§ Mr. Onslowasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what studies on the pollutant effect of lead discharged from petrol-engined pleasure boats are available to his Department; and if any such reports were drawn to the attention of the Nature Conservancy Council's working group on lead poisoning in swans.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneNeither my Department nor the NCC is aware of any such studies. However, a large number of pleasure boats use diesel fuel, and the NCC working group had facts available which clearly showed that the lead level in river water was extremely low. Furthermore, the evidence obtained from live and dead swans clearly showed poisoning by sizeable lead particles, and conversely that the level of dissolved lead in the water could not possibly have been the cause.