asked the Minister for the Environment if his attention has been drawn to the findings of a recent report that there is no safe lead air pollution level and if so, if he will make a statement in the matter.

I am assuming that the report referred to by the Deputy is the Lawther report on lead and health published very recently in Britain. I have been unable to find a statement in the report to the effect that there is no "safe" lead air pollution level. Paragraph 125 of the report, however, states that no firm evidence exists for guidance on what might be taken as a wholly "safe" level in the environment or the body. This is a very different matter and, in fact, the findings of the report appear to be reassuring, in so far as they may be applied to conditions in Ireland generally.

I might also mention that there is an EEC directive on the biological screening of the population for lead which defines reference levels for blood lead in members of the general population and requires remedial action to be taken if the reference level criteria are not met. The Department of Health, which is responsible for implementing the directive, has carried out the monitoring operations required by the directive and forwarded the results to the EEC Commission. I am informed that the criteria prescribed in the directive are met in Ireland. Furthermore, the results of the monitoring at the Dublin stations in Dame Street and O'Connell Street are not unsatisfactory. The annual mean concentrations on a 24-hour basis are below the level of 2 micrograms per cubic metre, which is the standard proposed in the EEC directive on air quality standards for lead.

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