Mrs Fry’s letter "Research the issue" on the 18th September, demonstrated that I have completely wasted my life researching things from sources I thought I could rely on.

If only I’d known that all I needed to do to get to ‘the truth’ was to merely find what someone in a football crowd thought about something. I'd have been a season-ticket holder from birth.

Mrs Fry's ‘just a little research’ involving a football fan in Sweden attempts to make ‘those fighting tooth and nail against the new waste energy plant on Portland’ look like complete idiots. It's she who is demonstrating an ignorance of the subject. She should apologise.

I urge her to 'Google' ‘the truth about waste incineration’. Here is a brief collection of extracts made by learned scientists.

“Research on various issues relating to incineration shows that far from being a clean and efficient way to manage waste it has a host of direct and indirect negative impacts.

Most of the materials, currently disposed of in incinerators, can be reused, recycled or composted. Incinerators legitimise the generation of waste since more waste is required to keep the incinerator functioning.

Nitrogen oxides (NOx), mercury, dioxins, and ultra-fine particles are some of the pollutants that are released by incineration of discarded materials. These are known to cause cancer, respiratory diseases, and cardiovascular risks. Even small amounts of these highly toxic substances are carcinogenic and add up to the existing air pollution.

Incineration generates volatile organic compounds, nitrous oxides, acid gas, and particulate matters. Adding regulatory standards and controls do not reduce pollution. A recent study revealed how even the so-called state of the art incinerators emit dangerous pollutants far beyond toxic emissions limits.

Waste incineration is the dirtiest and least efficient way to generate electricity. Waste incinerators release 28 times more dioxin than coal, 2.5 times as much carbon dioxide (CO 2), twice as much carbon monoxide, three times as much nitrogen oxides (NOx), 6-14 times as much mercury, nearly 6 times as much lead, and 70% more sulphur dioxides.

About 30% of pollutants still remain as fly ash, bottom ash, boiler ash, slag and wastewater treatment sludge which are deposited in landfills and these toxic pollutants can leach into the groundwater, rivers, and soil.”

Mrs Fry shouldn’t overlook another important fact; ‘where there’s muck, there’s money’. That says it all!

Mike Joslin

Dorchester