By environment correspondent Alex Kirby

A leak of toxic fumes from two quarries formerly used for dumping chemical waste has forced 16 families out of their homes in Cheshire.

All are staying in temporary accommodation, a few with relatives but most in hotels.

The families live in Runcorn, home to a large ICI chemical works. ICI says it detected the pollution last month after boring holes into the rock at the quarries at Weston, on the outskirts of the town.

It decided to place gas monitors in about 120 houses in Runcorn, and found hexachloro-1,3-butadiene (HCBD) in at least 18 of them, and in one scout hut.

Checking schools

The company has also been asked to check a number of other homes and two primary schools. It is still awaiting the results of the monitoring.

HCBD, used as a solvent and in making rubber, has been linked in animal tests to problems affecting the kidneys and liver, and to foetal development.

ICI told a public meeting in Runcorn at the end of January that there could be 30 million tonnes of lime waste in the quarries.

But a local Friends of the Earth campaigner, Viv Mountford, says she was told by two former ICI eomployees that the lime waste had been mixed with discarded residues of perchlorethylene and trichloroethylene, used for making dry cleaning solvents.

Other residents said they used to find mercury in the quarries when they were children.

Adam Roscoe, ICI's head of communications in Runcorn, told BBC News Online: "We are aware that there are many chemical compounds in the quarries, and we've found some in the boreholes."

Buying homes

"But they are not at levels that cause us concern, apart from the HCBD, and that is what we are checking people's homes for.

"We are buying some of the houses that people have moved out of, and we do not want anyone to suffer financially.

"We are committed, initially for five years, to making up any difference between the price of their houses and the current market price of similar properties.

"A lot of people want to stay put. But if they choose to leave, then ICI will buy their homes.

"The quarries have been out of use for years - work at the north quarry ended in 1950, and at the south in the 1970s.

"What went on there is completely unacceptable by today's standards, and we do sincerely regret the effects on the community."

Mr Roscoe said the company was prepared for the number of people forced from their homes to rise, and had contingency plans for providing temporary accommodation