The Irish Human Rights Commission has joined in the “debate� on the proposals of the Minister for Justice Equality and Law Reform (the Tanaiste) as set out in the Criminal Justice Bill 2007.

They got their contribution in just in time. The Minister is rushing it through the Dail, presumably to ensure its passing before the calling of the General Election in which the Government of which he is a significant part will be going before the electorate in the hope of a return to office.

See HERE
and HEREand HEREand HERE
for this writer’s contribution and HERE
for that of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties.

The Irish Times has carried a claim that the Cryptosporidiosis outbreak in Galway has been ascertained to have arisen from human faecal sources and not animal faecal sources as had been generally implied by the Galway local authorities.

The Irish Farmers Association has issued the following statement:
“3/28/2007

IFA SEEK AN APOLOGY FROM GALWAY COUNTY COUNCIL

IFA Galway County Chairman Barry Donnelly has demanded that Galway County Council apologise for wrongly blaming farmers for the current water crisis affecting the area. It has emerged through reports that the water has been polluted by human sewerage rather than animal waste, causing it to be unfit for human consumption.

Mr Donnelly said “it was totally unfair for the finger of blame to be pointed at farmers. Galway County Council should have carried out a complete and thorough examination to discover the real cause of the water contamination, before making a scapegoat of the farming community.�

“It is now necessary that Galway County Council issue an immediate apology to farmers in the area.â€?”

Hmm… The management of human sewage is also the responsibility of the local authorities.

See HERE and HERE for earlier posts.

Galway City was due a new water treatment plant. The Minister for the Environment, whose job it is to make provision for such facilities, claims he provided the necessary finance in 2002 for the purpose. He claims the Galway local authority, failed to draw down the money and the Mayor is not fit to hold his job (the Mayor’s, not the Minister’s), on the grounds that the Mayor did not know of the Minister’s fund for the plant.

The Minister’s department seems to have been less than forthright in the information it issued to the press on the obligations of local authorities relating to public drinking water. See HERE.

Oddly, nobody in the political world has addressed the fact of the, apparently absolute, legal duty of the sanitary authority (the local authority) to ensure the public drinking water is clean and wholesome.

Breaches of statutory duty normally result in the obligation to pay compensation to the injured persons for whose benefit the duty was created.

The Minister seems to have overlooked earmarking finance to pay that compensation.

For Employers’ duties see HERE

Pressure is experienced most commonly in diving and tunnelling. Commercial diving and tunnelling are very dangerous occupations in themselves without the designed, pressured environment representing a further hazard to the worker.

Tunnelling is also performed under pressure in an enclosed chamber, called a caisson, at the face of the tunnelling. The caisson keeps out underground water.

Divers suffering from “the bends” are the stuff of emergencies in comic books; unfortunately it can happen in real life. Underwater pressure ensures nitrogen from the compressed air is kept in solution in the blood stream. If the pressure is removed too quickly, the nitrogen forms bubbles in the blood and gives the worker cramps or even leads to unconsciousness and death. Apart from pain and incapacity there will be other symptoms such as skin mottling.

Tunnellers can get the bends just like divers. Decompression under proper procedures is required in each case.

In the long term chronic decompression sickness causes bone necrosis. Apart from divers it is estimated that as many as 25% of compressed air workers suffer from bone necrosis. If this occurs in the joints it leads to disablement. About 3% of general compressed air workers and 0.2% of divers are disabled from this cause.

Among tunnellers in Ireland and Britain, a remarkably high number come from Donegal. They select themselves by being recruited by experienced foremen forming a “team” which the employer then hires as a group.

A medical code of practice for work in compressed air has been established, incorporating the Blackpool Decompression Tables. Compressed air workers should have X-rays of joints every two years at least. They should be X-rayed on commencement, in order to have a base for comparison.

In addition to this and other dangers, divers breathing oxygen or a mixture of oxygen and helium may suffer oxygen necrosis below depths of 25 ft. in the case of pure oxygen, and greater than 500 ft. in the case of the mixture. The onset of coma and convulsions can be sudden but is ordinarily preceded by minor feelings of discomfort. The remedy is to immediately surface and breath fresh air.