Arnolds Field: Health probe into dump fires delayed by privacy laws

Firefighters used ladders to douse a fire on 22 August as the ground was considered too unsafe to enter

Investigations into the health impact of fires from an illegal dump have been delayed for more than a year because of NHS privacy concerns over patient data.

Local residents fear fires from Arnolds Field, in east London, are causing sore throats and respiratory illnesses.

But a risk assessment by Havering Council, which could be used to take legal action against the site's current or former owners, has been delayed.

NHS North East London says "privacy and confidentiality" are causing the delay.

Data protection laws mean patient information has to be strictly managed by health services.

Arnolds Field, a former landfill site in Launder's Lane, Rainham, is filled with about 40,000 cubic metres of unregulated waste sitting the equivalent of two storeys high.

London Fire Brigade previously reported it had responded to more than 70 fire incidents at Arnolds Field between 2018 and 2022.

Havering Council is in the process of drafting a health risk assessment, an evidence-based document that will attempt to set out if the pollution is affecting people's health.

Luke Squires, public health practitioner at Havering Council, told a health meeting on Wednesday that the council had already set up a number of air quality monitors but has had "difficulty" accessing local health data, which has only recently been released.

When contacted for comment earlier this month, a spokesperson for NHS North East London said "privacy and confidentiality considerations" had caused the year-long delay, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

This is reportedly because patient-level data is held by local GP practices, and a "detailed data impact assessment" had to be carried out to avoid accidentally identifying individual patients.

About 70 firefighters tackled a fire at Arnolds Field in 2020

NHS North East London said while the process had "taken longer than expected", it remained "fully committed to supporting the council to complete the health assessment", and was working to prepare the data for transfer as soon as possible.

It is also considering if any other data it holds might also be helpful to the council.

The council's risk assessment could be used to take legal action against the current or former owners of the site.

In May, the site's landowner DMC Essex said it had been negotiating the land's development since buying it in 2017, but that the council was "blocking" its efforts to clean it up.

A planning agent for DMC Essex businessmen Jeremiah O'Donovan and Finbarr McMachon told a residents' meeting that they were offering to process the landfill materials on site and remove "dangerous wastes" such as gas cylinders before covering it with a "restoration layer" of soil.

Havering Council said it could not progress proposals because it had not received full remediation plans.

While waiting for local health data, the council has installed a number of air quality monitors to measure pollutants that could be from the landfill, and more common particulates such as PM2.5 and nitrogen dioxide.

Early analyses have shown that particulate levels are high during the fires but that this is "short lived" and does not exceed legal limits, Mr Squires told the council meeting.