Sir, – The proposed closure of the steelworks on Teesside will cause intense pain in the short term.

It may, however, lead to economic rebirth in the longer term: It has been conclusively proved that the presence of steelworks in a region leads to dramatically higher levels of cancer and respiratory diseases such as asthma than the national average. The steel industry will, of course, deny this, but it’s rather like the tobacco companies in the 1960s and 1970s telling us that there was no link between smoking and cancer.

The presence of a steel plant in a region gives it a very negative image.

These two facts discourage new industries and enterprises from establishing themselves in that region.

But experience worldwide has shown that once a steel plant goes from a region, then that region usually flourishes.

The best and most recent example of this is the City of Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia.

BHP Billiton shut its steelworks there in 1999 and ten years later the city has been transformed with a booming economy based on tourism and new business enterprise, and has a burgeoning population.

It has gone from being what used to be nicknamed The Hell Hole of NSW to the most exciting and pleasant provincial city in Australia. Why can’t that happen to Teesside?

DR MARK LEE Burlam Road, Linthorpe, Middlesbrough.