Introduction to Health and Safety at Work

14.14.1 Air pollution
The most common airborne pollutants are carbon mon-
oxide, benzene, 1,3-Butadiene, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen 
dioxide and lead. Air pollution is monitored by Integrated 
Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC). This is a sys-
tem which extends the Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) 
system established by Part 1 of the EPA by introducing 
three tiers of pollution control.
➤
Regime A1 Processes
, which are certain largescale 
manufacturing processes with a potential to cause 
serious environmental damage to the air, water or 
the land. In England and Wales this is enforced by 
the Environment Agency. In Scotland there is a par-
allel system enforced by the Scottish Environmental 
Protection Agency.
➤
Regime A2 processes
, which produce emissions to 
air, water and land with a much smaller potential to 
pollute than regime A1 processes. The local author-
ity is the regulator for these processes.

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Chemical and biological health hazards and control
245
➤
Part B processes
, which may be classifi ed as those 
from less polluting industries with only emissions 
released to air being subject to regulatory control. 
For such processes local authorities are the enforcing 
body through the Environmental Health Offi cers and 
the system is known as Local Air Pollution Control 
(LAPC).
This division has led to some anomalies in that some 
Part A processes create less pollution than some Part B 
processes. However, the grouping of three pollution des-
tinations under one arrangement tends to a more holistic 
approach. The aim of IPPC is to control pollution of the 
whole environment under a single enforcement system 
and offers three principles to prevent and control pollu-
tion. These are:
➤
The ‘Best Practicable Environmental Option (BPEO)’ 
which considers both the environmental and eco-
nomic costs and benefi ts of the possible options 
available to deal with the pollution problem. BPEO is 
a legal requirement for Part A processes. It normally 
requires a technical solution.
➤
The ‘Best Available Techniques’ and is similar to 
BATNEEC (Best Available Techniques Not Entailing 
Excessive Cost) introduced by the EPA to minimize 
the overall environmental impact of a process. Part 
B processes only need satisfy the BATNEEC require-
ment which is not restricted to pollution control 
technology but can include employee training and 
competence and building design and maintenance
➤
As low as reasonably practicable applies the same 
test to an environmental problem as is applied to a 
health and safety problem. Any high or unaccept-
able environmental risk should be reduced to as low 
as is reasonably practicable.
The EPA prescribes certain listed substances from being 
released to air, water or land. All prescribed processes 
must have authorization. An operator of a prescribed 
process (such as a vehicle spray booth) must apply to 
the Environment Agency for prior authorization to oper-
ate the process. If the application is granted, the oper-
ator must monitor emissions and report them to the 
Environment Agency on a yearly basis. The Agency has 
the power to revoke the authorization, enforce the terms 
of the authorization or prohibit the operation of the pro-
cess. Further information on the authorization process is 
given in Chapter 17.