by Adam Powell

A hospital is at the centre of a public health inquiry after families claimed it's incinerator caused 18 people in one street to die of cancer.

Residents believe the furnace emitted carcinogenic gases for 25 years.

The incinerator at the University Hospital, Aintree, Liverpool was used to destroy clinical waste, including medical dressings, syringes and surgical gloves.

It stopped operating five years ago when new legislation demanded higher environmental standards.

Since 1974, at least 18 people in nearby Haven Road, Fazackerly, have died of various forms of cancer, including throat, cervical and lung.

Four of the families have now contacted a solicitor to investigate legal proceedings against the hospital.

The inquiry by environmental health officers and experts from the public health service will focus on the incinerator and the medical records of the deceased.

Last night, Dr Kate Arden, a consultant in public health working for Liverpool Area Health Authority, said: 'There is a five stage process set out by the Committee of Medical Effects of Air Pollution, an advisory body of the Department of Health, for this kind of investigation.

'There are not any quick or easy answers and we might not find a simple solution, but the investigation will focus on the incinerator and the hospital has been told to co-operate fully. I want to be very clear about what went on at the time as will my collegues from Environmental Health.' She said her officers will check with the local cancer registry to compare the local cancer statistics with other areas of the country and the national average.

'That said, one third of all people in the UK die of cancer, and deaths in Liverpool are higher for cancer than the norm,' she said.

The need for an investigation was supported by Dr Vyvyan Howard, an expert in toxico-pathology at Liverpool University, who said: 'I think 18 cases merits investigation and there should be a carefully conducted study looking at all the factors - there are questions to be asked involving the incinerator.'

Haven Road resident, Annie McCulloch, 60, whose husband Billy died of kidney cancer in 1997 aged 57, said yesterday: ' So many people around here have lost husbands, wives and children.

'We need answers. We don't want this to happen somewhere else.'

Non-smoker Robert Wilson died of lung cancer in 1992. His daughter Catherine, who lives in the same house in Haven Road with her 11 year old son, said: 'we were stunned when he got cancer'.

'Now we are sure it had something to do with the incinerator. The fact that it was in a hospital makes it all the more chilling.'

Last night, the University Hospital said in a statement: 'Until it's closure the plant operated fully in line with the requirements of the Environmental Protection Act and met the interim standards set out in the legislation which allowed existing incinerators to operate up to October 1 1995.

'The system was monitored by the city council's environmental health department which was satisfied that the incinerator met the interim standards.  A significant capital investment would have been necessary to meet the new incinerator design standards introduced from October 1 1995 and the hospital trust therefore made alternative arrangements for the disposal of it's clinical waste off-site.'