PEOPLE living near a huge foot and mouth carcass-burning site in Kidderminster have been terrified by a Government admission that smoke from pyres contains lethal dioxins. Arthur Wignall, wife Megan and neighbour Gillian Arrow-smith with dog Jasper at Stanklyn Lane, which has been blighted by smoke from a nearby foot and mouth pyre.

Stanklyn Lane residents have reported a range of illnesses - including sickness, sore throats and diarrhoea - since the fires were lit at Sparum Farm last month.

Arthur Wignall, who has been suffering problems despite normally being "as fit as a fiddle", said even the birds had deserted the area as thick clouds of acrid smoke descended upon the lane.

A Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Foods spokesman last week told the Shuttle/Times & News there was no evidence the burning released harmful agents.

But Environment minister Michael Meacher this week admitted smoke from foot and mouth pyres contains cancer-causing dioxins, which are 1,000 times more lethal than arsenic.

Now the Department of Health has launched an inquiry into the effects of burning and is carrying out health-risk assessments at selected sites.

But Mr Meacher's statement that pyre emissions had been equivalent to "two bonfire nights" has done little to reassure Stanklyn Lane folk.

Mr Wignall, 79, who has been Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinator for the lane for the past 10 years, said many residents had stopped him in the road with tales of health problems since the onset of the burning.

But he added: "A lot of people round here are old and afraid to speak up for themselves. They go back into their shells."

MAFF said pyres were set up at Sparum Farm, where Robin Feakins lost 2,000 cattle and sheep to the disease last month, to burn carcasses from there and "six or seven" neighbouring farms.

Burning started on March 15 and ended earlier this month, although the pyres are still smouldering.

Mr Wignall's wife Megan, 74, who has suffered an above-average four asthma attacks and blood pressure problems - which her GP attributed to stress - in the past month, said: "We are praying that it's finished for us now.

"Arthur has had a bad throat and other symptoms and he's normally as fit as a fiddle."

Neighbour Gillian Arrow-smith, 55, said: "At times I have been sat in my lounge and could not breathe. There has been a terrible smell in the house, even with doors and windows shut."

Pauline Millman, also of Stanklyn Lane, said she already had a chest infection which had got worse since the burning started.

"We don't know what this has done to us," she added.

And Diane Moorfield, who lives off Heath Lane near the farm, said she had woken up in the middle of the night feeling like she was being choked.

Mr Wignall said only half the food he had put out for birds had gone after two weeks when he normally had to put more out after three or four days.

MAFF said yesterday the backlog of carcasses had been cleared and that any further burning would be carried out at Throckmorton near Pershore.

But Mr Wignall said residents were worried damage had already been done.

"It may be years before the effects start to show," he added.