§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Mr. Loughton) of 24 May 2000,Official Report, column 539W, on dioxin, if he will list the research programmes which assess and monitor the levels of dioxins in the environment which have been sponsored by his Department, stating in each case the level of sponsorship, for each of the last five years for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. [126262]
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§ Mr. MeacherSince 1995 DETR has sponsored the following research programmes to assess and monitor the levels of dioxins in the environment. Many are co-sponsored with other Departments and/or Agencies and include a range of organic contaminants in addition to dioxins. A year by year breakdown of costs is not readily available for all the projects but the overall contribution by DETR is indicated in brackets
Monitoring of hazardous air pollutants programme (HAPs) (around £250,000 per year);Compilation of EU dioxin exposure and health data (in kind support through HAPs programme);National air emissions inventory includes dioxins among many other pollutants (around £250,000 per year);Organics in sewage sludge (£123,000 over three years);Modelling of Persistent Organic Pollutants on a national and global scale (£160,000 over two years);Modelling human exposure to dioxins and PCBs: projection of future UK exposures (£30,000).Further programmes to begin this year include:Chemical contaminants in human milk: a pilot study towards establishing an archive of samples from the UK (around £80,000); UK soil and herbage pollutant survey (around £100,000)The results of these and additional programmes sponsored by other Government Departments and Agencies will feed into a UK position paper on dioxins and PCBs which is currently being drafted by DETR. The paper will estimate the effectiveness of abatement measures already taken to reduce emissions of dioxins and assess what further action is required.