Atmospheric pollution, air quality: limit values for benzene and carbon monoxide CO (direct. 96/62/EEC)

The Parliament adopted its report drafted by Ms. Hiltrud BREYER (Green, D) on the Commission's proposal on limit values for benzene and carbon monoxide in ambient air. The Parliament introduced a number of amendments of which the main ones are: - Member States may maintain or introduce more stringent protective measures in order to protect the health of sensitive populations such as children and hospital patients and may provide that limit values are observed by an earlier date than that provided for in this Directive; - a new recital that states that given benzene os a carcinogenic, genotoxic product for humans, there is no threshold value below which it poses no threat for human health; - a new recital recognising tthat air pollution in enclosed spaces may constitute a substantial source of contamination through benzene and volatile organic compounds; - a new recital urging that information on the measured levels of benzene and carbon monoxide concentrations should be forwarded to the Commissionas a basis for regular reports; - information on concentrations should also be made available using telex, internet, telephone or fax and a list of the notified organisations should be forwarded to the Commission; - information on ambient concentrations of carbon monoxide shall be updated at least on a daily basis or, where feasible, on an hourly basis; - the Commission's report to the EP and the Council on the experience acquired in the application of this Directive should pay particular attention to sensitive populations, as well as review to what extent the limit value for benzene should be recued; - the Commission should propose an action programme on air pollution in enclosed spaces as a complement to Community legislation on outside air; - Member States, before 31.12.2001, shall provide information on the location and number of sampling points and the reference measurement techniques and reference modelling techniques; - in Annex IV, the Parliament adds to the 5th indent, 3rd subindent by requiring that, for benzene, inlets should be no more than 5 metres from the kerbside; - in Annex V, the EP adds that at least half and not less than one of the sampling points should be traffic-orientated and at least one should be urban-background-orientated; - lastly, the Parliament, in Annex VI (1) introduces a new paragraph that states that, for benzene, Member States may apply random measurement instead of continuous measurement if they can demonstrate to the Commission that the accuracy, including the uncertainty due to random sampling, meets the data quality objective of 25% set for continuous measurement.�