Health fears are intensifying in Co Limerick two years after a €5.3 million report failed to identify a cause of local illnesses, writes Joe Humphreys
Farmer representative groups been have urged to support efforts to establish an independent inquiry into the cause of unexplained illness in humans and animals in north Co Limerick.
The Cappagh Farmers Support Group is seeking around €30,000 from the Irish Farmers' Association and the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association to fund an independent health study of the area.
The group claims there is a higher than normal cancer rate among local families, reporting 31 cases since August 2001, compared to 39 in the previous six years. Fears have also been heightened by what the farmers describe as a new wave of illness among animals, including the discovery of a cancerous growth on a 10-year-old pedigree cow which was due to be put down this weekend.
Mr Pat Geoghegan, spokesman for the group, said the farmers' organisations "should show they are fully behind us and put funding together for an independent health study".
But ICMSA president Mr Pat O'Rourke said responsibility lay in the first instance with the Department of Agriculture's veterinary service, and "whatever they establish should go for a second opinion, perhaps from an international agency".
He said the ICMSA had already given "substantial financial support" to the Cappagh farmers, adding, "I don't think there are the resources, nor the appetite, for another inquiry" following an inconclusive €5.3 million inter-agency investigation which reported two years ago this month.
IFA executive secretary Mr Jim Devlin said the association had already spent up to €40,000 on an independent critique last year of the inter-agency report. Instead of pushing for a fresh inquiry, he said the association was seeking "ongoing monitoring" by the Environmental Protection Agency of possible atmospheric pollution in the area.
"We hope to meet the EPA on the issue in a matter of weeks," he added.
But Mr Geoghegan said there was "no independence" in the official investigatory processes, and this was proven by the inter-agency report, which "hung the farmers out to dry".
"Under no circumstances should we be put back into the lion's den," he said. "We've been eaten before, and we are not going to be eaten again."
The EPA-led inquiry failed to establish what caused an estimated 1,000 animal deaths in the area between Askeaton and Rathkeale since the late 1980s. However, it said the "most likely causes" were related to infection, nutrition and farm management.
Local farmers have been reluctant to report unexplained illnesses in their animals since the report's publication, according to Mr Geoghegan.
The owner of the Friesian which was due to be put down this weekend himself withdrew from the five-year investigation because, he said, "I could see what the end of the report would be. They were going to use it to bury me," said the farmer, who did not wish to be named.
"There are a lot of people around here who are afraid to speak about it because they fear the repercussions," said another local farmer, Mr Billy Maguire.
"It's a dreadful thing for a farmer to see his animals suffer. My complaint is this has gone on for years, millions of euros have been spent, and we still don't know what's causing it," said Mr Maguire, who several years ago moved most of his livestock from the area to another farm in Connemara to get away from perceived environmental pollution.
As for the human effects, Mr Maguire said his face suffered constant "caustic" burns. "I check the wind whenever I step out, and if it's coming from Askeaton, I don't go into the field."
Industries in the Shannon Estuary, to which the finger of blame has been pointed by the farmers, have consistently denied any part in causing pollution.
A spokesman for Aughinish Alumina - one of the biggest manufacturers in the area - said of the latest fears: "If the farmers have a problem they should take the ordinary route of having a veterinary investigation, rather than accusing industry by innuendo."
Aughinish, along with two ESB plants at Moneypoint and Tarbert, account for more than half of sulphur dioxide emissions nationally. However, the EPA-led report gave the industries a clean bill of health, saying environmental pollution and toxic substances were "unlikely causes" of the animal health problems at Cappagh.
In a related move, the Mid-Western Health Board has denied there are abnormal cancer rates in the area. Its director of public health, Dr Kevin Kelleher, who played a central role in the inter-agency inquiry, said recently that cancer rates around Askeaton "are either less than or around the level for Ireland".
But Mr Geoghegan said the health board was operating off National Cancer Registry figures which were "at least four years out of date". He stressed the farmers would continue to demand answers, despite the fact that many people had since gone out of business over the illnesses.
"Our livelihoods and our health have been taken away. But we won't lie down. The truth will come out in the end," he said.