§ Mr. Bob RussellTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will seek medical and scientific evidence from the World Health Organisation and the European Union on the use of incinerators to burn waste in other countries; and if he will make a statement. [145843]
§ Ms StuartIncinerators emit a variety of pollutants of potential concern on health grounds, as indeed do many industrial processes. Our regulation of incinerators therefore requires emissions to be tightly controlled, at a minimum consistent with the limit values prescribed in European Union legislation. These regulatory decisions, and the limit values themselves, are based on the best evidence from the scientific and medical community on the effects of air pollutants, including World Health434W Organisation and EU sources, (which commissioned work explicitly for the recent adopted Waste Incineration Directive).
Any new information from the WHO or the EU, and any substantial scientific studies of the health impacts of waste incinerators to be published in the scientific literature are kept under review by officials, and if necessary can be referred for consideration by expert advisory committees such as the Committee on Medical Effects of Air Pollutants.