MD: 'Radioactive' waste left in Benghisa quarry is 'cancerous'

A doctor is claiming that tonnes of construction waste dumped in a quarry in Benghisa, in the south of Malta, could have effects that lead to cancer in human beings.

Dr Etienne Grech was quoted by l-orrizont saying that Benghisa, located at the limits of Birzebbuga, was full of dust generated from the Marsa power station, when the energy installation was coal-fired.

The use of coal was terminated in 1995.

The newspaper said that in 1991, the Marsa power station used 250,000 tonnes of coal, which generated 50,000 tonnes of "dust and radioactive particles" which ended up in Benghisa.

A study conducted in 2005 conducted by Franco Montesin and Josette Camilleri from the University of Malta's faculty of architecture and civil engineering, and Michael Sammut from the pathology department of the Mater Dei hospital, had found dust particles which had "an amount of radioactivity which is also toxic," the newspaper said.

The study was published in the American Journal of Waste Management. Josette Camilleri was recently quoted expressing her concern that dust from power stations was being thrown in the Benghisa quarry.