Mr. Darragh Page:

I will answer the question on microplastics. Some work was funded by the EPA in the past and some very recent useful work was done on microplastics as part of the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition, looking at the levels found. We are effectively finding microplastics in almost all drinking water samples to some degree or another. The levels are relatively low. They are usually in the range of between one and ten microparticles per 500 ml. We have been looking around Europe to see what else is being done. A limited amount of research is being done around Europe but it is only looking at the levels of microplastics present. There has not necessarily been a huge amount of work done on the impact and health implications of it. The EPA is about to launch a new research call. A project that we have identified as one we would like to proceed in the next call is a project to evaluate the potential human health impacts of microplastics and nanoparticles. That call will be going out in April. We will start looking to see if we can get some research in that particular area. Microplastics are mentioned in passing in the directive but not in detail because the difficulty is that while we all recognise that microplastics are becoming an issue, the health implications have not been determined yet, so setting a standard is not possible at this time. It is something that most member states, if not all, are actively looking at.