BMJ 2001;322:881 ( 14 April )

News

Public health concerns grow over foot and mouth outbreak

Mark Hunter, Leeds
The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Public health concerns are growing across the United Kingdom over the disposal of animals culled in the foot and mouth outbreak. With smoke from nearby pyres drifting daily over many village communities, fears of an increase in respiratory illness have compounded existing anxieties about the risk of decaying carcasses contaminating drinking water supplies and the toxic effects of excessive exposure to disinfectant.

Several health alerts have been reported. In Dumfries and Galloway air quality tests were ordered after Annandale and Eskdale Council for Voluntary Service claimed that bitumen, red diesel, and coal were being used in pyres for slaughtered animals and could cause health problems for the local population.

At Tow Law in County Durham 900 sheep and cattle buried in a disused quarry were dug up again after the Environment Agency warned that polluted material could filter through gravel beds into a spring supplying water to local farms.

A mass . . . [Full text of this article]
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Psychosocial effects of the 2001 UK foot and mouth disease epidemic in a rural population: qualitative diary based study
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Foot-and-mouth disease in humans - perhaps not so rare an event?
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