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Childhood Cancers and the Motorway Effect

The Grim Reaper

No. 18 in a never-ending series. Summer 1997

Greetings dear readers. The Grim Reaper has watched with admiration the skill of the IRA in restoring peace and tranquillity to our city centres and countryside. I have no truck with terrorists who put life and limb at risk, but the Independant Road Anarchists have done just the opposite.

Although our lamentable Tory government (RIP 1979 - 1997) would not wish to admit it, for a short time the IRA made our country a safer more pleasant place to be. In one day they succeeded where years of Tory transport policy singularly failed. They reduced at a stroke the usual daily road carnage to zero. With the roads empty, police cars and ambulances could arrive at emergencies unhindered by congestion. The houses under Spaghetti Junction were able to enjoy fresh air for the first time in many years. The risk of innocent children suffering asthma attacks was temporarily diminished. For the first time ever, people living by motorways awoke to the dawn chorus instead of the row of commuter traffic. Animals and pets were able to roam in safety.

I am sure there will be some amongst you who share the revulsion of our political leaders who branded the IRA's act as vile, dastardly, monstrous and cowardly. The political invective was in freeflow. The Grim Reaper, however, believes otherwise. I have never fought shy of exposing hypocrisy in the highest corridors of power and I will not be cowed by petty-fogging self-interested politicians.

The politicians forthright condemnation may not have been wholly unrelated to the small matter of money. The Freight Transport Association has whinged that the cost to their members of the Independant Road Anarchist's action in diversions, delays, extra fuel and drivers' pay was £1.2 million per hour.

Somewhat surprisingly the Grim Reaper did not hear the politicians raging about an even more startling piece of news released by two eminent researchers from the Department of Health and Epidemiology at Birmingham University. They studied all 22,458 children up to age 15 dying from leukaemia or cancer in Great Britain. As well as being at increased risk living near industrial sites, they found a 35% increase in childhood cancers among families living within 1km of a motorway. This is disastrous news for Bristol, Birmingham, Glasgow, London and many other cities.

But did I miss something? Did you, dear readers, hear any politicians coming to the defence of the thousands of children who will die prematurely so we can all continue to enjoy 24 varieties of yoghurt and Brazillian apples by the lorryload at our out of town superstores with unlimited free parking?

If children were given the full information about the effect of heavy traffic on their health, would they prefer to keep the lorries running at the lowest possible cost, or would they support drastic action similar to that of the Independant Road Anarchists? I think they should be.

I rest my case.

The Grim Reaper