asked the Minister for Health if his Department was represented at the International Symposium on Lead Pollution organised by the EEC on 2nd to 6th October, 1972; and if so, if he will indicate the action being taken as a result of the conference findings.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Lead Pollution.
4.
Presumably the Deputy is referring to the Symposium on Environmental Health Aspects of Lead organised jointly by the Commission of the European Communities and the United States Environmental Protection Agency in Amsterdam on 2nd to 6th October, 1972. My Department were not represented at the symposium but had arranged to be furnished with all the documentation which is relevant to their responsibilities. A report of the proceedings has not as yet been received.
The Department of Labour were represented at the meeting.
5.
asked the Minister for Health the action being taken to monitor and curb lead pollution and its consequent dangers to human health.
The monitoring of levels of lead pollution as an environmental matter is one for my colleague, the Minister for Local Government. I understand that there is no general monitoring of concentrations of lead in the environment carried out at present. I should mention, however, that problems of air pollution generally are among the matters falling for consideration by the inter-Departmental Committee on Air and Water Pollution set up by the Minister for Local Government and on which my Department are represented.
Lead pollution of the environment may arise from lead emissions from motor vehicles and in this connection I would refer the Deputy to the reply by the Minister for Local Government to a question on the 17th November. 1971, to the effect that the level of lead emissions from motor vehicles in countries such as Ireland does not constitute a danger to human health.
With regard to lead content in foods, the position is that the presence of trace elements of lead in food from raw materials or manufacturing processes is controlled by the Health (Arsenic and Lead in Food) Regulations, 1972, and samples of food are examined from time to time in the public analysts' laboratories with a view to ensuring that the lead contents do not exceed the levels laid down.
Is the Minister satisfied that the methods of monitoring the amount of lead in the atmosphere in busy streets is sufficient to warrant the confidence expressed by the Minister for Local Government that the level does not constitute a danger to health?
I am satisfied.