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Respiratory Disease & Asthma E Petition

Posted: Thu May 10, 2012 4:24 pm
by Sara Campbell
Respiratory disease & Asthma E Petition
To sign the E Petition please click the below link.
http://epetitions.direct.v.uk/petitions/33111

If you have respiratory disease or suffer from asthma, when you move house you have to take into consideration all the factors that affect you. You would make sure you don’t live next to a farm, or a building site, or land that can be built on. However, you cannot make allowances for buildings being upgraded or road-works in an area.

Building companies and road-works companies just want to complete their works without being inconvenienced by people with breathing problems. If that means inconveniencing respiratory disease & asthma sufferers & they have to leave their own property, at their own expense, the companies causing the nuisance are laughing.

Unfortunately nuisance law specifically excludes anything or anybody that are very sensitive, which means that respiratory disease & asthma sufferers are excluded from the only law they could use. This is a very strange situation, that a group of the most vulnerable citizens of the country are singled out, leaving their lives in danger, so that builders and councils etc. do not have to do anything to help respiratory disease & asthma sufferers from the nuisance that is being caused by their works.

The law in the UK is stacked against people with asthma even in their own home.

10% of the UK residents have asthma, 3 people a day die from asthma and there are nearly 80,000 emergency hospital cases of asthma each year. If you add those who suffer from respiratory disease this is lots more. It would be far more cost effective to have respiratory disease & asthma sufferers moved away from danger. Asthma sufferers would rather stay in their home and the works not done. This is not practical, neither is living in conditions that could kill them. The practical solution is for builders and the like to have a small contingency to move the small people who are affected by these works. This will have the benefit of cutting down on hospital admissions, doctors appointments, medication etc. Further it would mean that respiratory disease and asthma sufferers would be free to do productive work, and boost the economy.

We want to change the law so that people in their own homes would have the same legal redress when affected by local external influences, (e.g. building work) as people in the workplace would receive from their employers.

We are inviting people to join us if they would support an e- petition to the UK Government to change the law.

We would like to encourage everyone to spread the word about this group. Feel free to make posts relating to asthma.

Either go on Facebook and search for Asthma E- Petition or use this link:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/370939179591675/

or sign the e petition:-

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/33111

Re: Respiratory Disease & Asthma E Petition

Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2012 9:36 pm
by Swarovski321
The Environmental Protection Act 1990 section 79 states the following matters constitute “statutory nuisances”:

(a)any premises in such a state as to be prejudicial to health or a nuisance;
(b)smoke emitted from premises so as to be prejudicial to health or a nuisance;
(c)fumes or gases emitted from premises so as to be prejudicial to health or a nuisance;
(d)any dust, steam, smell or other effluvia arising on industrial, trade or business premises and being prejudicial to health or a nuisance;
(e)any accumulation or deposit which is prejudicial to health or a nuisance;
(f)any animal kept in such a place or manner as to be prejudicial to health or a nuisance;
fa)any insects emanating from relevant industrial, trade or business premises and being prejudicial to health or a nuisance;
fb)artificial light emitted from premises so as to be prejudicial to health or a nuisance;
(g)noise emitted from premises so as to be prejudicial to health or a nuisance;
(ga)noise that is prejudicial to health or a nuisance and is emitted from or caused by a vehicle, machinery or equipment in a street;
(h)any other matter declared by any enactment to be a statutory nuisance.

There are a numerous exceptions which I will not bore you with on the forum. However, statutory nuisance takes into account what would be classed a nuisance for the average person. So for example, bonfires are being lit every day for a month then action would likely to be taken as this for the average person would be a nuisance. If the bonfire happened once this would not be classed as a statutory nuisance for the average person. Whatever respiratory disease or other illness you might have would not be taken into account.

There is case law which says statutory nuisance must have regard to what most people consider to be reasonable, i.e. the standards of "the Average Reasonable Person". You cannot expect a higher standard because of any undue sensitivity of the complainant e.g. asthma.

If your local environmental health department found there was not a case to answer for statutory nuisance you can still take a private case for statutory nuisance under points a) to h).

If you considered that your asthma was caused by building works or road works you also have the facility available to take your own private action (not criminal action as mentioned previously for statutory nuisance) against the companies involved. So there is already a method of redress. Though you would have prove that they are at fault and you would be responsible for your own legal fees and if your case failed you would be responsible the other parties legal fees.

You may also be covered in certain circumstances under the health and safety at work act 1974 as employers have a duty of care for members of the public. So this is yet another legal method of redress.

If you are a council tenant or renting a property a HHSRS assessment can be undertaken on your property and if category 1 hazards are found and the risk to health is severe the council can move the tenant into temporary accommodation.

If you own your own home you are responsible for it not the council or landlord if you feel that you have to move away from your own home and stay elsewhere that is your choice. Once you decide to do this the law will say there is no statutory nuisance in your case because you are no longer living at the property and therefore not living with whatever you think the nuisance is e.g. dust/bonfire/noise etc.

Also local authorities have mechanisms in place to declare air quality management area where pollution is an issue.

Personally, I cannot see what you are trying to achieve as legislation is already in place to deal with the matters you mention.