§ Mr. DafisTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what plans he has to monitor and control airborne levels of benzene in the light of the report by the expert panel on air quality standards committee; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. AtkinsThe Department of the Environment is establishing a network of 12 sites to continually monitor benzene and 25 other hydrocarbons in urban areas in the United Kingdom. Sites have been established in London Bloomsbury, London Eltham, Middlesbrough, Belfast, Edinburgh, Birmingham and Cardiff. Sites in Leeds and Bristol are expected to be in operation by the spring and a further three sites are expected to be in operation by the end of the year.
The expert panel on air quality standards recently published its first report in which it recommended an air quality standard for benzene in the United Kingdom of 5ppb as a running annual average and a target standard. The panel also recommended that this standard be reduced to the lower level of 1ppb running annual average in the longer term. The Government are considering the panel's recommendations on benzene very carefully and will shortly publish a consultation paper which will discuss how air quality standards should operate and ways in which they can be achieved. The Government will consider how the recommended standard could be used in this context and over what time scale the lower target standard could be met.