Come on, Marlene Mizzi’s brother, put medicine before politics and speak out
The Labour Party is now on a campaign calling the Delimara power station – with which, let us not forget, its star candidate Yana Mintoff has a personal problem despite receiving a million euros in compensation (to be shared with her sister) – a cancer and asthma factory.
Somebody should call Malta’s leading asthma specialist, Joe Cacciottolo, to see what he thinks about these wild, opportunistic statements. There’s just one problem: he’s Marlene Mizzi’s brother. And as their mother told us via Marlene’s promotional video, they are a family of committed Laburisti.
Then there are Stephen Montfort and Martin Balzan, who are working on research into just this. Read a short newspaper report here. Respira
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130115/local/Muscat-s-cancer-claim-for-Delimara-alarmist-.453366
Someone called leading oncologists for their views. They voiced the fact that there’s no data linking cancer to the Delimara power station, and cautiously voiced the opinion that we should have clean air anyway.
Joseph Muscat rubbished the oncologists words. He doesn’t care about numbers, he said.
Well, we knew that already, didn’t we? Konrad Mizzi’s proved that repeatedly over the past week.
And how about asking the Mintoffs for the return of the money they got as compensation once that chimney comes down.
And two oncologists have dismissed Muscat’s cancer claim as alarmist and unfounded:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130115/local/Muscat-s-cancer-claim-for-Delimara-alarmist-.453366
Din il-gennata ta’ power station biex in-nisa Laburisti jkollhom bizzejjed ghan-nail technician.
Illum imorru jaghmlu dwiefer imma la jitla’ l-Labour ma jmorrux izjed ghax ikollhom jibdew jiekluhom dufrejhom.
How is it that people make scientific claims with no references to any scientific studies?
Let’s make this clear: in science personal anecdotes, such as ‘I have had x instances of cancer in my family’ count for nothing – zero.
I know this sounds harsh, but that’s how it is.
What you require is a blind study comparing residents in an area with ‘clean’ air to residents around Marsaxlokk.
Only if the results are statistically significant can one make the claims MLP are making.
Most people forget asthma and cancer have a genetic component, and so in a limited population pool such as Malta it is unsurprising that we have a high incidence of both.
It is also unsurprising that more than one member of a family has a genetic (read hereditary) disease.
Re Marlene Mizzi’s brother – was he not aware in the mid-1980s about the health hazards being posed by the Mintoff’s Marsa power station that worked with coal?
Is he not aware of how, in those Dardir Malta days, medical specialists invited as guests on radio programmes, were warned IN NO UNCERTAIN terms, by the powers that be, that UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES were they to refer to the health hazards caused by the coal during such programmes?
Those were the days when, in spite of the recent awareness of AIDS, disposable needles and gloves were ‘kapricci li jiswew il-flus’.
The then St. Luke’s Superintendent who writes so prolifically on The Times comments board is welcome to deny this.
[Daphne – I imagine you mean Joseph Grech Attard.]
Stephen Montefort won’t be of much help. He’s an avid Labour supporter. I don’t know who Martin Balzan supports.
This research should have been carried out years ago. I can confirm that the air we breathe today is far better than what it used to be a couple of years ago – not that the air we breathe is mountain air, but at least it’s a marked improvement when compared to the stifling pollution we had a few years back.
I’m not just talking about the power stations, but even more importantly the industrial pollution with particular reference to vehicle emissions.
However, as we all know, this came at a cost.
The reality is that if we want to breathe clean air we have got to pay for it, no two ways about it, just look at countries that pursue cheap energy policies like China.