Our Ref:         FOI-2385-1718

Thank you for your request received on 22 November 2017 asking for information about particles in the air on the London Underground.
 
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Environmental Information Regulations and our information access policy. I can confirm we hold some of the information you require.
 
Our Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) team routinely monitors, and commissions external consultants to undertake occupational dust surveys in the network to evaluate staff and customer exposures to occupational and environmental dusts. The composition of London Underground dust has been a topic for discussion for many years and over that time the main characteristics have not changed. The particulates below ground in London Underground infrastructure are predominantly iron oxide particles from wheel and brake wear.
 
Attached are a series of reports that contain the information you have requested. Please note that in accordance with TfL’s obligations under the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) some personal data has been removed, as required by regulation 13 of the EIR. This is because disclosure of this personal data would be a breach of the DPA, specifically the first principle of the DPA which requires all processing of personal data to be fair and lawful. It would not be fair to disclose this personal information when the individuals have no expectation it would be disclosed and TfL has not satisfied one of the conditions of Schedule 2 of the Data Protection Act which would make the processing ‘fair’. This exemption to the right of access to information is an absolute exemption and not subject to an assessment of whether the public interest favours use of the exemption.
 
The majority of particulate testing undertaken by TfL in the Underground network is for respirable fraction dust in accordance with the requirements of health and safety legislation. That sampling is a mix of personal and static sampling. In addition some content analysis is performed to identify levels of Respirable Crystalline Silica, Asbestos fibres, and track, wheel and brake wear metals (Iron, Copper, Chromium, Nickel, Manganese & Zinc).
 
We have not undertaken any Health Impact Assessments, however we commissioned the Institute of Occupational Medicine to consider the health impacts of rail dust in 2003. That report, The Assessment of health effects of long-term occupational exposure to tunnel dust in the London Underground can be viewed at the link below:
 
http://www.iom-world.org/pubs/iom_tm0302.pdf
 
Currently we have commissioned the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollution (COMEAP) to undertake a literature review - Review of the evidence on the health risks associated with exposure to airborne particulate matter in the London Underground. The results of this work will be published in 2018.
 
The primary driver for compliance is health and safety legislation however we have taken a precautionary approach and work to the much stricter recommendations published by the Institute of Occupational Medicine (IOM) for Respirable and Inhalable dust levels rather than those stated in the Control of Substances Hazardous to health Regulations 2002 / EH40/2005 Workplace exposure limits. We are broadly compliant with the IOM recommendations and in all samples with the regulatory requirements.
 
If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for some reason, please feel free to contact me.
 
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.

Yours sincerely

Gemma Jacob
FOI Case Officer
FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London

[email protected]

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