Staff concerns and problems at a local farm prompted two investigations at a Co Kilkenny factory. Rosita Boland reports
Castlecomer is a small town in north Kilkenny, which for 300 years was best-known for its coal mines. One of the local pubs on the main street still reflects the region's history in its name: the Coal Miner's Inn.
The Deerpark Collier, the area's biggest employer, closed in 1969. But the closure was not as bleak a scenario for the town as it might have been: the previous year, a brick-making factory, Ormonde Brick, had opened on the Athy side of the town. Owned by the building materials company, Cement Roadstone Holdings, it has since become the town's main employer, where 70 people work.
But now the factory is at the centre of investigations by both the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) concerning local fears about health risks for staff at the factory, unexplained problems on a nearby farm and an alleged kiln fire two weeks ago.
On the weekend of March 11th-12th, according to the Kilkenny People, when burners at the factory were being changed from gas to oil, the bricks in the kiln at the time were severely damaged in a surge of intense heat and fire. Concern was raised locally about the possibility of harmful emissions in the air as a result.
It is not the first time that there have been local concerns about the factory. They centre on both the health of the factory workers, several of whom have contracted cancer in recent years, and on the welfare of farm animals in the nearby Coan region. There is disquiet in the area that the alleged incident at the kiln was reported to the EPA not by Ormonde Brick, but by a reporter from the Kilkenny People.
The wife of a worker at Ormonde Brick who was diagnosed with lung cancer in November, and who had worked in the clay factory for more than 20 years tells The Irish Times that he is currently on sick leave. Although a smoker in his youth, he had not smoked in 33 years. She believes his working environment contributed to his illness, and to the illnesses and deaths of other workers there.
"The workforce are fearful," she says. "What I want to know is: is there a connection between the high incidence of cancer in the area and the factory? People are afraid to speak publicly about their concerns because they are afraid of losing their jobs. But who wants to pay out for a pension you might never draw?"
The chairman of Siptu at Ormonde Brick, Tommy Wilson, says: "The HSA are on site at the moment and we will make no statement until we see what the findings of their investigation are." The HSA says its investigations are ongoing.
Dan Brennan has a 170-acre farm with a herd of 200 cattle at Drumgoole, about a mile from the factory. The EPA has confirmed that his farm is in the maximum fallout area from Ormonde Brick. Brennan inherited the farm from his father, and has been working it for 23 years. In the last decade, a period which coincides with the building boom in Ireland, he has had ongoing problems with the health of his livestock.
SITTING IN THE living room at Drumgoole, surrounded with paperwork concerning his farm from Teagasc, the Department of Agriculture, the EPA and his vets, Brennan looks weary.
"Despite my cattle eating Teagasc's recommended daily intake weight, and even above it, they still lose weight," he says. Last year, his cows milked a little over half of what they should have produced. His calves were slaughtered at half the normal weight. And there is an ongoing high mortality rate among his young stock. In an attempt to get to the root of the problem, Department of Agriculture officials have made more than 100 visits to the farm in the past three years.
In a letter to the EPA in August last year, Tom Slevin, one of Brennan's vets wrote: "There are problems with this herd that I have not seen before in over 40 years of practice. The cattle are well-fed, well-managed and well-housed in winter. They continue to look emaciated and the cows produce about 30 per cent of the milk they should produce."
Teagasc wrote to the EPA last year about the farm, stating, "A feature of the animal performance in 2004-05 has been the intermittent nature of weight gain viz a period of reasonable weight gain followed by a period of very low gain." Investigations are ongoing.
"The farm isn't going well, but isn't that obvious?" Brennan says.
In addition, trees are consistently dying within a 40-acre area of the farm. "Something is killing those trees," Brennan says bleakly. In September last year, botanist John Gardiner made an inspection of the farm and wrote a letter to the EPA about his findings, stating: "Hazel, holly and ash trees have suffered extensive die-back on part of the farm. The die-back does not appear to have been caused by any fungal, bacterial or insect pest and is consistent with pollution damage."
Brennan is currently awaiting the findings of an inquiry into his farm led by the Department of Agriculture.
Green Party councillor Mary White, who has been meeting with concerned locals over the last year, says: "Many people in Castlecomer and the surrounding district are very concerned about the high level of cancer in the area. I'm calling on the HSA to conduct a full epidemiological investigation to allay people's fears in this regard."
In relation to the kiln incident, she says she wants the EPA to make public its findings and to state "whether the terms of integrated pollution control licence were breached".
ORMONDE BRICK REFERRED all queries from The Irish Times to its Dublin-based PR company, Drury Communications. It was asked the following questions: Are the HSA and EPA currently on the premises? Was there a fire on March 11th-12th? How has the factory's output increased since 1995? Are employees offered health screening? Is it mandatory or not for employees to wear protective masks?
The company answered none of these questions. It did, however, issue the following statement yesterday. "Ormonde Brick confirms that it changed some of its kiln burners from gas to oil over the weekend of March 11-12. As is required by its integrated pollution control licence, the company sought and received approval for this in writing from the EPA on 23 December 2005. Ormonde Brick adhered at all times to the requirements of its licence during this changeover."