Finally an Epidemiological Study into the prevalence of Cancers in Gibraltar is announced

I am delighted to hear that the Government of Gibraltar has at long last announced an Epidemiological Study for Gibraltar!

In a press statement yesterday, the Government said "following the conclusion of the international selection process, it has now commissioned an independent scientific study into the prevalence of Cancers in Gibraltar".

Epidemiological Study in Gibraltar

The Government has now awarded a contract, for the study to be conducted, to a team from the National Environmental Research Institute at Aarhus University in Denmark, to begin an Epidemiological Study in Gibraltar.

After an extensive and detailed consultation, selection and tendering process, in which specialists from the Government’s Technical, Environmental and Health departments took part, the tender to carry out the epidemiological study has been awarded to the National Environmental Research Institute, at the University of Aarhus in Denmark.

The Epidemiological Study will investigate the historical and contemporary patterns of cancer in Gibraltar and surrounding areas. It will aim to establish whether or not there is a higher incidence of cancer in Gibraltar and if so, whether Gibraltar is a high-risk community for particular types of cancer and will be scientifically exploring their causes, taking full account of geographical and health hazard exposure to pollutants and contaminants. The study will culminate with the production of a detailed report on the findings, accompanied by appropriate scientific comments.

The National Environmental Research Institute at the University of Aarhus is a renowned institution in this field. It has a track record of reporting at international level to the UN and to the EU. The scientists themselves are of international repute having acted as advisors and project managers for the EU and World Health Organization on several projects involving the study of diseases and their distributions.

The study will commence within a month and is expected to be completed by early next year.

Long Campaign for Study to be Implemented

This news is very welcome to me as I'm sure it is for many others in Gibraltar. I have long campaigned about the urgent requirement of such a study and have actively supported Gibraltar ecologists the Environmental Safety Group (ESG) in their vigorous campaign.

As far back as 2006, I joined the ESG in a Petition for Epidemiological Studies to be carried out in Gibraltar and the Campo de Gibraltar area and set up an online petition to this effect, signatures of which were included in the ESG's offline petition and handed in to Government in May 2007.

In a statement issued this afternoon, the ESG have also welcomed the announcement by Gibraltar's Minister for the Environment, Ernest Britto yesterday.

The ESG has campaigned for several years now for an independent and transparent study to be carried out on populations around the Bay of Gibraltar. The image at the top of this post is from a poster that was produced by them to advertise a demonstration in November 2006, calling on all Governments in the area to implement a Epidemiological Study as a matter of urgency.

In their statement today, ESG spokesperson Janet Howitt said the ESG is "delighted that this important programme will now get underway if only at a local level so far".

"There are serious concerns of higher than average rates of cancer not only in our community but within towns around the Bay so rigorous and expert assessment of these issues as advocated also by public health specialist Professor Joan Benach, is clearly both overdue and necessary.

It is further hoped that such independent studies will also be conducted in the Spanish towns as soon as possible."

The ESG concluded by confirming their commitment to "assist those undertaking the studies as best it can".

PDP Welcome Study Announcement

Gibraltar's Progressive Democratic Party also welcomed the announcement. The PDP’s environment spokesman Dr Gavin Gafan said "this is a step forward in the analysis of how bay activities might impact on our health".

"The results of this might be pivotal in understanding the risks faced by Gibraltar’s population as a result of polluting entities around the bay.

It is also a good platform for analysing other health concerns that can be attributed to pollution in and around the bay of Gibraltar."

Dr Gafan added that the fact that the epidemiological study will be commissioned as an independent study "gives further merit to the results".

"What is also important is that the Government publish the results of the study as soon as it is received so that there can be a full and informed debate about its findings."

A Personal Note

If you are a regular reader of my blog you may at some stage have seen from my profile that I was diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia (CLL) some years ago, shortly after returning to the UK having lived in Gibraltar and the surrounding area for around six years in the late 90's and early 2000's.

While it will always be impossible to say how and why I acquired this cancer that affects the blood and particularly the immune system, my strong suspicion is that I somehow acquired it during my stay in the Gibraltar area.

I personally know many people and I am also aware of others, through friends and family, who have also been diagnosed with CLL and other similar forms of cancers, both in Gibraltar and across the border in the surrounding communities of the Bay and Campo de Gibraltar area.

So, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind, that there is a much higher than normal prevalence of cancers in Gibraltar and the surrounding communities of the Bay of Gibraltar area, as Professor Joan Benach identified in his authoritative study of the area, The Atlas of Mortality.

Let's hope the study will be conducted in depth and that it will pave the way for whatever issues are causing these much higher incidences of cancers that clearly affect the area, are addressed. This is a matter of great urgency as people are dieing from these cancers... to an extent far and way over and above what is normally expected!

I am sorry, that the Mancomunidad de Municipios, the Community of Municipalities of the Campo de Gibraltar (all Spanish) have not joined in participating in this study as was muted some time back. These other communities in Spain also desperately need an Epidemiological Study to be carried out and I very much hope for their sake, that their Government pulls their finger out... very soon!

Hats Off to the ESG

Finally, I would like to congratulate Janet Howitt and ALL at the ESG for their dogged campaign over many years, in pursuit of this objective. They have been formidable and relentless and I thank them for their great efforts on our behalves! Well done ESG... I hope you crack open a bottle or two of a nice bubbly... and thoroughly congratulate yourselves!!

If I was able to... I would come round personally and provide said bottle!

ESG warn there is 'no cohesive plan' on climate change in Gibraltar

Gibraltar ecologist group, the Environmental Safety Group (ESG), warned Gibraltar authorities last week, that they are "heading headlong in the other direction with no cohesive plan" on climate change.

The warning follows the publication of an EIA report, which was referred to by the GBC (Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation) last week, on global carbon consumption figures.

The report suggests that Gibraltar leads the world in having the highest per capita carbon dioxide emissions from the consumption and flaring of fossil fuels.

The EIA (Energy Information Administration) is a US Government agency who provide "policy-neutral data, forecasts, and analyses to promote sound policy making, efficient markets, and public understanding regarding energy and its interaction with the economy and the environment".

Commenting on these somewhat alarming statistics, Gibraltar's ESG, said that these figures are in fact "misleading".

In a statement, the ESG explained that these figures are likely to be linked with the vast amount of fuel sold locally for export to the many Spanish (and other nationals living in the Costa del Sol) who visit Gibraltar daily to purchase the much cheaper fuel available in Gibraltar.

The EIA report statistics, the ESG also pointed out, include the bunkering services that Gibraltar's port offers to international shipping.

The EIA statistics apportion Gibraltar's small population size with this reported high 'energy' consumption, by way of handling, to a per capita level of 160 metric tons, far outreaching any other country in the world.

The ESG parallel this distortion of the figures to Luxembourg, who are also affected in a similar way.

An ESG spokesperson said:

"Including the amount of fuel sold to non-native residents in these calculations would also explain the distorted carbon dioxide emissions per capita in Luxembourg.

Like in Gibraltar, fuel is less expensive than in neighbouring countries, which explains why Luxembourg has 26,3 per capita while the average German, Belgian or Frenchman 'only' produces 10.4, 14.2, 6.6 per capita carbon dioxide metric tons per year." 

The ESG however, note cautiously, that while Gibraltar "may not be emitting such high carbon dioxide levels locally", it nevertheless, still "carries a responsibility for the impact this will have elsewhere and on climate change".

The ESG add that Gibraltar must realise that fuel economy is "finite with cheap oil in the decline making this an unsustainable industry".

The ESG believes Gibraltar should be developing alternative and sustainable economies which will also "help slow down the worst impacts from global warming".

The ESG statement concluded with a renewed and worrying warning to Gibraltar:

"New statements, issued only this week by Climate Change scientists in Copenhagen, reiterate the need for urgent and collective action on our carbon emissions.

We appear to be heading headlong in the other direction with no cohesive plan for change."

Nuclear submarine collision in Gibraltar... what if?

As you may have heard on the news yesterday, both Britain and France admitted that two of their nuclear powered submarines, HMS Vanguard, armed with Trident nuclear ballistic missiles and Le Triomphant, also armed with strategic nuclear missiles, collided while submerged in the Atlantic earlier this month.

As I took in the news yesterday, I wondered how long it would be, before this event would be connected to the polemics of nuclear submarine visits to Gibraltar and transitting the Bay of Gibraltar area. Well, I didn't have long to wait.

Today, a couple of esteemed colleagues, British expats who write on matters that surround them, (and whatever else takes their fancy... ) in Southern Spain, Andalusia and Gibraltar, over at Tilting at Windmills and JimenaPulse, both made the connection to the issue in blog posts.

I suppose, understandably, they pose the question, "Nuclear submarine collision in Gibraltar - what if?"

While the usual suspects in the area, such as the 'greens', some PSOE politicians and no doubt one or two of the communities' mayors, will get all a'fluster, in their usual way... they just love any opportunity to stir this one up... there really is very little real cause for concern.

The collision, undoubtedly embarassing to both Navies, was from a point of view of nuclear threat, minimal. For starters, these submarines' hulls are designed and built to withstand extremes of pressures. Even a collision at speed would be unlikely to rupture the actual hull. The fact that these submarines enter and leave or transit the whole of the Bay of Gibraltar area at slow navigating speeds, often even being aided by tugs, (at slow speeds) makes the possibility of hull ruptures, never mind damage to reactors, through a collision, completely negligible if not farcical.

As for the nuclear weapons themselves.... the chances of one of these going BANG!... due to a collision, again is nigh on impossible. These weapons have to go through a myriad of sequential steps, before they are properly armed or able to be triggered and ready for launch.... never mind accidentally going off. It's just not physically possible for this to happen accidentally.

I know what you are thinking.... after all... they did also say the Titanic was 'unsinkable' right? But... I think we really need to get real here. Alarming the local communities about risk to life and limb... or their health is ludicrous in this particularly context, in my humble opinion.


There are much more real threats to health to all the communities in the Bay of Gibraltar. I am referring of course, to the very well documented issues of pollution in the Campo de Gibraltar area. Huge, uncontrolled and unacceptable pollution caused by the CEPSA Refinery, Acerinox and other industrial plants along with the endless and again, totally unacceptable levels of benzene, often because of bunkering activities in Gibraltar itself, that are constantly experienced throughout the area!

The Plataforma por el Estudio Epidemiologico (which includes the ESG and Bay Bucket Brigade) have been campaigning on these issues for a very long time. In November 2002, a complaint was lodged with the EU and is still awaiting a substantive response!

These groups have been seriously questioning the legality of pollution and especially benzene levels present in the Campo and Bay areas for decades.

This, to my mind, is far more worthy a cause to complain about... even to raise the alarm about... as a matter of urgency, for the better health of the people and communities of the Bay of Gibraltar and Campo de Gibraltar areas! It's long overdue. For some... it's actually too late... I suspect, yours truly included!