SO AT last, Cemfuel, the controversial fuel based on chemical waste, gets something of a clean bill of health from Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Pollution.

But will this ease the fears of residents in the Ribble Valley worried that its being used to fire the kilns at giant Castle Cement, near Clitheroe, poses a hazard to their health?

Hardly, we think.

For today's meesage from HMIP is not totally unqualified. They say it is unlikely that there will be any unacceptable effects on the human food chain arising from the use of Cemfuel.

That is hardly official confirmation of the Castle Cement's repeated reassurances that Cemfuel poses no threat to health or the environment.

Its value in terms of peace-of-mind is undermined for two other reasons.

The first is that it has been a long time coming - as Cemfuel has been burned at Castle Cement for more than three years while its safety has remained in doubt.

And, furthermore, that situation existed with HMIP's consent, but without, until now, the official confirmation that this fuel is unlikely to be harmful.

Thus, whatever the truth about Cemfuel, this cart-before-the-horse circumstance permitted doubts, worries and controversy to be fuelled - and the conclusion reached today will not be sufficient to damp them down.

Top this up with the admission in the HMIP statement that there is a possibility that plume grounding - the effect of smoke from the cement works' chimney reaching ground-level - is, at times, sufficient to induce minor eye and throat irritations because of sulphur dioxide in the smoke.

People living in the path of the plume, up and down the Ribble Valley, will in response wonder, quite rightly in our view, what else might also be irritated and to what effect.

We just hope the HMIP and Castle Cement are right when they offer us this reassurance today. For if they are not there will be all hell to pay.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.