I HAVE had serious concerns about the clinical waste incinerator at the Royal Bolton Hospital ever since it was built.

Now I read in the Bolton News that the incinerator exploded on Tuesday evening with a loud bang that could be heard a mile and a half away, creating a cloud of thick black smoke high over the hospital site, and with two workers at the plant narrowly avoiding serious injury.

Knowing that clinical incinerators can be responsible for producing large amounts of toxins and pollutants if they are not operated with extreme care under strictly controlled conditions, I was quite surprised when planning permission was originally granted to build the incinerator in the hospital grounds, very close to the large housing estate where I live.

It is a densely populated area of Farnworth. We regularly see black smoke being emitted from the tall chimney at this incinerator, but after several complaints from my family we have been told by the operators that this is normal; all emissions are carefully monitored and dangerous pollutants are carefully filtered out before exhaust gases are released to the atmosphere.

How then was something fed into the incinerator that could cause a large explosion, and what dangerous pollutants were released into the atmosphere when this explosion occurred?

I think the local population of Farnworth and Bolton want some answers about exactly why this explosion occurred and what safeguards will be put into place to stop a similar occurrence in the future.

It was also quite disconcerting to read that workers regularly hear small bangs coming from this incinerator; do the workers check and know what is being fed into this incinerator?

I would also like to know whose responsibility it is to monitor the level of pollutants emitted from this plant, and which organisation regulates and controls this monitoring.

Furthermore, have any medical checks ever been carried out on the operators and local residents living close to this plant to determine the effects of any toxins that may have been released, and if these have had any detrimental effects on the health of these people?

O. S. Bird Leyton Close Farnworth