I have received a reply from The Food Standards Agency regarding the following open letter post.
I don’t really believe it answers my question as to why Jo Payne of the AHVLA did not communicate that white phosphorus systemic exposure had been demonstrated in a bird- on this occassion a canada goose- a predominantly grazing feeder.
“CHaIRS role is as a forum for sharing information in relation to chemical contamination incidents with the objective of improving communication and facilitating risk management.”
With this in mind not reporting this appears to negate the role and purpose of the group.
As far as the HPA study refered to in this letter, we will be looking more closely in the holes in this report in the coming weeks. This report was not an appraisal or promotion of how well Rhodia maintained this site, or the events which led to the report including the proven white phosphorus exposure and poisoning of wildfowl on Rattlechain lagoon. It was a paid for “get out” study for a chemical company exposed by public scrutiny of its practices. It is their choice that they failed to deflect this issue by rebuttle which went on for over a decade when they knew all along what the issue was. The fact that they described the waste as “safe” now only makes their subsequent claims of site safety less plausible. The missing link for Rhodia/Solvay and their contractors ERM is why it took so long to address this issue with any seriousness, until it presented to them a potential future financial asset. “Protection of wildfowl” is the new catch line, the same birds they allowed to be poisoned between 1999-2012 and for decades before that before we exposed it.
These current works are nothing more than a pitch to sell of this site when their “monitoring” has satisfied the weak regulation that has gone before. Their aim is that people will forget with time. “Play the long game”. The same way in that many people who live on the Temple way estate now were not those who were living there in the 1990’s- they moved away with the lull in operations that were occuring on the adjacent dirt mound that regularly produced complaints to Sandwell council concerning dust over their homes.
Any housing developments on, near to or adjacent to this toxic lake will be vociferously opposed by us at every stage in the future- be in no doubt- there will be no one who does not know what their potential property is next to and what lies at the bottom of their gardens. Time will not heal rattlechain lagoon, burying the toxic waste is a time bomb ticking.
With regard to the letter, it is astonishing that the FSA do not routinely test wildfowl DNA in chicken products- especially considering the recent horse meat fraud. YES YOU READ IT HERE FIRST FOLKS AND NOT IN THAT PAPER THAT TALKS ABOUT STATINS ALL THE WHILE ON ITS FRONT PAGE.
All I can say is that as someone who deals with lead poisoned birds, birds with various ailments and diseases or potential diseases, birds that swim in toxic lakes and lakes that contain human shit, the thought of these ending up in some dodgy foreign restaurant makes me glad that I don’t have any taste for eating such “chicken”. Isn’t this exactly the type of issue that CHaIRS should be investigating- forgetting for a minute the potentially white phosphorus poisoned farm animals near MOD land, or the potentially poisoned fish or marine life exposed by naval flares?
If the regulator can’t confirm what bird’s on yer plate, God help you chicken stuffers when bird flu gets here. But don’t forget, it will be the farmer that gets compensated, not the consumer. BON APETITE RHODIA- FANCY A “CHICKEN CURRY” IN OLDBURY?
