§ Mr. Trotterasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he has reviewed the health risks associated with lead in petrol; and if he has studied the views of the British Medical Association and those expressed at the CLEAR symposium on such risks.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeI have now had an opportunity to study the British Medical Association's evidence to the Royal Commission on environmental pollution. It is a balanced document reaching similar conclusions to those reached a year ago by the Government following publication of the report of the DHSS working party on lead and health, chaired by Professor Patrick Lawther. I welcome it as reinforcing the Government's view of the need for a series of measures based on the recommendations of that report. We announced a programme in May last year and nothing in this report reduces our confidence in the desirability of that programme.
I understand that in the course of a careful summing up of the recent CLEAR symposium, Professor Michael Rutter, who was a member of the working party, expressed the personal view that it would be prudent to remove lead entirely from petrol. He, however, acknowledged the uncertainty of the medical evidence on the effects of very low levels of lead in the body. We have all along taken the view that, although the evidence is uncertain, action is necessary to reduce people's exposure to lead derived 190W from petrol. We have sought the quickest and most practicable means of doing this. It is our aim to reduce the limit from 0.4g per litre to 0.15g per litre by the end of 1985. This will reduce by about two-thirds lead emissions from cars some 10 years earlier than any other practicable method—including going lead free.
The BMA report makes it plain that petrol is only one of a number of sources of lead in the environment, and I understand that Professor Rutter stressed this. The Government agree on the importance of these other sources, including lead contaminated food and tap water, industrial emissions, lead-based paint, and special exposure such as employment in a trade using lead and we are taking steps to reduce lead in the environment along the lines announced a year ago.