I had to smile when I read that NHS Hounslow (formerly Hounslow PCT) was thinking of suing the Government for the health effects that would follow if a third runway was built at Heathrow.
I smiled because I had been telling them for years that Heathrow was having a bad effect on the health of the borough, always to be told that this was due to smoking, the prevailing wind or the size of the ethnic minority population.
No doubt this development will embarrass one of our MPs, who is now a junior minister of health. Having the NHS in a borough she represents suing the Government on a health matter hardly reflects well on how Ann Keen MP has looked after constituents!
Is it true? Has NHS Hounslow got a case? It is well known that the three big killers are cancer, coronary heart disease and strokes. The last figures I have for these show respiratory disease is by far the biggest killer in Hounslow and even more so in the west area of Hounslow (Standardised Mortality Ratio 144 compared with 125 for the largest of the other causes of death).
It looks like there is something in the air round here that is not good for us!
JOHN C MURPHY Camrose Avenue, Feltham.
