Guidance on Health Issues Arising from Contaminated Land
Contamination has the potential to impact health and it is the Council’s responsibility to ensure that where health is being affected, appropriate action is taken.
Just because someone lives on or near to an area of potentially contaminated or contaminated land, does not mean that their health will be affected. The assessment and treatment (or remediation) of contamination is purposely conservative to protect people.
Guideline values, against which levels of contamination are compared, are also very conservative and are based on the most vulnerable individuals being exposed to contamination. There are also parts of the Country were background levels of natural contamination in the environment far exceed values against which levels of contamination are compared.
Generally, contamination will be taken up (or get into someone's body) in the following ways:
- By touching and coming into contact with contamination
- By eating or ingesting contamination
- By breathing in gas, vapours or dust
If you find an area of contamination, you should contact the Council, who will visit to assess the situation. You should avoid contact with the area of contamination and where necessary stay at a safe distance. Businesses should also contact the Council, although they will probably have to get the issue investigated by an environment consultant. See Reporting contamination or pollution to the Council.
If you believe that your health has being affected by contamination you should visit your doctor. You should also contact the Contaminated Land Section using the contact details on the right. The Council has limited expertise in the direct health effects from exposure to contamination but is able to liaise with a specialist national organisation called the Health Protection Agency and its local units, who's responsibility it is to advise on these issues.
Communicating contaminated land issues effectively is difficult because very often there are no signs of health effects to people or the environment and the likelihood of people being significantly effected by contamination will often be small and depend on each persons sensitivity to contamination.
However, because science doesn't have all the answers and because the assessment of contamination is necessarily conservative, the conclusions of assessment and investigation can often seem alarming. In reality, there may be no immediate need to worry about health issues.
The Council is sometimes asked whether potential contamination poses a risk to someone's health. If there is an obvious immediate risk to someone's health, the Council will take action to protect their health. However, were there are no obvious signs of any health effects and depending on how much information there is on the potential source of contamination, it is very often difficult to identify real risks without undertaking a full investigation.
Where contamination associated with an area of land either is, or may be causing harm, the Council must co-ordinate its approach to deal with an issue with other government bodies, public representatives, residents and the media. Where the Council is dealing with a site that you live on or near to, the Contaminated Land Service will inform you of this but will not necessarily be able to offer you detailed advice at that stage. Advice will be provided to you in line with a public liaison strategy. Whenever possible the Council will provide you with all requested information.
As part of the contaminated land strategy, the Council must identify areas of potential contamination and undertake a structured programme of investigations to identify which areas of land need intrusive investigation. The Council's Strategy and guidance for identifying and investigating potential areas of contaminated land in the Borough is available on the Contaminated Land Regime page.
You may wish to undertake research on your property to find out whether contamination issues have been dealt with already or to identify whether contamination may potentially be present. Further guidance on the Environmental Searches and Information is available on this web site.
Page updated: 15 Jun 2010
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