A COMPANY which made shock claims that BSE infected cattle were being incinerated in Bolton has admitted it made a mistake.

Engineers carrying out research for drilling company Worldrill claim in the respected journal "Professional Engineering" that emissions from incinerators can spread the human form CJD brain disease through the air.

They state that 17 incinerators around the country, including one in Bolton, are burning infected cattle remains.

But after being contacted by the BEN Worldrill's UK boss, John North admitted they had made a mistake.

He said it was an incinerator in Stockport they should have mentioned, not Bolton. The initial claims puzzled both Dennis Watson of Bolton's Friends of the Earth and Steve Maslivec, Bolton Council's environmental protection manager. They were not aware of cattle being incinerated in Bolton.

Worldrill, which plans to burn cattle remains at high temperature and high pressure underground, claims all the new cases of Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease in humans since 1995 are among people living within a 80km (50 mile) range of large incinerators burning cattle.

Mr North later admitted that cattle waste was being burned in Stockport, and not Bolton, but the town is still within the 80kms "danger" range highlighted by Worldrill.

Mr Maslivec was pleased that Worldrill had admitted its mistake but said the company would need to produce more evidence before he could comment on claims about emissions and whether they could travel as far as Bolton.

"Eighty kilometres is quite a distance and every incinerator in the country probably has a dense population in that area," he said.

"I would like to see more information and evidence before I made a judgement."

Mr North has written to Prime Minister Tony Blair warning that there is a potential threat. He said: "We now believe that incinerating infected cattle causes gases which permeate the natural atmosphere."

Euro MPs are due to discuss the claims later this week.

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