Minutes of the meeting held on Friday 27th February 2004

Present:

Chairman: Professor J G Ayres

Members:
Mr B Armstrong
Professor K Donaldson
Professor D Derwent
Professor D Laxen
Mrs A Lambert
Professor T Frew
Dr J Pritchard
Dr V Murray
Professor D Strachan
Professor D Walters
Dr V Stone
Professor S Holgate
Professor P Poole-Wilson

Secretariat:
Dr H Walton
Ms I Lindup
Ms J Cumberlidge

Assessors:
Dr M Meadows (DEFRA)
Mr R Alexander (Welsh Assembly)
Dr P Harrison (IEH)

In Attendance:
Professor A Seaton
Professor R Anderson
Dr J Townend

ITEM 1. OPENING REMARKS, APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. Apologies for absence were received from Mr Fintan Hurley, Professor William MacNee and Dr Bob Maynard (Secretariat),

2. The Chairman welcomed Mr Ronnie Alexander from the Welsh Assembly, Dr John Townend from Birmingham Heartlands Hospital and Professors Anthony Seaton and Ross Anderson, both past members of COMEAP who had come today to provide advice on the Cardiovascular report (COMEAP/2004/1).

3. The Chairman reminded Members to declare any interests they may have at the beginning of each agenda item.

4. The Chairman reminded Members to submit their expenses claims forms. Blank forms had been tabled.

ITEM 2. MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 19th SEPTEMBER 2003

5. The minutes were agreed as a true and accurate record of the meeting and no changes were requested.

ITEM 3. MATTERS ARISING

Ozone Report
6. The Chairman informed Members that there were three Committee reports being published this year, one of which was the ozone report. The Chairman then handed over to Dr Heather Walton who updated the Committee.

7. Members were notified of a Multipollutant sub-group meeting that had been held on the 14th November 2003. Seasonal differences had been discussed and comments on this and on other areas from this meeting had been incorporated into the report. Professor Dick Derwent had also revised the ozone levels chapter which included further analysis of trends at urban and rural sites from NETCEN. An extra chapter on the methodology used for the systematic review of the evidence had also been drafted. Another meeting of the sub-group was being planned for April. At this next meeting, the discussion on whether the marked seasonal differences found in the effect of ozone on all cause mortality in the NMMAPS study undermine the overall view on the causality of the association between ozone and all cause mortality, will be taken further. In the meantime, chapters were now being drafted on associations of ozone with hospital admissions data from St Georges' Hospital Air Pollution Epidemiology Database. Dr Walton hoped that a draft of the full report would be brought to the June meeting of COMEAP.

Asthma and Air Pollution Report

8. Members were reminded by the Chairman that this report was not being worked on until the Cardiovascular report had been finalised and the Ozone report had progressed further.

9. It was noted that the work on childrens' health being carried out by the WHO should be coming out in September and that this work would feed into the asthma and air pollution report.

ITEM 4. REPORT ON AIR POLLUTION AND CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE

10. The Chairman introduced this item and thanked everyone who had contributed to the report.

11. The Chairman reminded Members that at the September 2003 meeting of COMEAP, there had been a series of presentations given by the cardiovascular sub-group outlining the group's thinking and initial findings. He then informed Members that there had been a sub-group meeting on the 14th November 2003 and also a meeting between the Secretariat and Sir Charles George, Medical Director of the British Heart Foundation. At this meeting the plan to hold a BHF workshop to apprise the cardiovascular community of the findings within the report was discussed. It was recommended that the Secretariat submit a proposal for such a workshop to be held in the summer of 2004.

12. The Chairman then introduced the report itself, reminding Members that they had been asked to consider a draft of the report and to provide comments on the broader issues within the report rather than on minor editorial detail. The Chairman added that recommendations for research would also be helpful, although chapter authors would be providing these in the next draft. It was acknowledged that there were still gaps within the report. It was requested that the Committee firstly present their views of the report in general, before providing comment chapter by chapter. The Chairman conducted a tour de table which raised comments and discussion as presented below:

13. Members of COMEAP congratulated the authors of the report.

14 - 88. Public Availability: It was further noted that paragraphs 14 to 88 should not be made publicly available at the present time since these paragraphs referred to work that was currently in progress and not in the public domain.

QUARK II
89. Heather Walton provided a verbal update to Members, informing them that a sub-group updating COMEAP's previous report on quantification would be set up to start work in the Autumn. Fintan Hurley would be the sub-group chairman. It was thought that towards the end of next year, work emanating from the sub-group would come to the full COMEAP committee.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Annual Air Pollution Meeting 2004
90. The Chairman reminded Members that the next meeting of COMEAP would be taking place at the University of Leicester on the 29th - 30 March 2004. The Annual Air Pollution Meeting constituted a full COMEAP meeting and therefore attendance was expected. Members were reminded that their expenses would be met for this meeting. Paul Harrison provided further particulars by stating that registration would take place from 12.30 onwards, with the meeting commencing at 2.00pm. A provisional programme would be sent around shortly and to date IEH, the organisers had received 22 papers and 7 posters.

Indoor Air Guidance
91. One Member raised the issue of the Indoor Air Quality Guidance report. The Secretariat advised that comments provided by Members had been incorporated and that the Secretariat was having a meeting with Noel Olsen next week on indoor air pollution and the domestic environment. It was confirmed that the report would be published, although delay in its publication was due to the amount of work on terrorism that members of the Secretariat had had to deal with.

92. The Secretariat would keep Members updated.
[Action: Secretariat]

Website
93. The Chairman informed Members that the website address for the COMEAP website had changed to www.advisorybodies.gov.uk/comeap. It was agreed that the Secretariat would provide this information electronically to Members.
[Action: Secretariat]

94. The Chairman reminded Members that the June meeting of COMEAP would take place on 25th June 2004 at Skipton House.

Secretariat
March 2004

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