The Environmental Protection Agency will have to answer questions raised by the latest report on events at Askeaton, writes Dick Ahlstrom,Science Editor
The Irish Farmers' Association has published the latest study into the animal and human illnesses that arose during the early 1990s in the Askeaton area of Co Limerick. Undoubtedly it won't be the last.
The new consultants' report is a critique of the large-scale study published by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in June 2001. It attempts to pick holes in the EPA findings, and raises questions about the EPA approach, a result which the IFA claims vindicates its longstanding view that industrial pollution was the ultimate cause of illness on a number of farms in Askeaton.
The pedigree of the consultancy firm hired by the IFA is not in doubt. IC Consultants Ltd - or ICON - is a campus spin-off from Imperial College London, one of Britain's leading research universities. The author is Prof Brian Alloway, from the department of soil science at the University of Reading.
His specialities include pollution deposited on crops and soils, studies of contaminated lands and micronutrient deficiencies in the human and animal diet. He was ideally placed to examine the EPA report, given that the Republic's environmental watchdog suggested nutritional and husbandry shortcomings, rather than pollution, were the key cause of animal illness and death around Askeaton between 1991 and 1995.
For all that, Prof Alloway's report appears to dent but not to sink the EPA report. He raises a number of valid questions about EPA methodology but does not write off the EPA's findings. Instead, he suggests specific areas left out of the EPA report and urges follow-up studies as a way to ensure safety for Askeaton's residents in the future.
The EPA for its part said it would take some days to assess Prof Alloway's 50-page document.
The key issue pursued by Prof Alloway was whether atmospheric pollution could be shown to be responsible for the illness. There are large industries near Askeaton including two ESB generating stations and the Aughinish Alumina plant.
The "official line" from the EPA, Prof Alloway said in his report, was there were geographical contributions to a general increase in animal health problems. There was no evidence of a common pattern of disease or indications of a specific pollutant.
Prof Alloway argues, however, that there was ample evidence of atmospheric pollutants being deposited near Askeaton.