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Counter-terror gas tests ‘add to global warming’
Home Office under fire for chemical attack exercises on Tube
THE Home Office has come under fire for releasing potent gases in Marylebone during a counter-terrorism operation.
The Westminster Tracer Gas Trials – testing the flow of gas in the event of a chemical attack on the Underground – used three gases with “large greenhouse warming potentials potentials”, the West End Extra can reveal.
The gases, belonging to a family of chemicals known as cyclic perfluoro carbons (CPCs), were released in 15g doses in Marylebone station over six weeks in May and June.
The trials were rubber-stamped by Home Office minister Tony McNulty. In May he told Parliament the trials would help “refine urban airflows” on the Underground in the event of biological warfare. He said there were no environmental concerns.
But the Environmental Impact Assessment report, released after 40 days under the Freedom of Information act, states the emissions will remain in the atmosphere for a “very long time”.
It is the carbon equivalent of a car circumnavigating the planet several times, lobby groups have said. They point out that Marylebone Road was in June named as the most polluted road in the country.
Adrian Wilkes, a spokesman for the Aldersgate Group, campaigning for better regulation of the environment and representing a number of “green” lobby groups including Friends of the Earth, said: “The three gases chosen are in the top four most potent greenhouse gases – equivalent to a hundred tonnes of carbon dioxide, even for the small amount used in the trials, which planned to release only a few grams, on about 30 occasions.”
He argued that under the Environmental Information Regulations, the Home Office should have published their impact assessment “pro-actively“, before the gas emissions began.
A Home Office spokesman said: “The work was part of the home office’s commitment to improve security and counter terrorism. The tracer trials will pose no adverse effect on public health or on the daily routine in the Marylebone area of Westminster.”
Earlier tracer trials, led by the department for transport were undertaken in March and April at St John’s Wood Underground station. |
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