Table of Contents
Analysis
The most telling information disclosed is in the 28th September 2022 response
- Cefas only tested crab samples for metals
- No testing of crabs was carried out between 3rd February and 28th September 2022.
Summary
Why did Cefas only test crabs for metals? Cefas is commissioned by other Defra agencies to carry out testing, for example for the FSA on food safety and for the Environment Agency to develop pyridine quantification in crabs. Cefas, the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, are the experts on crabs and the River Tees is not heavily contaminated with metals. The River Tees is heavily contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and over 8,000 tonnes of PAHs were sat on the banks of the River Tees will the structures around them were being blown up, so why weren't the experts testing for PAHs?
Source
In addition to my requests, please can you supply a full list of the contaminants thafrom thet were tested for in crab samples, sediment samples, and water samples as stated in the update below.
Cefas tested crab tissue for elemental metals only. ……..
The majority of testing for chemical contaminates was completed by the Environment Agency.
Also please can I be provided with any additional testing results that have been completed since this update, the update was dated 3rd February 2022.
We can confirm that the information that you have requested is not held by Defra.
Cefas and EA are both agenices of Defra so no testing on crab samples can have been carried out between 3rd February and 28th September 2022, otherwise Defra would have had the information and disclosed it.
Request 1
Please supply the following information.
In relation to testing of crustaceans following the mass marine mortality incident on the North East coast I would like to be provided with the full test results and raw data for the following.
1.Full results and raw data of any testing that took place on crustaceans, fish or other marine life following the mass marine die off incident including any results for the following:
a. Pyrdidine and Pyridine Derivatives
b. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, particularly the below: Acenapthene, Acenapthylene, Anthracene, Benz[a]anthracene, Benzo[a]pyrene, Benzo[b]fluroanthene, Benzo[g,h,i]perylene, Benzo[e]pyrene, Benzo[k]fluroanthene, C1-Napthalenes, C1-Phernanthrenes, C2-Napthalenes, C3-Napthalenes, Chrysene, Dibenz[a,h]anthracene, Fluroanthene, Fluorene, Indeno[123-c,d]pyrene, Napthalene, Perylene, Phenanthrene, Pyrene
Please could you provide full data for the full Teesside area including Seaton, Bran Sands, Saltburn, Runswick, St Mary's Lighthouse, “Eastern” IFCA 3, the Penzance control group and any other data collected.
2. Please can you also supply results of all other testing that has taken place in the United Kingdom for the above substances from 2012 to present.
Please can you also indicate where results are above or below what levels would be expected to be found in healthy marine life.
3. Please supply any further reports and correspondence between DEFRA and Tees Valley Combined Authority regarding this matter
Request 2
28th August 2022
In addition to my request please can you tell me what reagents, derivetization agents and other chemicals were used in the testing of samples
Request 3
29th August 2022
In addition to my requests, please can you supply a full list of the contaminants that were tested for in crab samples, sediment samples, and water samples as stated in the update below.
Also please can I be provided with any additional testing results that have been completed since this update https://www.gov.uk/government/news/update-on-investigation-into-the-deaths-of-crabs-and-lobster-in-the-north-east
Response
REQUEST FOR INFORMATION: North-East Mass Marine Mortality Test Results Analysis
Thank you for your three requests for information of 28 and 29 August 2022 about analysis of the North-East mass marine mortality test results analysis. We have handled your request under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIRs).
The EIRs apply to requests for environmental information, which is a broad category of information defined in regulation 2 of the EIRs. Public authorities are required to handle requests for environmental information under the EIRs. They give similar access rights to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).
Your information request and our response are set out below.
Request 1
In relation to testing of crustaceans following the mass marine mortality incident on the North East coast I would like to be provided with the full test results and raw data for the following.
1. Full results and raw data of any testing that took place on crustaceans, fish or other marine life following the mass marine die off incident including any results for the following:
a. Pyrdidine and Pyridine Derivatives
b. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, particularly the below: Acenapthene, Acenapthylene, Anthracene, Benz[a]anthracene, Benzo[a]pyrene, Benzo[b]fluroanthene, Benzo[g,h,i]perylene, Benzo[e]pyrene, Benzo[k]fluroanthene, C1-Napthalenes, C1-Phernanthrenes, C2-Napthalenes, C3-Napthalenes, Chrysene, Dibenz[a,h]anthracene, Fluroanthene, Fluorene, Indeno[123-c,d]pyrene, Napthalene, Perylene, Phenanthrene, Pyrene
Please could you provide full data for the full Teesside area including Seaton, Bran Sands, Saltburn, Runswick, St Mary's Lighthouse, “Eastern” IFCA 3, the Penzance control group and any other data collected.
We can confirm that the information that you have requested is not held by Defra. The exception at regulation 12(4)(a) of the EIRs, which relates to information which is not held at the time when an applicant's request is received, therefore applies to the information you have requested. Any questions on test results for Pyridine would need to be directed to the Environment Agency, although all raw data related to the investigation is also in the process of being prepared for publication on GOV.UK.
For further details on regulation 12(4)(a) please see below.
2. Please can you also supply results of all other testing that has taken place in the United Kingdom for the above substances from 2012 to present.
There are a number of monitoring programmes and workstreams already publicly available under which Cefas has either conducted or recommended the conducting of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) analysis. They are listed below with links to where the data can be found:
- https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dredged-material-disposal-site-monitoring-round-the-coast-of-england, which provides annual physical, chemical and/or biological data for a selection of Oslo and Paris Convention for the Protection of the Northeast Atlantic (OSPAR)/London Convention and London Protocol (LCLP) disposal sites
- https://www.bodc.ac.uk/projects/data_management/uk/merman/assessments_and_data_access/, which provides annual data monitoring for physical, chemical and biological data conducted under the auspices of the Clean Safe Seas Evidence Group under the UK Marine Strategy
- https://oap.ospar.org/en/ospar-assessments/committee-assessments/hazardous-substances-and-eutrophication/mime/cemp-levels-and-trends-marine-contaminants/, which provides annual, rollover assessments of levels and trends in marine contaminants and their biological effects held by OSPAR
- https://rconnect.cefas.co.uk/action_levels_tool/, which provides dredged material sample analysis (physical and chemical data) for marine licensing (advised on by Cefas for the MMO, conducted by individually contracted laboratories validated by the MMO). The tool shows data in an online map viewer. These data include results for dredge/disposal applications which may have been considered unacceptable for dredging and/or disposal to sea by Cefas at the time of review. It should also be noted that Cefas does not record which or how many applications are recommended for either total or partial exclusion from disposal at sea. Any such conclusions can be found on the MMO Public Register.
As the information you have requested is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format, regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs exempts Defra from providing a copy of the information with this response to your request
Please can you also indicate where results are above or below what levels would be expected to be found in healthy marine life.
There is no standardised data source or assessment tool which can authoritatively determine what levels of PAHs or pyridine can be “expected to be found in healthy marine life”. Such levels are generally referred to as “background levels” of a contaminant in the environment, and these can be observed in naturally occurring deposits. However, it is not possible to answer this question as there is a general lack of evidence to support such a conclusion for PAHs.
The above-cited data sources all contain some level of assessment of whether contaminant levels would be considered acceptable or unacceptable under various assessment frameworks (e.g., OSPAR). It would be manifestly unreasonable for Cefas to make an assessment of all such data within the EIR time period. Further, the data are highly likely to have been assessed prior to publishing in this regard:
- Sources 1 and 2 generally will not contain any standardised assessment of whether levels are considered acceptable or unacceptable. However, the sediment contaminant data found within this source can be cross-referenced against the existing and proposed Cefas Action Levels
- Source 3 will contain some level of assessment of contaminant levels with respect to their biological effects
- Source 4 classifies each data point through colour coding as to whether the contaminant in question exceeds either the existing or proposed Cefas Action Levels. Further information on the Cefas Action Levels can be found in the Action Levels Review Report found here: http://sciencesearch.defra.gov.uk/Default.aspx?Menu=Menu&Module=More&Location=None&Completed=0&ProjectID=20243. A corresponding peer-reviewed article was also published by the authors in 2021 (Mason et al., 2021).
References: Mason, C., Vivian, C., Griffith, A., Warford, L., Hynes, C., Barber, J., Sheahan, D., Bersuder, P., Bakir, A. and Lonsdale, J.A., 2021. Reviewing the UK’s Action Levels for the Management of Dredged Material. Geosciences, 12(1), p.3.
3. Please supply any further reports and correspondence between DEFRA and Tees Valley Combined Authority regarding this matter
We enclose a copy of the information requested in the attached Annexes C to G. We have omitted information that falls within the scope of your request but would add nothing to your understanding of the matter, e.g. housekeeping emails, such as meeting requests and acknowledgements.
Map highlighting Dabholme Gut - EIR2022 17208 Annex G.png
In addition, one piece of information that is held by Defra is also in the public domain and can be found here:
As the information is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format, regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs exempts Defra from providing a copy of the information with this response to your request
We have also decided that the names and contact details of members of staff who are not Senior Civil Servants and information that could be used to identify individuals should be redacted and withheld in Annexes C to G under regulations 12(3) and 13(1) and (2A) of the EIRs as the information constitutes personal data relating to persons other than you. These regulations exempt personal information from disclosure if that information relates to someone other than the applicant, and if disclosure of that information would breach any of the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
We consider that disclosure of this information is likely to breach the first data protection principle, which provides that personal data must be processed lawfully, fairly, and in a transparent manner. Disclosure would not constitute 'fair' processing of the personal data because the information relates to members of staff who are not public facing officials and would not reasonably have expected their names to be made public.
Request 2
In addition to my request please can you tell me what reagents, derivetization agents and other chemicals were used in the testing of samples
Chemicals used as part of the biota sample analysis for metals under the Mass Mortality Investigation comprised:
- Nanopure water (purified to a resistivity >17.2MW/cm)
- Concentrated HNO3 and HCl (Aristar grade)
- Two SPEX Certiprep Custom Assurance multi element ICP standards (1000mg/L)
- Two Hg ICP Standards (1000 mg/L)
- Indium ICP standard (1000mg/L)
- Tuning solution Y [Yttirum], Co [Cobalt], Ce [Cerium], Li [Lithium], Tl [Thallium] (1mg/L)
- Gold ICP standard (10000mg/L)
Chemicals used as part of regular sediment sample analysis for PAHs (such as for dredged material sampling) comprise:
- Pentane, HPLC Grade
- Acetone, HPLC Grade
- Methanol high purity
- Potassium hydroxide pellets, Analytical reagent grade
- Anhydrous sodium sulphate, Analytical reagent frade (clean according to Ref 5.1)
- Ultra high purity water
- Anti-bumping granules (Teflon boiling stones)
- Aluminium foil
- NIST-1944 Certified Reference Material – sediment (for sediment analysis)
- Forties Crude Oil as required
- Alumina Merck no 1077
- n-Hexane Rathburn glass distilled grade
- Dichloromethane, HPLC Grade
- 5% Deactivated Alumina
- Chrysene d12 PAH recovery standard – refrigerated at 1 - 8°C
- Custom PAH standard mix 100 µg/ml
- 2-Methylphenanthrene 1.0 mg/ml 0812 Chiron AS
- 2-Butyldibenzothiophene 0.5 mg/ml 0178 Chiron AS
- 2-Methyldibenzothiophene 0.5 mg/ml 0886 Chiron AS
- 2,4,7-Trimethyldibenzothiophene 0.5 mg/ml 0158 Chiron AS
- Sediment PAH internal standard 100 µg/ml
- Deuterated PAH standards of verified purity:
- Dibenz[a,h]anthracene d14
- Benzo[a]pyrene d12
- Pyrene d10
- Benz[a]anthracene d12
- Anthracene d10
- Dibenzothiothene d8
- Acenaphthalene d8
- Naphthalene d8
Request 3
In addition to my requests, please can you supply a full list of the contaminants that were tested for in crab samples, sediment samples, and water samples as stated in the update below.
Cefas tested crab tissue for elemental metals only. These comprised:
- Arsenic (As) *Arsenic is technically a metalloid, i.e. not a “true” metal.
- Cadmium (Cd)
- Chromium (Cr)
- Copper (Cu)
- Iron (Fe)
- Mercury (Hg)
- Manganese (Mn)
- Nickel (Ni)
- Lead (Pb)
- Selenium (Se)
- Zinc (Zn)
The majority of testing for chemical contaminates was completed by the Environment Agency.
Also please can I be provided with any additional testing results that have been completed since this update
We can confirm that the information that you have requested is not held by Defra. The exception at regulation 12(4)(a) of the EIRs, which relates to information which is not held at the time when an applicant's request is received, therefore applies to the information you have requested.
Regulation 12(4)(a)
Regulation 12(4)(a) is a qualified exception, which usually means that a public authority is required to conduct a public interest test to determine whether or not information should be disclosed or withheld. However, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), who is the independent regulator for requests made under the EIRs, takes the view that a public interest test in cases where the information is not held would serve no useful purpose. Therefore, in line with the ICO's view, Defra has not conducted a public interest test in this case.
Information disclosed in response to this EIRs request is releasable to the public. In keeping with the spirit and effect of the EIRs and the government’s Transparency Agenda, this letter and the information disclosed to you may be placed onhttp://www.gov.uk/, together with any related information that will provide a key to its wider context. No information identifying you will be placed on the GOV.UK website.
We attach Annex A, explaining the copyright that applies to the information being released to you, and Annex B giving contact details should you be unhappy with the service you have received.