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new method of testing pollutant levels from Nottingham's incinerator gave higher than usual readings for chemicals linked to cancer but the Environment Agency insists it is safe. Environment Correspondent SEAN KIRBY reports

The increases discovered during a trial of sampling methods were tiny, but could fuel the debate on whether the site is safe.

The change was recorded after Environment Agency officers spent 12 weeks testing dioxin levels emitted at Eastcroft.

Dioxins, chemical byproducts which have been linked to cancer, are common industrial pollutants. Levels are already monitored at the Nottingham site using an EU approved method.

But the new methods involve taking continuous samples for longer periods of time.

Three systems were used simultaneously to test dioxin emissions on 41 separate occasions.

The regular method found no breaches of the Government limit for dioxins, which is 0.1 nanogrammes (one thousand of a millionth of a gram) in a cubic metre of incinerator emissions.

However, the experimental methods recorded breaches of the limit.

In one sample, one of the new tests produced a result which exceeded the limit, and in another sample both experimental methods recorded breaches.

In the first case, the experimental method measured a dioxin level of 0.25ng per cubic metre - that was 100 times the amount of dioxin measured under the old system.

In the second sample, the experimental systems both recorded levels above the 0.1ng per cubic metre limit, while the EU approved test did not.

But the Environment Agency maintains the results are inconclusive and stressed the new methods were experimental.

The NHS in Nottingham has found no adverse impact on health because of the incinerator.

Tricia Henton, Environment Agency director of environmental protection, said: "These results are inconclusive, and we will be conducting further work to understand more about them and whether they are accurate or not.

"We are talking about levels less than one tenth of a thousandth, of a millionth, of a gram."

The issue of pollutants has been a constant source of debate in relation to Eastcroft.

Vocal opposition to a proposed £50m incinerator expansion has centred on fears that it will harm health.

Last year Eastcroft owner WRG hired Professor Jim Bridges, chairman of the EU scientific advisory committee on emerging and newly identified health risks, to publish a report on the possible effects of expanding the incinerator. His study concluded that it posed no risk to health.

The Government's Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants undertook a study in 1999, when UK dioxin emissions were around five times higher than they are now.

It estimated that of the 24,000 premature deaths caused by all air pollution, less than three of those could be blamed on total emissions from the country's ten municipal waste incinerators.

In a report published this week an NHS team said existing cancer and respiratory rates for those areas closest to the incinerator were no higher than other city areas.

But those opposing the expansion argue that there is no guaranteed safe level for people to absorb dioxin pollutants.

Jon Beresford, a spokesman for Nottingham Against Incineration and Landfill, told a public meeting on Tuesday: "The emissions levels for the incinerator are set at what's economically achievable. There's no such thing as a safe level for emitting something like mercury."

It's expected the planning application for the Eastcroft expansion will go before the city council's planning committee in May or early June.

A WRG spokesman said: "Until and unless the Environment Agency formally adopts a new regime for sampling and monitoring dioxins, WRG will continue to comply with the existing requirements at Eastcroft."