Ministers reject call for checks on toxic chemicals

THE GOVERNMENT has rejected calls for a monitoring programme to check residents’ exposure to toxic chemicals in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire.

Wakefield MP Mary Creagh, chairwoman of the parliamentary Environmental Audit Committee, accused the Government of having “utterly failed” residents for not implementing a “full health biomonitoring” programme afterwards.

A report from the committee in July backed calls from experts and residents for such a monitoring programme, after concerns over environmental contamination caused by the fire in June 2017.

It also recommended that local people with concerns about dust or residues in their homes should be offered the opportunity to have them tested.

The committee of MPs made the recommendations in its report on toxic chemicals in everyday life, in which it described how residents have reported the emergence of the “Grenfell cough” and health problems including vomiting, coughing up blood, skin complaints and breathing difficulties.

A scientific study also found cancer-causing chemicals in samples taken from balconies within 100m of the tower a month after the blaze and “significant environmental contamination” in the surrounding area, including in oily deposits collected 17 months after the tragedy.

Researchers concluded there was an increased risk of a number of health problems, including cancer and asthma, to those in living in the area.