Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will estimate the amount of dioxin and furan that would be dispersed into the domestic built environment from recovered air pollution control residues as a consequence of the Environment Agency accepting End of Waste status for use in breeze blocks if the derogation in the waste framework directive allowing air pollution control residues to be disposed to hazardous landfill is removed.

The Environment Agency considers that some concrete block products from a particular process containing air pollution controls residues (APCr) are no longer waste. The environmental risk assessment for this was for a bound use of the APCr in blocks, rather than unbound. Research supporting the case showed that, bound within the block, measurable levels were not released. Where blocks were drilled, the exposure level of dioxins into the air was below World Health Organisation exposure limits.