Last week, Warwickshire villagers protested outside St John’s College, following a decision to allow 220 acres of highest grade agricultural land that it owns to be used as a sand and gravel quarry. The protest was covered by two of Oxford University's student newspapers Cherwell and The Oxford Student:
Protesters brandished signs reading "Quarry dust can kill," "Land not sand" and "Quash the quarry" as they stood outside the porters lodge of St John’s College. Primary school children from the area wore air pollution masks and were handing out leaflets to passing students.
A Barford GP told The Oxford Mail that dust clouds that would be created by the quarry would be a "real danger," particularly for the young, the elderly, and people with chest conditions.
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| The Oxford Student |
In that Oxford Mail article, the GP warned:
Dust from the quarry will contain silica, which can be extremely harmful to children, the elderly and those with chest conditions. In the USA and Canada there is legislation governing how near such a quarry can be to residential areas... distances far larger than this quarry will be from the village.
I am especially concerned for the hundreds of children who live nearby, particularly those who attend the nearby primary school and nursery. Over the time of the working of the quarry thousands of children will be affected.
The protestors are right to be concerned. Quarry dust, silica dust, can kill, does kill. The day after the protest, the article Construction must tackle its cancer problem appeared in Construction News:
According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), 40 per cent of occupational cancers in the UK are suffered by those in the construction industry.
For some added perspective, the industry employs around 7 per cent of the working population in the country, yet its people account for close to half of all workplace-related cancers.
Exposure to silica dust, released from cutting or grinding certain types of bricks, tiles and concrete, is the second biggest occupational killer, claiming more than 700 lives every year.
Awareness of the dangers of silica dust has increased, but again, it has come too late for far too many.
