More than 70 residents of Grenfell Tower flats in London’s North Kensington were burnt to death and/or asphyxiated by deadly cyanide gas, six months ago, as a result of the gross criminal negligence of officials and professionals who deliberately ignored the known danger and toxicity of polymer foam insulation.

This potentially deadly, flammable material was specified and installed in a multi-story, high rise tower block when it was well known to be a fire accelerant that would also emit deadly hydrogen cyanide gas when in contact with flame.

It was specified and used when there was a non-toxic, inert mineral wool insulation readily available, in a criminal attempt to cut costs at the expense of human life.

The architects, surveyors, contractors and building inspectors who specified and fitted dangerous polymer foam to a residential building in the full knowledge of its threat to human life, should now be in custody after a public trial.  Instead, no one individual – no architect, no surveyor, no contractor and no building inspector has as yet been charged with criminal negligence and/or manslaughter that led to the horrific deaths of more than seventy people on the 14 June 2017.

Whatever is the alleged conflicting advice of building or fire regulations, all the professionals concerned would have known well the danger inherent in using a polymer foam on or in a residential building. There is substantial documented evidence of multiple deaths worldwide as a result of polymer foams over a period of at least 30 years which has led to the banning of its use in other countries.*

This completely unnecessary tragedy is an indictment of criminal negligence, conspiracy and cover-up by the authorities that must now be uncovered and brought into the glare of public opinion and the searchlight of justice.  Nothing less will suffice.

Note

*The extreme toxicity of this family of chemical isocyanates goes back as far as 33 years, to1984, to the world’s worst industrial disaster at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India.