Cancer-stricken estate presents petition to HSE

A group of Mornington Heights residents in Trim presented a petition to the Health Service Executive (HSE) on Monday morning calling for a full health assessment to be conducted in the area after what they say is an apparently large number of cancer diagnoses in the estate. The group, accompanied by Cllr Ray Butler, went to the HSE offices in Kells to present the petition, which has been signed by over 600 people. Cllr Butler said the petition is calling on the HSE to carry out a full assessment in the Mornington Heights area after an apparently large number of cancer diagnoses. He said that there is something 'dramatically wrong' in the estate and they 'are determined to the bottom of it'. Kathleen Hackett and a number of other women in the estate who were concerned about high levels of cancer formed a group before Christmas and are calling for investigations to be carried out into the illnesses. Mrs Hackett, who herself is currently undergoing chemotherapy, said that, in the last year, four women had died, three of whom were in their 40s, and another was only 33. She said a teenage boy had also died of cancer in the last few years, one woman receiving treatment is only in her 20s and a toddler was diagnosed with a tumour before Christmas. 'There are a lot of people in the estate who have cancer. It"s frightening that there are so many people. We want to get to the bottom of it,' she said. The group held a protest in their estate last January calling for an inquiry into health in the area. Mrs Hackett said that, since their protest in January, another lady has been diagnosed with cancer. Residents are also planning to have a radon test carried out to see if there is a problem with radon gas in the area and if this could be a factor in the number of illnesses. Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas which originates from the decay of uranium in rocks and soils and can accumulate in houses. After delivering the petition to the HSE offices, the group of residents visited Fine Gael TD Damien English who will contact the Department of the Environment to arrange for a radon test to be carried out. 'We want everything looked into. If there is a reason for the levels of cancer, we want to get it sorted out. There are a lot of other young kids growing up in the area,' added Mrs Hackett. The residents who held the protest in January were also looking for a mast on the green area of Mornington Heights and other masts in the area to be relocated to a site outside the town away from residential areas and schools At the time of the protest, a spokesperson for Chorus NTL, which owns the mast, said there should be no cause for concern regarding emissions from its mast as it is an enclosed system and Chorus NTL is not using it as a radio transmitting aerial. Cllr Butler said it 'baffles' him that this mast is on land owned by Meath County Council but 'that never a penny of rent was paid on it and that no planning permission was ever given'.