution is affecting local residents’ health.

Luke Squires, public health practitioner at the council, told a health meeting today (25th October) that the council has already set up a number of air quality monitors but has had “difficulty” accessing local health data, which has only recently been released.

When contacted for comment by the Local Democracy Reporting Service earlier this month, a spokesperson for NHS North East London said “privacy and confidentiality considerations” have caused the year-long delay.

This is reportedly because patient-level data is held by local GP practices, and a “detailed data impact assessment” had to be carried out to avoid accidentally identifying individual patients.

NHS North East London’s spokesperson said: “While this has meant the process has taken longer than expected, we remain fully committed to supporting the council to complete the health assessment and we are working to prepare the data for transfer as soon as possible.

“Alongside this, we are considering if any additional data we hold might also be helpful to the council.”

Havering Council is in the process of drafting a health risk assessment, an evidence-based document that will attempt to set out what the risks of fires on the site are to the public.

The assessment could also be used to take legal action against the site’s current or former owners.

While waiting for local health data, the council has also installed a number of air quality monitors to measure pollutants that could be from the landfill and more common particulates such as PM2.5 and nitrogen dioxide.

Early analyses have shown that particulate levels are high during the fires but that this is “short lived” and does not exceed legal limits, Squires said.

To read the Havering Council public health team’s presentation and watch a video of the meeting visit: https://democracy.havering.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=374&MId=7639

Support Local Journalism
We at The Havering Daily appreciate your support of quality journalism. Your generous donation, no matter the size, allows us to continue bringing unbiased and informative news to the community. Your contribution helps us maintain our independence and allows us to continue providing high-quality journalism. Thank you for valuing the work we do and for supporting our mission

Thank you

Stay up to date with all of our latest updates and content by following us on our social media accounts!

We have created community pages where we will share our up-to-date stories happening in the area. Add the area closest to where you live.