Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will ask Public Health England to carry out a study of where emissions of (a) PM0.1, (b) PM1 and (c) PM2.5 from municipal waste incinerators land.

The Environment Agency manages the United Kingdom’s national air quality monitoring sites on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the devolved administrations. The Environment Agency assesses the effects of emissions on air quality as part of the permitting process for municipal waste incinerators (MWIs).

Public Health England (PHE) has no plans to engage in work on where emissions of PM0.1, PM1 and PM2.5 from MWIs land.

When consulted, PHE provides an expert and independent opinion to the regulator, the Environment Agency, on the potential impacts, including from particulate matter, on human health of emissions arising from existing or proposed regulated facilities such as MWIs.

PHE’s position is that well run and regulated modern MWIs are not a significant risk to public health. This view is based on detailed assessments of the effects of air pollutants on health and on the fact that modern MWIs make a small contribution to local concentrations of air pollutants. Further information is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/municipal-waste-incinerator-emissions-to-air-impact-on-health