A DISUSED landfill site in Much Hadham has been branded a 'toxic timebomb' by Friends of the Earth campaigners.

The conservation group has placed Hadham Towers on a list of 400 tips nationwide as it fears they may cause birth defects in babies.

Its refuse register was compiled following a report in medical journal The Lancet, which revealed that mothers living within 3kms of hazardous waste landfill sites are one third more likely to give birth to babies with health problems.

Stort Valley Friends of the Earth members and residents are demanding health checks on the Bourne Lane site, which closed in 1997.

A concerned Joe Mishan, of Stort Valley Friends of the Earth, said: "It is shocking that unborn babies are paying such a terrible price for the primitive thinking of the government's so-called waste management policy.

"We still seem to think that if we can't see something it doesn't matter, but if you dump it in the earth it becomes someone else's problem and it's often future generations that suffer."

He branded household waste sites 'toxic timebombs', which emitted noxious gases and contaminated the water supply. Today, the only reminder of the dump is a foul stench from outlet tubes on the grassy site.

Much Hadham resident Margaret Adams, of Station Road, refuses to take her dogs for walks on the former site.

She said: ''I think we ought to be told what is buried underneath and how long it's going to take to make it safe."

Environment Agency spokeswoman Esther Lewis said the Much Hadham site contained domestic waste and a separate storage building which housed toxic chemicals before they were disposed of in a separate site.

The Department of Health is now investigating the health effects of all landfill sites, she added.

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