EVEN if it is an inescapable fact that hazardous toxic waste has to be disposed of somewhere, many people will share the concern over East Lancashire being earmarked to take so much of it.

The material that can be dumped in these newly-designated sites can include clinical and medical waste, oil and asbestos. And environmental campaigners claim the hazardous pollutants in the tips can cause birth defects and skin and eye irritation and can be carried into nearby neighbourhoods on the wind and in ground water.

It may be that the new blueprint for disposing of toxic waste entails a tightening-up of existing controls - as new European rules demand an end to the current practice of hazardous substances often being mixed up with household rubbish and dumped in normal landfill sites.

The new system, specifying the sites where toxic waste can only be disposed of in future, is clearly an advance. But can the concentration of so many sites in the densely-populated area of East Lancashire - at tips at Accrington, Darwen, Clitheroe, Deerplay and Hapton - be regarded as an improvement?

It hardly seems fair that our region has been selected to have so many - five out the 200 special landfill sites designated nationwide. But in addition to the question of quota, there is the vital issue of public safety.

The Environment Agency says all the sites have been checked and that the public has no need to worry. But the three East Lancashire MPs today expressing doubts - Ribble Valley's Nigel Evans, Hyndburn's Greg Pope and Janet Anderson, of Rossendale and Darwen - are right to protest about our region being made a dump for the rest of the country.

They are asking Environment Minister Michael Meacher why we have to have so many of these toxic tips. Why indeed? And no matter what their number, the public will also want cast-iron guarantees that each one is completely safe.