adless fuel lot speed limits ays Stedman
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MIGHT be more nomical in the long term to e a leadless petrol than to Lice speed limits, said Lady C. Under-Secretary for the nroiment, last week.
peaking during a discus-1 on the lead content of rol in the Lords, she said t it was estimated that the t of applying a standard of ) grammes per litre — as proposed from January 1, 1 — as against our former ndard of 0.55 was equimt to an annual balance of merits cost of roughly £50 lion.
'here was no estimate yet de of the cost of eliminating d from petrol altogether. vertheless, if it was found m the research being iertaken that it really was a zard to health, then the ,ney had to be spent.
ord Douglas of Barloch .ed about extensive experints in America which had nonstrated that it was poste to produce a petrol by rixture of maize alcohol, at st as efficient as leaded rol and somewhat cheaper )roduce.
.ady Birk told him that at !ser t it was not thought there was evidence of health risk to justify the costs involved. Not all the results of the studies in the United States were yet available, but from what had been seen the Department was doubtful about some of the methods of assessment used. It was certainly not yet completely clear that they had established any causal link between small quantities of lead in the blood and patterns of behaviour.
Nevertheless, within the next two years or so further research was being funded which would be designed to help identify the significance of small quantities of lead in the blood and the proportion derived from petrol and other sources.
Lady Birk added that £150,000 would be spent, and then it would be seen what further research was required.