The unprecedented publicity following the pollution from Saharan dust and European factories might remind us of air quality risks created nearer to home.

The Beddington incinerator will also produce the toxic particulates and other pollutants which brought about last week's rise in hospital admissions and respiratory problems.

In March on the day after Sutton signed the Viridor contract, London's highest achievable pollution level was recorded near the large SELCHP incinerator. Defra's pollution score of 10 compared with a maximum of three to six at other air quality monitors around the city.

The borough of Newham downwind from the incinerator also has the highest mortality rates in London with one of its wards 62 percent worse than the Engand and Wales average, according to Office of National Statistics. Across the borough the average mortality rate is thirty percent worse.

Some blame these health effects on local poverty but other poor parts of the country with less pollution achieve below average death rates. A recent Turkish study showed mortality was more affected by air pollution than poverty.

The plume from the Beddington incinerator might disproportionally affect communities in the Wandle Valley.

This 'bowl' sheltered by local hills will be more inclined to trap polluted air. This would be even more the case during weather 'inversions' when warm upper air traps low lying cooler air. Unfortunately Viridor's air quality assessment compared our local valley geography with the very different flat geography of Gatwick airport, where polluted air would disperse more evenly and clear more quickly.

Sutton Council could learn something from their colleagues in Norfolk where Liberal Democrats and Greens are campaigning against an equally controversial incinerator.

Jim Duffy; Birchwood Ave, Wallington; Sutton Green Party