A corporation called WBB Minerals is seeking planning permission to build an immense quarry directly next to my village. The residents are outraged as not only is this going to leave a gigantic blemish in the otherwise peaceful-looking countryside around us, but also poses a serious threat to the villagers' health.

The mineral corporation plan to mine out quartz, or "respirable crystalline silica" from the ground. The mining process for this generates thin dust - that if inhaled can lead to developing cancer. The field immediately to the west of East Winch, designated "MIN 40" is almost twice the size of the village's covered ground itself. WBB Minerals is also planning to build even more quarries in what looks like a huge line down Norfolk and other neighbouring counties. A quarry that villagers were not even alerted about has already begun extraction of what we assume is RCS 400 metres to the north of East Winch, which means villagers could also be exposed to the dust from this quarry as well.

Our research has told us that this dust caused by the extraction process of silica sand is carcinogenic. The corporation plans to send down workers to extract this sand (wearing protective clothing, of course) but doesn't seem to care the village RIGHT NEXT TO THE SITE is completely exposed to the dust - which will blow directly into them. Silicosis has been known to develop in mining workers even if they do wear protective clothing, so it's entirely possible that it could spread to the villagers: who might have to resort to wearing gas masks whenever they expose themselves to the dust.

A spokesman for WBB Minerals has responded by saying there is no risk to residents from inhaling the carcinogenic dust created by the extraction process, and that silica sand is completely harmless when it's under the ground. So why not leave it WHERE IT IS? What's interesting about this claim is that only two surveys investigating it have been taken out - and the first one didn't take any actual exposure (to residents) data into account... and the second one was never published. Hmm.

Furthermore, and even more bizarre, is that WBB have described silica sand as a "mineral of national importance". What, more important than people and their health? Wow.

My dad, chairman of the East Winch Action Group (or EWAG) has set up a blog where you can receive daily updates as to what's happening. UK residents can sign their name on the online petition as well.

He also been on BBC Radio Norfolk and has appeared in the local Lynn News artices relating to the quarry.

"Save East Winch" Blog: http://www.saveeastwinch.blogspot.com/
10 Downing Street petition: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/East-Winch/
EWAG Forum: http://saveeastwinch.freeforums.org/

The full facts are available on my dad's blog. They, and the images, are somewhat disturbing, but downright outrageous.

Please, save East Winch, and I won't die from cancer!

that company is messed up

What is wrong with these people? I wish I could really sign this, but I'm not in the UK


Be nice to me somewhere other than here...

If I were you, I'd get everybody and move the village to some other place. PUSH!!!

Seriously though, if that petition doesn't work, I get the feck outta there!

Villagers! Gather your torches and your pitchforks! We shall riot in the streets against the overlord WBB Minerals, and overthrow their tyrannical rule, or die of the cancerous plague of which we will be given!

When I die, I'm going to hell.

Alright. Seriously. What the fuck?

You have anything the people who aren't citizens of the U.K to help with? Because I really would like to help with this in any way possible. (Within reasonable limits; I'm not flying over there!)

Also, I don't think some people are taking this as seriously as you'd like.

I'd help you, I really would, but I'm a poor bastard.

Really wish I could pitch in.

"Furthermore, and even more bizarre, is that WBB have described silica sand as a "mineral of national importance". What, more important than people and their health?"

That's because people these days don't give a shit about other people, over rare minerals like you said, or oil or whatever. People are common and expendable, that mineral is rare and valuable.

Lovely world we live in.

Fuck, fuck fuck fuck.... MUST. DO. SOMETHING....

Pardon my language. I reeeally want to help you, and not having the means of doing so is an awful feeling. I feel as if I need to repay the loss of my uncle due to cancer, even though it is not my fault...

.... Corporate motherfuckers, hearing about this just gets me started all up. >:E

The big corporate monsters are a bunch of downright cold-hearted bastards who don't give a fuck about people, the planet, nor the fucking nation for that matter, all they give a shit about is the cash. They decide to throw away all the things that are good and beautiful in life, only for this dispensable paper shit called money.

It's things like this that question where humanity is going, and also makes me question the value in living in this world anymore. :\

Why don't they make everything on this planet a fucking mine? Take out all life on this planet while they're at it as well... how about that? Maybe it would be a change for the better, just fucking end it all, nothing left in the world to worry about. Eternal peace at last.

Argh... I swear to god something horrible is going to happen, like another Dirty Thirties/Stock Market Crash, because all these Large Corporations like Irving, Texaco(now dead because of their incompetence), WBB, rely on one resource individually in most cases, either Fossil Fuels, Clear cutting areas of forests, or some form of mineral. Large Corporations fuel the World's economy from the massive amounts of income from these resources.

Problem is, relying on one resource is foolhardy, because what will happen when they run out of that resource? They won't have any business! No Resource, They run out of money, and the Corp. shuts down.(Hello Texaco)

Thus, a major part of the world's economy gets shut down, stopping all traffic in the stock market based on that resource, plus, all products made from that resource are lost. Eg. Gas for cars, for example. If we run out of gas, what the fuck are we gonna power those cars with? There would be hundreds of billions of cars left completely to waste, never to move again. Talk about a lot of scrap metal... and imagine the toxic chemicals left behind as well. (Yikes!)

Pretty much all you hear from the news related to the stock market has to do with the Stocks of certain High-Demand Resources, such as Oil, hell, even Silica... Silica is used every day, like in moisture-proofing shoe packaging and such, so there you have it. (Certainly makes me ask, can't they just fucking use dried rice for that purpose? It does the same shit, just like when you put dried rice inside of a sugar container to keep out moisture and stop it from clumping, hell, it's also renewable.)

I must note, they don't give a shit who or what they harm when trying to gain these resources, or run these businesses. Many towns and cities have been exposed to harmful chemicals, causing poisoning of the water supply, infertility, cancer, death, suffering, destruction of natural beauty, and destruction of entire ecosystems, thanks to their selfishness. See: Erin Brockovich.

People need to smarten the fuck up and switch to SAFE, and RENEWABLE Resources, if we are going to be making investments for the long run...

I also want to say that Food companies need to watch what the fuck they put in their food products, if you ever seen the kind of putrid shit that is put in food, you'd be scarred for life. Even everyday products that we use for cleaning or construction have some pretty scary shit in them, all for the purpose of being cheaper to produce... damn cheap asses. :/

It has gotten to the point that if I hear on the news about a giant factory owned by a large corporation exploding, or getting taken out by natural disaster, and killing many people, It fills me with glee. Gotta love mother nature coming back to kick them in the balls, or seeing them pay for their own treachery right at their own hands. Who gives a fuck anymore about the people who worked in the factories? I mean, if someone was stupid or selfish enough to support/work for these conglomerates, they deserve to be blown to bits. Although, if any of the people had children, I would then feel sorry, I would never wish losing a parent or family member on my worst enemy.

Sorry for the rather hateful, bitter, and maybe somewhat vulgar rant, but I have been in a similar boat before. Amherst, and the surrounding area, where I live, has the Highest rate of cancer in all of Nova Scotia...

And...
...
...
...

...Most of all, Just 4 weeks ago, one of my closest family members, my Uncle Donald Helm, died from cancer. He had cancer in his bowels, but then it spread to his liver then the rest of his body.

What boils me with rage, is he did nothing do deserve it, he was a great outdoors man, he was gentle and kind, was too early for him to die(was in his 60's, while my grandfather is in his 70's and is still alive), and yet he suffered and died a very painful death. He was one of many of my Grandfather's brothers, and I still can't get over how devastated he was when Donald passed away. It hurts to see a grown man cry.

Whoever is reading this, and is a heartless and skeptical enough SOB to not believe me and "Need proof" about my uncle's death, his obituary is all the proof you need: http://www.amherstdaily.com/index.cfm?sid=120494&sc=64

..... ... sometimes, all I can ask is.... Why? just... why?

I am so burnt out.

Really, jimmy, if you can't stop them from building that mine, get the fuck out of there, for the love of god. You'll dearly regret it otherwise.

I've supported you Jimmy. Just before the deadline :P

All I really have to say is greed is what destroyes the world and will lead to it's downfall... I'd like to help though i don't think it'll do much. Though people are for is to feed themselfs with their own greed and begin to want more of it. But yet they say it's "harmless to the people in the village" but if they were to contain the dust within the mine maybe but I'd still say NO because once they are done they don't give a rat's ass about you once they got what money they wanted and leave you there to die.

Companies don't care about the conquences about something they might make because they are making the big money and leaving people that aren't rich to pretty much die from what they didn't begin nor deserve... honestly if i were to get cancer or anything else that might be related to the mining, due to this happening I'd begin trying to get a hold of a nuke and KILL THOSE MOTHER FUCKERS that owned the company and the company buildings that had them mine there to begin with because for one why should that 1 place suffer for what some COLD-HEARTED BITCH did when they do nothing more then sit on their ass and did nothing more then signed papers and tryied saying "oh this can't effect you because it can't effect me" BULLSHIT just because something can't effect you doesn't mean it can't effect me and prove me wrong if the damn dust can't effect me by you mining by doing a simalur test with something that isn't toxic at all and show me that i'm not in any danger from this dust or whatever might harm me, but I'd still say "NO!" why becuase if it's dangerous to begin with then why the FUCK are you missing with the shit to begin with?! do mother nature a favor and the citizens of a town, city, and other places that you might effect and LEAVE THAT SHIT THERE! just because it's valuable to you doesn't mean it HAS to be taken up... becuase then we might have some virus come outta more where that's even worse then HIV/AIDS and kill us all.

PS. to those who on are their asses and making money by just signing a paper to mine, burn etc. resources there's always something bad you're doing, ex. GAS BURNING. COAL BURNING, things like that... just because it makes you money doesn't mean it can't lead to something else happening.

you live in a village?

What's wrong with that?

Yeah, That could be dangerous indeed. It might be an option to move to somehwere else if that mine comes there. Though, you could ask yourself if that's really a good option. It might help, but a lot parts of the world have already so badly been damaged by humans, that it's quite hard to find a place on earth that is totally undamaged by humans. Some time ago, I read in a newspaper that the part of The Netherlands where I live belongs to one of the most worst polluted areas of the world .

Anway, many luck with it .

@WhiteKnight: Thanks a bunch! Every vote counts - glad you got it in before the deadline. (Today was kind of a rotten time to put the thread up, heh.)

@tubers: Villages aren't as primitive as you think. The houses are old and there are a few old people living around, but we don't live in thatched roof cottages, all have farms in our backyards or be extremely technologically-ignorant as most fictional "villages" make themselves out to be. A village is just a domesticated town.

@Hidon: Heh. Erin Brockovich is exactly the kind of role-model we need, and is perhaps a story we should add as additional objection material (comparing WBB Minerals to Pacific Gas is sure to piss them off, but it'll work for sure ). Her story goes to show how any person, no matter how average they may seem (she didn't have a formal education) can bring an industrial giant like Pacific Gas to their knees. Don't get too worked up about this please, it's not really your responsibility to get burnt out over. My dad's just been through a similar experience recently; his dad died last December after a fatal lung condition brought on by, you guessed it, MOTHERFUCKING ASBESTOS. It's a wonder that stuff isn't banned anywhere ever, and as you can probably guess, it's a good motivator for my dad to stop this same thing happening to his kids and to his fellow East Winchers.

@Everyone else: Getting out? I'm sorry, we are not just about to leave while the land directly opposite our village is torn to shreds and carcinogenic dust is blown every which way. We've been filing out objections and gathering as much evidence as we can muster to show these morons that they're treading on dangerous ground here (not literally). If you look at the images on my dad's blog of the actual scale they plan to work at, what they are planning is absolutely outrageous. We may not have a lot of time left before they gain planning permission - if they ever do. I sure as hell hope not.

By the way, they aren't taking any more objections so non-UK residents need not worry about not being able to help anymore - no more signatures are needed on the e-petition.

Uh, this thread is growing increasingly flamerous. Keep a lid on it, guys, though I appreciate your concern.

I can't help sign the petition because it's for citizens of the UK only, otherwise I'd be on it.
That petition says the deadline is 27 March 2009, won't it be too late by then?

You know what, this just makes me mad as heck. AT LEAST NOTIFY THE PEOPLE THAT THEY'RE VILLAGE IS IN DANGER OF A MASSIVE CANCER PLAGUE!!!!!
screw them. MAY THE BE TORTURED IN HELL 100FOLD FOR THIS CRIME!!!!!!
if this petition dosen't work, get an organized group, and protest! Tell those mofo's that you were there first and it is your dirt. GRAB YOUR PICKET SIGNS, CHAINS, AND LARGE ROCKS!!!! go out there with gasmasks anddo some good ol' rioting. I mean, I'm all for a peaceful solution, but if you ask me, it problably won't go down. do they not relize, that in a few years, they will be dead, they're money isn't going to come with them, and they'll just be remembered as the tyrants who wiped out an entire village for their own personal gain. THE FINGER TO THEM ALL! LET THEIR BODIES BE SPAT UPON AS THEY ARE DRAGGED THROUGH THE STREETS!!! AND MAY THEIR SOULS NEVER BE AT PEACE!!!!!!!!
man i wish i could help but i'm sitting here in the US. but i agree with you jimmy, don't leave. sit there wearing gasmasks if you have to. call in the army! GET THE PRIME MINISTER INVOLVED!!!

Just when I thought Economics were at there worst, I was proven wrong. :[

As people have said before greed for money is tearing this world apart. I wouldn't be surprised if they just give people a check in case some one died of cancer, which is sort of something that happened in the US in about the '50s, '60s. Too bad it's for the UK, I'd definitely sign the petition.

Jimbo, you can come move in with me bud. Sorry that I can't be of any actual help though