Cockenzie’s cost
Those who are currently waxing sentimental about the demise of Cockenzie Power Station would do well to temper their nostalgia with consideration of the heavy cost extracted by that plant in human lives.
I speak not only of the men who were killed during its construction, but also of the even greater number who suffered grave injury from exposure to asbestos during its operation, at a time when the dangers presented by that material were either unknown or suppressed.
Scrutiny of local medical practice records would, I have little doubt, reveal a legacy of respiratory injury every bit as grave as that left by the coal industry among its employees.
It is, alas, with some authority that I draw attention to such matters.
Perhaps the whole issue of asbestos-related injury would be worthy of a full-scale government investigation.
James Anderson
Garvald
Haddington, East Lothian