§ Ms RuddockTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what assessment his Department has made of the pollutant effects of emissions from the newspaper print works in docklands on the local environment; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Atkins[holding answer 13 February 1995]: The Department, in co-operation with local authorities, monitors nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and black smoke in the Greenwich, Stepney and Woolwich areas. The South East Institute of Public Health and the London borough of Tower Hamlets have just provided the Department with a copy of their report of a survey of volatile organic compounds in the Wapping area.
Regulations were made in May 1994 which clarified the inclusion of larger cold set web offset and sheet feed offset litho printing processes within the local authority air pollution control system established under the Environmental Protection Act 1990. We issued guidance on standards for these printing processes in November last year.
The UK has signed and ratified the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe protocol which 95W requires a reduction of 30 per cent. in national emissions of VOCs comparing 1988 with 1999. We published a strategy for achieving this reduction in October 1993, which forecasts 49 per cent. reduction in VOCs from all printing processes.