Cement Kilns (Hansard, 12 November 1998)

§ Mr. Milburn

None. However, this is a matter which the Department's Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants has examined in detail following reports by the Environment Select Committee. The Committee has issued the following statement this weekThis statement updates a previous statement issued by the Committee in October 1997. The Committee has subsequently examined data collected by the Environment Agency into Complaints and Odours in the Clitheroe area. It is satisfied that there does not appear to be a link between complaints or odour threshold exceedances and the burning of Secondary Liquid Fuel (SLF) during the monitoring period; and that the concentrations of substances detected in ambient air samples did not indicate any concerns for health. The Committee is also aware that separate dust monitoring has been carried out at Clitheroe Hospital on behalf of the Environment Agency, Ribble Valley Borough Council, East Lancashire Health Authority and Communicare NHS Trust. Despite some concerns which the Committee has about the monitoring methodology-specifically, the unsatisfactory nature of the samplers used in the early phase of monitoring and improvements which might have been made to the study design-the Committee agrees that none of the evidence suggests that particles released locally are likely to pose a special risk to health. The Committee notes that the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions has established an air quality monitoring site at Chatburn and that the first year's data show that air quality in the area is well on target to meet the objectives for Sulphur Dioxide and Nitrogen Dioxide set out in the National Air Quality Strategy to be achieved by 2005. 309W The Committee notes the action taken by the Environment Agency since 1 April this year to enforce a "Haze and Odour Condition" on emissions from Castle Cement such that no persistent haze or odour which causes offence (sourced from either chimney) is present at ground level outside the site boundary". It notes its intention to continue to investigate all complaints and to take the appropriate action to enforce this. The Committee notes that the fitting of a wet scrubber on one of the kilns at Castle Cement and the decommissioning of two other kilns at the site are expected to lead to overall improvements in local air quality over the coming years, particularly in the reduction of levels of Sulphur Dioxide and Particles. The Committee also had access to more recent health data collected by the East Lancashire Health Authority. This examined hospital admission rates for asthma and for any respiratory illness, mortality data and prescribing data from general practice. These data do not provide any evidence to support the assertion that the health of residents in the Clitheroe area is being adversely affected as a result of exposure to emissions from local industry. Indeed, people living in Clitheroe tend to have lower than average values compared to people living elsewhere in the health authority. In summary, the Committee reiterates the point that the data available to it do not indicate that air quality in the area is worse when SLF is burned when compared with coal; nor do the data point to the need for a survey of the health of the local population to be carried out.