Pressure over dust from quarries and its effect on residents has prompted Devon's largest council to promise to determine who should be responsible for monitoring it.
A series of questions from campaigners to Devon County Council revealed that no statutory body has the explicit responsibility for routinely monitoring respirable crystalline silica, or RCS.
The county council, which decides planning applications for quarries, can impose conditions requiring operators to monitor RCS. Residents who believe levels are causing health problems can report these to their local environmental health teams within district councils.
A motion put forward by Councillor Ed Hill (Independent, Pinhoe & Mincinglake) has been passed. It aims to ensure Devon establishes which statutory body is responsible for protecting residents outside mineral extraction sites from long-term exposure to RCS.
Cllr Hill said the key thrust of his motion came from an amendment that faced some opposition but was eventually agreed by Devon's full council chamber earlier this month, on Thursday September 2.
"I don't trust the council to mark its own homework any more," Cllr Hill said.
"We were being asked to accept that the existing regulatory framework adequately addresses the risk, yet [the council] has just confirmed that DCC holds no monitoring results specifically for RCS and that there is not a statutory body routinely monitoring it."
Cllr Hill previously led a claim against the Ministry of Defence (MoD) over allegations that a group of Marines were exposed to asbestos during a training exercise in Latvia.
The claimants recently settled out of court. The MoD, which did not accept liability, said action had been taken to prevent similar issues in the future, that further use of non-MoD training sites has been prohibited, and that its people's health, safety and wellbeing would "always be our highest priority".
Monitoring of dust takes place at the Denistone and Broadway Ball Clay sites, but measurement focuses on the amount of dust rather than its composition. Cllr Hill said this was fundamental to his motion.
"I am not claiming that residents are being exposed to dangerous levels of RCS," he said. "Nobody should make that claim without the evidence; my concern is almost the opposite – where is the evidence that allows us to confidently rule it out?"
Separately, information secured by Martin Wrigley MP (Liberal Democrat, Newton Abbot) showed that monitoring was undertaken at the Denistone and Broadway Ball Clay site at two locations: adjacent to Preston village and adjacent to Exeter Road.
Mr Wrigley said monitoring data he had seen "does not indicate dangerous levels of airborne particles and reports no risk to human health", but acknowledged the monitoring does not specify the composition of the dust.
The MP added that Sibelco, which operates the quarries, had advised him it had strengthened dust control measures, including increased use of water bowsers to suppress dust and more intensive road sweeping, and that the company had committed to "improving communication with local residents through the publication of regular information and fact sheets".
At the full council meeting, Holland Risley, a member of the Save Our Trees campaign group, again raised issues residents claimed to be having because of their proximity to the
Quarry Dust Fears Lead to Devon Silica Monitoring Pledge