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Petrol (Lead Content)

Volume 25: debated on Wednesday 16 June 1982

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6.

asked the Secretary of State for Transport what further representations he has received about the removal of all lead from petrol.

Further to the reply given to the hon. Member for Leicester, South (Mr. Marshall) on 12 May, the Department received 18 letters during May.

Given the increasing evidence that the only safe level of lead in petrol is zero, when will the Government stop pandering to vested interests and make the health and well-being of our children the top priority by removing all the poison from the petrol used in this country?

We are reducing the lead level by over 60 per cent. in the four years ending 1985. The additional reduction that the hon. Gentleman seeks from 0·15g per litre to zero would make little actual difference to the lead level in people's blood. The sensible approach would be to implement and monitor the present policy and to take action on lead from other sources, such as that which may be in drinking water. To go further would have serious implications, which I have already outlined to the House.

Does my hon. Friend recognise that, despite the welcome given unreservedly by Conservative Members to the Government's announcement of the reduction to 0·15g, any decisions on the complete elimination of lead in petrol must have a long lead-in time and that it is important for the Government to begin taking and pressing for those decisions now if we are to have lead-free petrol within a reasonable time?

I am well aware of the concern on this issue, but it is not simply a matter of cost. If we go further than 0·15g per litre, we would require 2½ per cent. more crude for petrol—that is over 600,000 tonnes every year. We should need adaptations to valve seats and changes in compression ratios, and the effect on the motor industry must be considered right across the board, not just in this but in every other country.

We welcome the reduction that is to take place, but will the Minister recognise that lead in petrol is a serious pollution problem? What studies are being undertaken by the Government with regard to filtering out the lead once it reaches the exhaust sytem?

The hon. Gentleman is well aware that I share his concern. The Department is giving evidence to the Royal Commission on environmental pollution, which is making an independent assessment of the problem. A number of other studies are going on, not all of which fall within the competence of the Department of Transport. They fall also to the DHSS and other Departments. We are convinced that our action, which is in line with that of all our partners in this area, is right, and we shall study the progress that is being made.

I appreciate the balanced view explained by my hon. Friend, but will she confirm that there is a conflict of evidence between those who advised the CLEAR campaign and the experts who served on the Lawther committee? In the light of that conflict, based upon more recent evidence from the United States, cannot a quick, short inquiry be set up now to examine that evidence as there may be misunderstanding about it and people's fears could be allayed?

We are already examining the evidence available, but we have rested our decision on advice from the British Medical Association. The independent assessment to which I referred in answer to the hon. Member for Aberdeen, North (Mr. Hughes) by the Royal Commission on environmental pollution is one to which we shall give every possible help, because we believe it to be important.

Is not the Minister in danger of getting it wrong on all counts? Do not the vested interests—the oil companies and the motor manufacturers—say that the worst of all possible worlds is to move to a lower level, at great expense, and later to zero? They would much prefer—the oil companies have published this view—to go straight from the present level to zero than through two stages.

I note what the hon. Gentleman said, but I am not convinced, on the evidence before us, that to make a further reduction to a zero lead level would make the difference claimed for it. That is why I want to monitor what is happening now and also to study the evidence from other countries, to which I referred in a previous answer.