AS YET another officially-ignored food safety scare - this time involving dirty abattoirs - shames the government, one that was shrouded in secrecy now comes back to haunt East Lancashire.

It comes from the dead BSE-infected cows buried in tips more than six years ago.

Dozens were interred at the Rowley landfill site in Burnley by the county council - amazingly, without the town council being told.

And more may be in the Whinney Hill tip at Altham. We cannot be sure as, at first, the county admitted cow carcasses had been put there, but later said none were.

But in the light of claims in the Commons this week that 6,000 BSE-suspect dead cows, which should have been incinerated, were buried in landfill sites up and down the country - though the Ministry of Agriculture seems not to know where, nor cares to find out - a crucial question arises.

Are these mad cow tombs a health hazard?

Staggeringly, we are told that the danger to public is just not known.

For BSE expert, microbiologist Dr Stephen Dealler claims the Ministry just hasn't bothered to investigate.

Can BSE agents be passed on from these dead cows to people or other animals? Can they get into the water supply?

We demand answers - from the Ministry, from the county council, from the Department of Health.

But given the charges of bungling, misinformation and cover-up that have shadowed the government's handling of the BSE crisis and more recent food scares, we are not sure whether the public would trust answers from any of its ministries - nor one from a county council that went about burying mad cows without telling local people.

The truth should come from an urgent inquiry by independent experts.

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