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Sewage Works
Mr. Gorrie: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what monitoring system is in place to ensure that the precautions required by law when parties of school pupils or organised parties of adults visit water treatment or sewage works are taken. [126282]
Mr. Meacher: Employers in the water supply and sewage treatment industry have general duties placed upon them by the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 to ensure that, so far as is reasonably practicable, visitors are not exposed to risks to their health and safety.
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations require employers to carry out a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks arising from their undertaking to the health and safety of persons not in their employment. This includes members of the public.
Risks to health, including biological risks, are also covered by the more specific requirements of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 1999. They require the employer to carry out a risk assessment and where necessary to implement suitable measures to reduce the risk. This duty would extend to groups visiting the site.
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The Health and Safety Executive is responsible for the inspection of water treatment works and sewage works. Inspections of water treatment companies would include an assessment of their ability to manage and control risks, including, where appropriate, risks to the public.
Mr. Gorrie: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what assessment he has made of whether washing screens in the screen houses of sewage works with untreated effluent produces a local atmosphere containing biological agents of a hazardous nature. [126269]
Mr. Meacher: HSE has undertaken at least one local intervention to monitor levels of aerosols in a screen house and at visits to water treatment companies over the years has looked into the biological risks arising from the process and the way they are controlled.
There are potentially hazardous micro-organisms in all sewage and a range of reasonably practicable precautions should be taken to control the risk.
HSE made a number of recommendations including improved washing facilities, disposable overalls, respiratory protective equipment and improved ventilation. Although they had initially recommended the use of clean mains water or its equivalent for screen washing, they accepted that this was not reasonably practicable given the very large volumes used and the fact that a new secondary treatment works is being built and that biologically treated effluent will be available for screen washing from September 2000, with the plant being fully commissioned by the end of 2000.
At a national level HSE works with the water industry's national trade body, Water UK, to help identify and resolve health and safety problems in the industry. Work has been carried out at national level on the microbiological risks from sewage, including those encountered at sewage treatment works. HSE produced guidance for employers and workers in 1995.
Screens are usually washed with water which has been through the treatment process ("final effluent") which, while not of drinking-water quality, has fairly low levels of micro-organisms. However, where the treatment facilities are limited, as at Seafield, the water used will have higher levels of micro-organisms. The main risk is from ingestion/swallowing and from splashes on the skin and in the eyes. Aerosols containing micro-organisms are likely to be produced in screen houses from the general flow of sewage and also from the washing down of the screens. These aerosols can pose a risk to health from inhalation, depending on droplet size and the type and amount of micro-organisms present.
Cycles
Mr. Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many of his Department's buildings display notices prohibiting the chaining of cycles to railings. [126410]
Mr. Hill: Only the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, London, displays such signs. This reflects the high security needs of the centre.
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Light and Noise Pollution
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will publish maps showing tranquil areas in respect of light and noise pollution. [126413]
Mr. Hill: In respect of noise, Birmingham City Council has recently produced an innovative noise map of the City with support from this Department. This has been published as a DETR report ("A report on the production of noise maps of the City of Birmingham"--ISBN 1-851123- 59-8). Copies are available in the House Library and on the DETR website (www.environment.detr.gov.uk/noisemaps/ birmingham/report/index.htm).
The question of extending this technique throughout the country both in urban areas and relatively quiet areas in the open country is actively being considered by the Government and in European fora. My hon. Friend may wish to be aware that the Council for the Protection of Rural England together with the Countryside Commission has published a "Tranquillity Map", identifying areas of England which are far enough away from visual or noise intrusion to be considered unspoilt by urban influences.
There are no plans at this time to introduce mapping for light pollution.
Dioxin
Mr. Baker: To 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 make a statement about the operation of his Department's Hazardous Air Pollutants Programme in East Sussex. [126258]
Mr. Meacher [holding answer 19 June 2000]: The Hazardous Air Pollutants Programme has no measuring station in East Sussex.
Mr. Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Mr. Loughton) of 24 May 2000, Official Report, column 539W, on dioxin, what assessment his Department has made of the geographical comprehensiveness of his Department's Hazardous Air Pollutants Programme; and if he will make a statement. [126257]
Mr. Meacher [holding answer 19 June 2000]: The Hazardous Air Pollutants Programme has made measurements of polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), dioxins, furans and polychlorinated biphenyls in Cardiff, Manchester, London, Stevenage, Hazelrigg in Lancashire, High Muffles in the North Yorkshire Moors and Stoke Ferry in East Anglia in various years since 1991. It is making further measurements of PAH at Ashington, Bolsover, Glasgow, Holyhead, Kinlochleven, Lisburn, Newport (Gwent), Port Talbot and Scunthorpe. The first list of sites gives a good indication of levels of hazardous air pollutants across the UK as a whole, while the second list represents sites where levels might be expected to be higher than average.
Mr. Baker: To 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,
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column 539W, on dioxin, what steps he has taken to publicise the website displaying the results of programmes which monitor dioxin levels; how many hits that website has received for each of the last 12 months for which figures are available; and what is the web address. [126259]
Mr. Meacher [holding answer 19 June 2000]: The Department's website that contains the results of all the Department's air quality measuring programmes is widely publicised in a variety of media. The number of hits on the pages containing the dioxin measurements were 2,445 in the period 1 June 1999 to 31 May 2000, representing approximately 1,150 users. The website address is http://www.environment.detr.gov.uk/airq/aqinfo.htm, then click on National Air Quality Information Archive and then Monitoring Networks. The dioxin data are collected in the Toxic Organic Micropollutants section.
The Food Standards Agency data are on the website http://www.foodstandards.gov.uk. This site has experienced 612 hits since 3 April 2000 on the pages giving information about dioxins in food.
Houses in Multiple Occupation
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions which local authorities operate registration schemes for houses in multiple occupation; how many properties are on the list; and what proportion are estimated to be high risk. [127007]
Mr. Mullin: The latest information my Department has on such schemes, based on local authority returns made in July 1999, indicated that 81 authorities, as listed, had schemes, and had registered approximately 10,000 houses in multiple occupation in the private rented sector. A number of these schemes, notably in London boroughs, are ward-based, although the majority are authority-wide:
- Darlington, Gateshead, Middlesbrough, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Stockton-on-Tees, North Tyneside, Barnsley, Calderdale, East Riding of Yorkshire, Harrogate, North East Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire, Rotherham, Scarborough, York, Derby, Kettering, Mansfield, Newark and Sherwood, South Kesteven, Basildon, Cambridge, Colchester, Kings Lynn and West Norfolk, Luton, Mid Bedfordshire, North Norfolk, Peterborough, South Norfolk, St. Albans, Tendring, Watford, Waveney, Barking and Dagenham, Bromley, Brent, Camden, Croydon, Ealing, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey, Hillingdon, Kingston-upon-Thames, Lewisham, Newham, Islington, Hounslow, Sutton, Tower Hamlets, Westminster, Chiltern, Dover, Gravesham, Canterbury, Guildford, Portsmouth, Rushmoor, Southampton, Thanet, Bournemouth, Bristol, Cheltenham, Mid Devon, North Somerset, Torbay, West Devon, Weymouth and Portland, Birmingham, Coventry, Redditch, Wyre Forest, Blackpool, Bury, Carlisle, Chester, Lancaster, Preston, Warrington, West Lancashire, Wirral.
- Kingston-upon-Hull, Sheffield, Bexley, Harrow, Lambeth, Southwark, Eastbourne, North Warwickshire, Brighton and Hove, Doncaster, Oxford, Herefordshire.
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