Rowen keeps asbestos pressure up

Rochdale MP Paul Rowen

Rochdale MP Paul Rowen has spoken of his frustration that a report that gives guidance on testing for asbestos has been postponed until the end of this year.

Responding to a question from Mr Rowen, Ian Pearson MP, the Minister for Climate Change and the Environment said: "The Environment Agency expects to have the material ready for publication by the end of 2007, subject to the outcome of current proposals for other improvements to existing technical guidance in the contaminated land field."

Mr Rowen said: "It is over a year since Senior Environment Minister Ben Bradshaw MP spoke of his admiration for Rochdale Council in commissioning the Atkin's Report.  I made the decision to do this and the Government quite rightly acknowledged that has been instrumental on stopping development at the Spodden Valley site .  It is quite obvious that they don't share Rochdale's sense of urgency against developing on contaminated brownfield sites as we were promised that we would receive this last year.  I have now written to David Milliband MP requesting a meeting to discuss why this urgent guidance has been postponed again.  I will bringing along a copy of the Atkins Report to remind the Government that it's high time that they have the same sense of urgency as we have in Rochdale.  I am afraid that in terms of investigating asbestos on contaminated land this country is lacking behind countries like Spain and Austria who use the type of advanced techniques that we should be doing to identify asbestos contamination.  I will continue my campaign to get this issue sorted as soon as possible."

Meanwhile, Mr Rowen has continued his pressure on the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) to recommend that Alimta is freely available on the NHS.  This is an issue that has been ongoing for some time and NICE are reviewing their decision to refuse giving Alimta to help Mesothelioma sufferers.

Mr Rowen said: "This is a cross-party issue which we have been working on in Parliament for some time.  Here in Rochdale, residents in our PCT with Mesthelioma are grateful that Alimta helps them in their last days and freely available to them.  I was recently contacted by residents in Glossop, former workers at Turners who cannot get it where they live.  I am increasingly concerned at the inequalties that this post-code lottery brings - people who have worked all their lives in Rochdale but have moved away simply do not receive it if their PCT ignore the help it offers to sufferers.  I will continue to press for the government to make Alimta, the only drug that can relieve the symptoms of the drug, freely available on the NHS. Thankfully Rochdale PCT does allow the drug for its patients though in this day and age we should not have a post code lottery."

Save Spodden Valley campaign co-ordinator Jason Addy says: “Paul Rowen’s work on these important issues is welcomed. The lack of a legal threshold for asbestos in soil is a huge gap that could be abused by developers of land once used in the production of asbestos materials.

“ The release of significant amounts of asbestos fibres from soil could have devastating health consequences for decades to come yet with the absence of Soil Guidance Values for asbestos contamination, developers can state that their actions are perfectly legal”.

Jason Addy will be meeting with MPs at Westminster Wednesday 16 May at the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Occupational Safety and Health.