A controversial tip is not the cause of cancer deaths or birth defects in the south Wales valleys, a study has found.

But a team of public health experts brought in from America have said the Nantygwyddon landfill site in the Rhondda has created health problems such as headaches, asthma attacks and nausea for people living nearby.

Residents protested to close the site

The scientists also found that much of the controversy surrounding the tip was due to poor communication by the authorities and the lack of an adequate public health assessment process.

Their 50-page report calls for community mistrust and concern over the facitity to be addressed - with a major role for the planned new local health board.

Consultants from the Atlantic-based Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry were called in to provide an independent view on the way forward for all the agencies involved.

The Americans' involvement follows the publication of an independent report commissioned by the Welsh Assembly which highlighted local health worries, but urged further studies because of a lack of information.

The experts visited the tip, above the village of Gelli, last November and spoke to local people who have protested against it for years.

David Purchon: Report author

The team met the assembly's environment minister Sue Essex and health minister Jane Hutt as well as representatives of the residents' protest group, Residents Against Nantygwyddon Tip (Rant).

The report concludes that it was "likely" that gas created by the tip led to more people reporting of a variety of short-term medical conditions.

These include:headaches, eye, nose and throat irritation and an increase in the severity of asthma attacks and other respiratory ailments, as well as nausea and skin rashes.

The experts' visit was co-ordinated by the health body, the Wales Centre for Health (WCH), which believes their input will be vital.

Councillors in Rhondda Cynon Taff agreed to stop dumping household waste at Nantygwyddon in December 2001, days after the publication of an assembly-commissioned report which criticised the site.

Polluted

The author of the report, David Purchon, recommended closure, saying the site was too wet, windy and close to homes.

Locals campaigned against the site on health grounds for more than a decade.

Mr Purchon's report highlighted that polluted water from the site has flowed into an area covering 20,000 households.

In August 2001, government-backed research published in the British Medical Journal found a 1% higher risk of birth defects in babies born near landfill tips.