A Twenty Million Pound Project Has Been Launched By The Government To Find Out More About Acid Rain And The Damage It Causes

Scientific study of environmental effects of rainfall over 20 years to inform potential government response to acid rain.

This report opens with library film (ITN and Anglia TV) showing brief views of tree leaves, Cambridge traffic and the emissions from the cooling towers of a power station as the reporter Peter Lugg explains the background to concern about acid rain. At the Warren Spring Laboratory in Stevenage, Hertfordshire on a snowy day, Dr Martin Williams, Head of the Air Pollution Division, collects a flask of rainfall samples from a collecting point in the grounds, and takes it into the laboratory. A map on a computer screen shows the locations of other collecting points across the UK. Dr Williams explains that the current research sets out to establish a baseline for study of rainfall and will be on a wider scale, long-term and more consistent than the small amount of research undertaken to date. The database records of the analysis of rain and snow samples will be comparable with other European studies. More scenes of the rain collection station and the laboratory testing with ion chromatography and measurement of ozone pollution. Asked whether the case against the burning of fossil fuels is already proven, Dr Williams says the scientific understanding is complicated and still poorly understood in some areas. The UK government has requested this study to inform future decision making around potentially reducing emissions, to be able to justify the measures and the expense. He says the connection between emissions and acid rain is already established and linked with fossil fuels but the effect on the environment remains the big question. The study at Warren Spring is planned to continue for 20 years to inform future government legislation. Exterior view of laboratory building. This short video was made to be shown in a news story on Anglia Television early evening news / magazine programme About Anglia.

Keywords

Pollution; Acid rain; Power stations; Vehicle exhausts; Scientific research; Environment; Rainfall

Additional Description

Warren Spring Laboratory was a UK government environmental science research centre that operated in Stevenage, Hertfordshire from 1958 until its closure in 1994. Described by New Scientist as "Britain's leading laboratory for environmental research", and by The Times as "one of Europe's most important environmental research centres", it had an international reputation in areas such as air and water pollution, waste management and recycling, land remediation, alternative fuel research, and chemical engineering. In 1994, after some political controversy, the laboratory was closed and merged with AEA Technology to form the National Environmental Technology Centre (NETCEN). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Spring_Laboratory