Asthma danger in emptying bins just once a fortnight

Levels of bacteria and fungal spores produced by decaying waste were ten times higher in streets where the bins are collected fortnightly instead of every week.

Scroll down for more...

Allowing waste food to build up outside homes may expose residents to asthma and other respiratory diseases, says a report in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

Scientists also said problems may be exacerbated by the current warm weather — with similar weather predicted for much of the summer.

Nine million households now have their bins collected every fortnight.

That figure is expected to rise as Labour's drive to cut costs by ending weekly visits from the binman gathers pace.

The results of the health survey follow growing public hostility towards the ending of traditional weekly waste collection in the name of recycling and cutting costs.

Dr Tom Kosatsky, a medical epidemiologist at McGill University in Montreal said: "If rubbish is decaying for two weeks and is heated by warm weather, it provides a fertile breeding ground for spores.

He added: "Exposure to fungi on this level can trigger sore throats, respiratory symptoms, faintness, weakness and depression, asthma and other allergic reactions."

Despite denials from ministers, Whitehall-funded research has shown that failure to collect bins at least once a week increases the chances of infestations by insects and vermin such as rats.

And the World Health Organisation has already advised that waste should be disposed of every week in temperate climates such as Britain.

Dr Toni Gladding, a lecturer in environmental engineering at the Open University added: "Councils introduced the change without recognising there may be a risk to occupational health."

However a spokesman for the environment department said: "There is no evidence of adverse health impacts from alternate weekly collection compared to weekly collection."

• A substance found in the shells of beetles and crabs could be to blame for soaring rates of asthma, scientists believe.

Called chitin, it is a type of sugar that toughens insect and crustacean carapaces.

Studies on mice at the University of California, San Francisco have shown that exposure to chitin triggers an allergic inflammatory response in the lungs.

UCSF Professor Richard Locksley said "crab asthma is already a wellknown hazard among workers in the shellfish industry."