30/01/2012 Inside Out South East

being put at risk in the South East? We've got to make sure that

we're preserving the health of our workers at the airport. Men getting

eating disorders too, but is enough being done? We felt so lonely and

isolated, because we thought we must be the only family in this

world that have got a boy with anorexia. My whole life had to be

directed around the fact that I couldn't put on weight.

building on the green belt - should we be putting up more houses in a

picturesque village in Kent? I've been on the parish council for 30

odd years, I've never seen anything like this. I'm Natalie Graham with

untold stories closer to home. From all around Kent and Sussex, this is

Hello. Tonight I'm in the pretty village of Pendhurst in an area of

outstanding natural beauty. We're back here later. But first, it's

Like it or not, here in the South East we've been earmarked for a

massive airport expansion programme. Whether it's plans for a brand new

airport off the Kent coast, or new runways for either Gatwick or

Heathrow. But with all those aircraft movements, there comes a

cost - pollution. And sometimes lots of it. And that pollution may

be far more dangerous to our health than we could ever have imagined.

Back in 2009, Inside Out investigated a new pollution

problem in Dover. The dangerous emissions were caused by ultra fine

particles. They were being thrown out by ships in the English Channel.

Here's the evidence these tiny particles left behind. This is just

one seafront flat in Dover. Look at that. Three years ago, scientists

could measure ultra fine shipping pollution particles. But when it

came to airports, analysing the pollution accurately in such a fast

moving environment was proving difficult. Difficult, that is,

until now. You see, this little bit of kit here is about to

revolutionise how we measure plane pollution at our airports. This is

Copenhagen Airport in Denmark. It's the Nordic region's biggest airport

and just happens to be pretty much the same size as Gatwick. And for

our purposes, that's perfect. Why? Well, Copenhagen Airport has, for

the last year, been conducting a controversial survey. Normally

airports don't invite journalists in to witness just how bad their

pollution levels can get. But at Copenhagen we've been invited to

film a team of Danish scientists we worked with on the Dover shipping

pollution problem, as they record the ultra fine particle levels,

this time from aircraft. Now we can see, we can listen in the

background that the engines are starting. This is incredible. We

would never go to this, even if we went in the middle of a highway.

That would be impossible. The major source of the pollution reading you

see is this, an auxiliary power unit, or APU. Used to power

aircraft on the ground, APUs kick out very fine levels of ultra fine

particles. These particles are very small. They are down in the nano-

scale and they go deeply into the lungs. They are deposited in the

finest part of the lungs. Then they are transported to the blood, and

they move around all our body. just how dangerous are these ultra

fine particles and whose health is at risk? The people living close to

the airports might have some exposure. But the key issue here is

the health concern for the many thousands of people working in the

airport all day, for a long period of their life. Last month

Copenhagen Airport published the results of its ultra fine particle

study. The key finding was that pollution levels were at least

three times higher here on the tarmac than at Copenhagen's busiest

city centre road. Just after 9.30 in the morning, rush hour here at

Copenhagen Airport. And you can smell it - it's hanging in the air.

I can feel it at the back of my throat. I, for one, certainly

wouldn't want to work here all day, every day with this smell. The

reason the Danish government and the scientists are worried about

ultra fine particle pollution at airports is simple - evidence is

now emerging that it could be killing people. Even the chief

operations officer at the airport admits this. Four years ago, two

employees in a ground handling company at the this airport was

diagnosed with cancer. The civil court told us that one of the

reasons was pollution. So we decided that we want to find out

what kind of problems we have, and what's the size of the problem, and

if there's a problem, can we do anything about it? What are the

biggest offenders for fine particle pollution? Three areas. One is jet

engines. Number two is APUs, which is power units in the aircraft. And

number three is all the different types of equipment, like tractors

and so on, used on the ground by ground handling companies and other

The flat in the Copenhagen suburb I've come to was supposed to have

been a retirement pad. Truth is, it nearly became Birger Kristensen's

final home. I got cancer, yes, in the airport. That is the particle

from the flying. We call it an APU. Yes, power units. And sometimes

they run and we can smell it. Pooh! It's no good. Lucky to be alive,

Birger is one of two baggage handlers who've developed bladder

cancer. When that cancer was officially attributed to have been

most likely caused by years inhaling airport pollution, his

story made the newspapers and prompted the airport to measure its

fine particle pollution levels. So it was the Danish government that

said your cancer was because of airport pollution? Yes. It's the

working ministry, can I say? I am fine today. Yes, I am lucky. Very

lucky. So, what can be done to protect airport workers? At

Copenhagen they've just invested in a new fleet of electric baggage

carts to replace the old diesel models. But as far as the baggage

handlers are concerned, more needs to be done, especially about the

APUs. They know there are too many particles in the air that actually

give you cancer. Why they don't do anything better to change that?

Copenhagen Airport is without doubt a trail blazer. It's the first

airport in the world to admit ultra fine particle levels could be a

serious danger to health. Now they want other airports to sit up,

listen and learn. For starters, the problem of APU pollution can easily

be rectified if pilots stop running the engines once they've parked.

There has been interest from London and from UK, not from the airports

but from the union, Unite, who is interested and is a kind of partner

in this project. We are very happy about that. All baggage handlers

and catering staff at Copenhagen have been issued with these warning

cards. If a pilot fails to turn off the APU, they'll let him know how

unhappy they are. And does it work? Most of them, yeah. Some of them

Here in the UK, at Gatwick for example, there are no legal

requierments to measure for ultra fine particle levels. We don't know

how bad the problem is, or even if it's impacting on airport worker

health. Are you surprised that we just don't seem to measure for

these particles in the UK? Well, in one way I am, because airports like

Gatwick and Heathrow should have followed the debate and made some

measurements as we did here in Copenhagen. But on the other hand,

there are no limit values. So they are not forced to make these

measurements. If they only want to do exactly what they are forced to

do by law, you cannot blame them that they don't measure for ultra

fine particles. Copenhagen have lead the way and that's commendable.

We hope we'll get the same sort of co-operation when we raise this

subject with some of the principal aviation experts and the airports

across the UK. And I hope they are as co-operative with us in looking

at this study, and evaluating the results of it and deciding how we

move forward. So, what are the UK's two biggest airports going to do

about ultra fine particle pollution? Well, Gatwick's owners

went a big camera shy and referred us to their umbrella organisation,

the AOA. And as for BAA, the owners of Heathrow, it was the same answer.

"I'm afraid we can't talk about this one, Glenn. Please talk to our

umbrella organisation - yeah, you guessed it." It's these people, the

Airport Operators' Association. This year the European Union will

fund further research into ultra fine particle pollution at airports.

As far as the Danish scientists are concerned, the quicker other

airports realise just how dangerous ultra fine particles can be, the

better. I hope other airports will stop just hiding, stop saying there

isn't a problem and start investigating the problem and

Coming up, feelings are running high over a field in Kent. He just

stood up and walk off. Is that true and is that any way to behave?

did not see any Nazi salutes but people were shock that the way that

the council had conducted its business. When was the last time

you were shocked by an image of one man who was painfully thin? It

seems really worry about women who have eating disorders, but an

increasing number of men are suffering, too. Is enough being

done to help them? It is Sunday afternoon and John Evans is

catching up with his friends. He looks like a fit and healthy

thirtysomething but his life was very different one year ago. It was

almost over. John is recovering from anorexia. My wife had to be

directed around the fact that I could not put on weight, I could

not allow myself to do that, that was the only achievement I had,

that I was then. -- thin. When you think about eating disorders, you

think about young girls, trying to achieve a size zero figure. I worry

about my daughter are being under pressure to lose weight, but not my

son. But maybe I should. Eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia

affect over 1 million people in Britain. There is a false

assumption that it is only woman or gay men who develop the illness,

but the number of men getting eating disorders are increasing

regardless of sexuality. Many claim not enough is being done to help

them. John's problems started when he was just eight years old. He was

bullied at school and picked on about his weight. I felt I had to

change. I thought I had to make up to the expectations of others, for

them to stop bullying me, or to accept me, for who I was. When John

was at university his eating disorder got worse. Finally, he

went to see his doctor. He was dangerously sick. His liver and

kidneys were feeling, and he was diagnosed as anorexics. Why are

more and more men developing eating disorders? What causes him and to

get one and the first place? And why do so many men who have that

illness feel let down by the medical profession? Dr William Rhys

Jones is a specialist registrar in psychiatry and expert on eating

disorders in men. When they picked up on the symptoms, the stigma of

having an eating disorder, as a man, is quite phenomenal it is very

difficult for men to acknowledge it themselves to the point where they

go to a GP, or speak to somebody about it. It is not just the men

who suffer, it is their families, too. Jenny from Sevenoaks is the

mother of six children. A 12 year old son, Joe, was a training for

the school cross-country run, is exercising got out of control and

he rapidly lost it. Jenny the something was wrong at to come to

the GP. The doctor checked him over and his heart rate was fine, has

balls was fine. He gave him a physical examination and said what

a lovely six back you have, I think mum has made a fuss. I thought that

was a bit interesting. I thought, OK, maybe I am wrong. But, Joe

continue to over exercise, and he lost more weight. He was tested for

Crohn's disease, cancer and leukaemia, but only when these were

role doubt was he diagnosed with acute anorexia. He needed in-

patient treatment but there were no beds available. He sat on a so far

and his face went green. It was quite emotional. He said I do not

feel very well. You could see that he was just disappearing. I took

can stick back to the doctors, 100 yards up the road, and he was

sitting in the surgery, almost unconscious. And he was put on a

drip. He was so confused. His body was basically just shutting down.

His heart was stopping. obviously knew as a mother or are

based woman to look at for the signs of an anorexic. How much of a

surprise was it to identify that in your son rather than your daughter?

We could not believe it. We felt lonely and isolated. We felt like

the only family in the world who had a boy who was anorexics. You

feel ashamed. You feel very ashamed. Joe has now fully recovered from

his anorexia and he study sport at university. But, anorexia is not

the only eating disorder affecting men. Will Amir, which involves

bingeing and PowerGen, is a big problem, to close up some Thomas

from Hove got the almost as a result of being bullied at school.

By the time he was 18 it had taken over every part of his life. That

was causing me all kinds of issues, health wise, socially,

relationships, even my career, my work was affected. It consumes

absolutely everything. I explained that to the doctor. But still, he

said it was depression and he put me on Prozac and said before

counselling. But I've realised that it was some kind of injustice that

was being addressed. Feeling let down by lack of support, some

decided he wanted to help others. From his home, he set up to only

national charity to help men with eating disorders. When I set up the

project I was almost expecting, I was annoyed that men had been so

ignored. But as time has gone on and I have spoken to more men and

their carers, I feel like yes, absolutely, I feel there is a sense

of achievement but I have done something and it is important that

this work continues and it does not get forgotten again. Sam has

launched an online petition calling on the Government and medical

profession to improve services for men with eating disorders. There is

a stigma associated with being a man with an eating disorder. It is

a bad cocktail. And it needs to be addressed. More work means to be

done. To most people sport and exercise is an important part of

their life... Jenny is taking her experience into schools in Kent,

persuading teenage boys and girls to talk about body image and self

esteem, and hoping to raise their confidence. It is explain how much

the media distorts everything and the pressures that celebrities find

themselves under, feeding that back likely to be confident in their own

bodies, and not aspire to something they cannot achieve. While

recovering in hospital, John kept a diary. It has just been published.

He hopes that it will persuade men with eating disorders to seek help

quickly and not have to come close to death, before realising what

their problem is. Thinking there is someone out there like me who might

see this book and recognise something in them that I went

through, then maybe, maybe they will go to their GP and the wheels

will get set in motion much more quickly than it did with me, and

they will not have to leave their Now, it is very nice to have an

open, green field to look at. It is also nice to have a cosy home to

live in. Sometimes you cannot have both. That is where the trouble

starts. Dense Rogers reports. -- Vince. The south-east corner of

England. It is clean and it is pleasant. And it is the Green Park

that we are particularly interested in, today. Because, the amount of

green is causing big trouble in the village of Penshurst. I have been

on the parish council for 30 years and I have never seen anything like

this. And it is all over this piece of land. It is owned by the Lord-

Lieutenant of Kent. He lives in a proper big house called pence us

place near Tunbridge Wells. When day the parish council keen to

enter said that there was might not in a small houses in the village

for people on a more modest income. So, he offered up this patch of

grass called forge field, as the site for six affordable homes. They

would be built by the West Kent Housing Association, but it is not

going smoothly. In my 20 years have been involved in providing new

housing, no initiative has had the level of objection this one has.

Many of the villagers are dead against the idea. It is a

conservation area, it is green belt. And at the special, it is very

special to us. The chairman of the parish council is all for the idea.

It will not spoil the field. It will attach to the end of the

village. It will sit next to the garage that is there, I don't think

the damage is very much, to be honest. The amount of green space

in the countryside is finite. You cannot build houses on Green Belt

land unless you can demonstrate it local need and that there is no

other option. One villager said there most definite that --

definitely is a need. Why do you want houses built? We need as a

family of four, we are in a two- bedroomed flat and we have been

told to move, but the surrounding villages, into more suitable

properties, is just not any available to us, because of our

circumstances. I met some of the villagers who want to keep the

green space Green. They say that the important thing is that there

is an alternative. There have to be exceptional reasons to build on the

sort of land for this kind of property. We say that there are

alternatives within 100 yards of this place. We have looked at every

site that has been suggested. parish council met to decide

whether the planning application got approval. At a packed meeting

in the village hall. And they decided that, yes, they approved of

the plans to build six houses on forge deal. Obviously everyone was

shouting and some people were very upset and disgusted about the

decision. That was one of the main reasons why it got heated because

they were going against what the villagers wanted. It is a story

that is being played out across the South East. There is pressure to

nibble away at green belt land. The Home Builders Federation knows the

reason why. We are building roughly half the number of homes that be

should be building. There is a supply problems going back 20 years

or longer which affects the ability of the planning system to provide

enough land to enable enough houses to be built. There is Issue

shortage of a hoard -- affordable housing but we need to make sure

the development goes in places where it does the most good to

society and do least damage to ate the environment. In Penshurst

village hall, one particular villager was furious. There have

been commits about how it was a terrible parish council and

something along those lines and they asked him to sit down, and he

just stood up and did and Nazi salute, and walked off. He gave a

Nazi salute to the chairman of the council? Is that any way to the?

did not see any Nazi salute but I saw a lot of people protesting

about the way that the council had conducted his business. Is it true

that somebody at the meeting give you a Nazi salute as an insult and

stormed out? I was told about it but I did not see it, myself.

it did happen? I was told it did. Witnesses said they so what

happened. How do you feel about that? I don't really mind. It is

down to him. He ought to worry about elections, not me. There is

no doubt that green spaces are precious. But, many people do not

appreciate the need for affordable housing. In my experience,

objections to housing do not come from the homeless, or people living

in the overcrowded or sub-standard or temporary accommodation. It

comes from people who are quite perfectly housed themselves but do

not feel that that right should be accorded to others. To keep -- the

keep pens just Green Group say that to build affordable housing because

there are better alternatives. would change this view, and you

cannot go back, can you? I hope that commonsense prevails and some

of the other sites are reconsidered. But is now down to Sevenoaks

Borough Council to approve planning permission, essentially to decide

whether it is worth sacrificing a green field, to provide affordable

housing. Their decision is expected within a couple of months. That, if

you want any more information about the Kent or Sussex website. You can

watch the show again by clicking on I play a. -- I Claire. --iPlayer.

Coming up, be careful what you put on Facebook because it could affect