Birth study omits drivers children
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• A health study into the birth defects of babies born to parents near landfill sites will not include those born to waste drivers serving such sites.
The Department of Health has confirmed that research commissioned by it at Imperial College, London will exlude drivers and landfill site workers because this survey is "not an occupational study". Workrelated research would be the responsibility of the Health and Safety Executive, it adds.
The decision will disappoint the Transport & General Workers' Union, which believes site drivers and operatives should be included.
The research follows the publication of a paper in the Lancet medical journal suggesting that babies born within two miles of a toxic waste dump are 33% more likely to be born with birth defects.
The paper's authors say they do not know if toxic waste is the cause.
Three months ago the University of Wales College of Medicine said it was planning to carry out studies to find out if the unusually high number of deformed babies born to residents close to the Nantgwyddon landfill site in the Rhondda is related to the site. There has been an increased incidence of
gastroschisis—where the baby's internal organs are grown outside of its abdomen— since the site opened.