Review of Environmental Assessment Levels (EALs) for emissions to air: second phase
Applies to England
Detail of outcome
We will:
- update the relevant EAL values on GOV.UK
- start to use the new EALs in our regulatory activities
We will also review and clarify the related guidance to address issues raised by the consultation responses.
See the ‘Next steps’ section of the consultation response for more detail.
Feedback received
Detail of feedback received
We received 8 responses to this consultation. The consultation response document:
- lists the questions we asked in Appendix A
- lists the respondents in Appendix B
- summarises the comments we received and our response to them
Original consultation
Consultation description
The Environment Agency uses EALs to judge the acceptability of proposed emissions to air from industrial sites, and their relative contribution to the environment. EALs represent a pollutant concentration in ambient air at which no appreciable risks or minimal risks to human health are expected.
In 2012, we ran a consultation to update the methods for the derivation of EALs. We made a commitment that, before using any new EALs, we would hold a further round of public consultation to ask for comments on proposed substance specific EALs. We would then consider these before their adoption. We published our response to the ‘Derivation of new Environmental Assessment Levels to air’ consultation in 2015.
We ran a consultation on the first phase of EAL updates between November 2020 and February 2021. Working with Public Health England (now the UK Health Security Agency) and using our revised methodology, we:
- derived updated EALs for 10 existing substances
- introduced EALs for 2 new substances
We published our response to the first phase of the ‘Environmental assessment levels (EALs) used in air emissions risk assessments’ consultation in September 2021. After publication, we implemented these EALs in our guidance for environmental permits.
There are currently 88 substances with EALs published on GOV.UK. In this second phase of EAL updates, we have followed the same methodology as the first phase. Working with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) we have reviewed EALs and confirmed values or proposed changes for 13 existing substances. Appendix 1 summarises how the values have been derived for each substance.
The purpose of this document is to follow up on our commitment in the 2012 consultation for further engagement before adopting changes to EALs, using the revised methodology. We are therefore consulting on the reviewed EALs for 13 substances. Depending on the consultation responses, we will use the proposed values in our regulatory activities. In this consultation we are also requesting relevant information to prepare and plan the third phase of EAL updates.
Documents
Updates to this page
Last updated 14 December 2023 + show all updates
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Clarified section 3, 'Our comments on responses to Question 6', third paragraph: The withdrawal of some occupational exposure limits (OELs) by the Health and Safety Executive in the early 2000s, following the introduction of a new OEL framework (now known as Workplace Exposure Limits), means that the scientific data on which some of these levels were based has been removed and the values could no longer be considered reliable.
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Added 'Consultation response: EALs for emissions to air second phase review'.
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First published.