The Gulf (Hansard, 15 April 1991)

§ Mr. Dalyell
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what reports he has received from Colonel Mike Brooke of the Royal Engineers who is leading a six-nation ordnance clean-up team in Kuwait on the scale of the problems which are to be faced.

§ Mr. Archie Hamilton
British forces have been reporting through the military chain of command on a regular basis on their activities. These activities have principally involved immediate humanitarian assistance in Kuwait in areas where we have special expertise, including explosive ordnance disposal.

§ Mr. Dalyell
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what instructions are given to commanders in the Gulf on the treatment of private photographs or film used to record environmental and ecological scenes by service men stationed in the Gulf; whether confiscation is permitted; and what provision is made for confiscated film to be recovered.

§ Mr. Archie Hamilton
I am not aware of any instructions on the treatment of private photographs or film of environmental and ecological scenes in the Gulf.

§ Mr. Dalyell
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his answer of 21 March,Official Report, column 232, if he will set out in tabular form the optical and chemical properties of the oil smoke plume as measured by Royal Air Force aircraft.

§ Mr. Kenneth Carlisle
Measurements made by the meteorological research flight aircraft within the smoke plume at about 100 km from Kuwait showed the following concentrationsSulphur dioxide—around 500 ppb (parts per billion); a typical value in an urban environment is 25 ppb. Nitrogen oxides—around 25 ppb. Ozone —around 40 ppb. The nitrogen oxides and ozone levels are consistent with those found in an urban environment.
At the 100 km distance the soot concentration was about 150 micrograms per cubic metre and contained about 20,000 soot particles per cubic centimetre, 0.1 to 10 microns in size. Visually the particles caused substantial reductions of sunlight beneath the plume and almost complete darkness within the plume. At 1,000 km from Kuwait, particle concentrations within the plume were less than 1,000 per cubic centimetre, only the very smallest particles remained.