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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of (a) the levels of pyridine in marine species fished in the River Tees estuary, and (b) the possible health risks of those species for human consumption.

The European Chemicals Agency states that pyridine is not considered persistent, toxic, and likely to bioaccumulate. It is also not considered a contaminant of concern for marine sediment under OSPAR (the convention for the protection of the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic), due to its high solubility in water. On this basis, pyridine is not routinely tested for in the same way as other, recognised contaminants of concern. A substance likely to be pyridine was detected in crab tissue as part of the 2021 mortality incident investigation. However, the method used is not validated for tissue detection and so the numerical results are not conclusive. Research is ongoing to validate a method of tissue detection which will then confirm the concentrations of pyridine observed.

There is very limited potential for pyridine to be present within species for human consumption due to its low likelihood to bioaccumulate.