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People who live in the shadow of steel mills say their houses, cars and washing machines are constantly “covered” with pink dirty dust. Residents of Port Talbot, Wales, said they are also worried about what will happen when they leave to get dirt in their lungs.
“My little boy coughs all the time, especially at night. We had just left Yorkshire for two weeks and he didn’t cough at all there, but when we got home he started coughing again. It must be because of the steel mill,” Mom said. Donna Ruddock of Port Talbot.
Speaking to WalesOnline, she said her family moved into a house on Penrhyn Street, in the shadow of the Tata steel mill, five years ago and it’s been an uphill battle ever since. Week after week, she says, her front door, steps, windows, and window sills are covered in pink dust, and her white caravan, which used to be on the street, is now a charred reddish brown.
Not only is the dust unpleasant to look at, she says, but it can also be difficult and time-consuming to clean up. Moreover, Donna believed that the dust and dirt in the air adversely affected the health of her children, including exacerbating her 5-year-old son’s asthma and causing him to cough frequently.
“Dust is everywhere, all the time. On the car, on the caravan, on my house. There is also black dust on the windowsills. You can’t leave anything on the line – you have to wash it again!” Sai said. “We’ve been here for five years now and nothing has been done to fix the problem,” she says, although Tata says it has spent $2,200 in Port Talbot’s environmental improvement program over the past three years.
“During the summer, we had to empty and refill my son’s paddling pool every day because the dust was everywhere. We couldn’t leave garden furniture outside, it would be covered,” she added. When asked if she had raised the issue with Tata Steel or the local authorities, she stated, “They don’t care!” Tata responded by opening a separate 24/7 community support line.
Donna and her family are certainly not the only ones who say they were affected by the dust falling from the steel mill.
“It’s worse when it’s raining,” said one Penrhyn Street resident. Local resident Mr. Tennant said he has lived on the street for about 30 years and dust has always been a common problem.
“We had a rainstorm recently and there were tons of red dust everywhere – it was on my car,” he said. “And there is no point in white window sills, you will notice that most people around us have darker colors.”
“I used to have a pond in my garden and it [full of dust and debris] sparkled,” he added. “It wasn’t that bad, but then one afternoon I was sitting outside drinking a cup of coffee and I saw the coffee sparkle [from the falling debris and red dust] – then I didn’t want to drink it!”
Another local resident just smiled and pointed to his window sill when we asked if his house had been damaged by red dust or dirt. Commercial Road resident Ryan Sherdel, 29, said the steel mill had “significantly” affected his daily life and said that the falling red dust often felt or smelled “grey”.
“Me and my partner have been here for three and a half years and have had this dust since we moved. I think it’s worse in summer when we notice it more. Cars, windows, gardens,” He says. “I probably paid around £100 for something to protect the car from dust and dirt. I’m sure you could claim [compensation] for that, but it’s a long process!”
“I love being outside during the summer months,” he adds. “But it’s hard to be outside – it’s frustrating and you have to clean your garden furniture every time you want to sit outside. During Covid we are at home so I want to sit in the garden because you can’t go anywhere but everything is all brown!”
Some residents of Wyndham Street, near Commercial Road and Penrhyn Street, said they were also affected by the red dust. Some say they don’t hang clothes on a clothesline to keep red dust out, while resident David Thomas wants Tata Steel to be held responsible for pollution, wondering “What happens to Tata Steel when they create red dust, what? ”
Mr Thomas, 39, said he had to frequently clean the garden and outside windows to keep them from getting dirty. Tata should be fined for the red dust and money given to local residents or deducted from their tax bills, he said.
Stunning photographs taken by Port Talbot resident Jean Dampier show clouds of dust drifting over steel mills, homes and gardens in Port Talbot earlier this summer. Jen, 71, cites the dust cloud then and the red dust that regularly settles on her house now as she struggles with keeping the house and garden clean and, unfortunately, her dog has health problems.
She moved to the area with her granddaughter and their beloved dog last summer and their dog has been coughing ever since. “Dust everywhere! We moved here last July and my dog ​​has been coughing ever since. Coughing, coughing after coughing – red and white dust, ”she said. “Sometimes I can’t sleep at night because I hear loud noises [from the steel mill].”
While Jin is hard at work removing the red dust from the white window sills at the front of her house, she is trying to avoid problems at the back of the house, where the sills and walls are black. “I painted all the garden walls black so you don’t see too much dust, but you can see it when the dust cloud appears!”
Unfortunately, the problem of red dust falling on homes and gardens is not new. Motorists contacted WalesOnline a few months ago to say they spotted a cloud of colored dust moving across the sky. At that time, some residents even said that people and animals were suffering due to health problems. One resident, who declined to be named, said: “We have been trying to contact the Environment Agency [Natural Resources Wales] about the increase in dust. I even submitted the ONS (Office for National Statistics) respiratory disease statistics to the authorities.
“Red dust was pumped out of the steel mills. They did it at night so that it was not visible. Basically, she was on the windowsills of all the houses in the Sandy Fields area, ”he said. “Pets get sick if they lick their paws.”
Back in 2019, a woman said the red dust falling on her house had turned her life into a nightmare. Denise Giles, then 62, said: “It was so frustrating because you couldn’t even open the windows before the entire greenhouse was covered in red dust,” she said. “There is a lot of dust in front of my house, like my winter garden, my garden, it’s very frustrating. My car is always dirty, like other tenants. If you hang your clothes outside, it turns red. Why do we pay for dryers and stuff, especially at this time of year.”
The entity currently holding Tata Steel accountable for its impact on the local environment is the Natural Resources Wales Authority (NRW), as the Welsh Government explains: radioactive fallout management.
WalesOnline asked what NRW is doing to help Tata Steel reduce pollution and what support is available to residents affected by it.
Caroline Drayton, Operations Manager at Natural Resources Wales, said: “As an industry regulator in Wales, it is our job to ensure that they comply with the emission standards set by law to reduce the impact of their activities on the environment and local communities. We continue to regulate Tata Steel through environmental controls to control steel mill emissions, including dust emissions, and seek further environmental improvements.”
“Local residents experiencing any issues with the site may report it to NRW on 03000 65 3000 or online at www.naturalresources.wales/reportit, or contact Tata Steel on 0800 138 6560 or online at www.tatasteeleurope.com/complaint”.
Stephen Kinnock, MP for Aberavon, said: “The Port Talbot steel plant plays a vital role in our economy and our society, but it is equally important that absolutely everything is done to minimize the impact on the environment. I am constantly in touch on behalf of my constituents, with management at work, to make sure that absolutely everything is being done to solve the dust problem.
“In the long term, this problem can only be solved once and for all by switching from blast furnaces to zero-pollution steel production based on electric arc furnaces. changing the transformation of our steel industry.”
A spokesman for Tata Steel said: “We are committed to continuing to invest in our Port Talbot plant to reduce our impact on the climate and the local environment and this remains one of our top priorities.
“Over the past three years, we have spent £22 million on our Port Talbot environmental improvement programme, which includes upgrading dust and fume extraction systems at our raw material operations, blast furnaces and steel mills. We are also investing in improvement in PM10 (particulate matter in the air below a certain size) and dust monitoring systems that allow corrective and preventive action to be taken when we encounter any periods of operational instability such as those we have recently experienced in blast furnaces.
“We value our strong relationship with Natural Resources Wales, which not only ensures that we operate within the legal limits set for our industry, but also ensures that we take swift and decisive action in the event of any incident. We also have an independent 24/7 community support line. wishing local residents can deal with questions individually (0800 138 6560).
“Tata Steel is probably more involved than most companies in the communities in which it operates. As Jamsetji Tata, one of the founders of the company, said: “The community is not just another stakeholder in our business, it is the reason for its existence.” As such, we are very proud to support many local charities, events and initiatives that we hope to reach around 300 students, alumni and interns next year alone. ”
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