Former US President Ronald Reagan once asserted that around 93 per cent of our air pollution stemmed from hydrocarbons released by vegetation. "So let's not go overboard in setting and enforcing tough emission standards from man-made sources," he argued.
It is a thesis that many, including those in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), would heartily disagree with. Experts around the world concur that "setting and enforcing tough emission standards" is the most effective way to reduce and eliminate harmful emissions from industries that pollute the air we breathe and the water we drink.
Environmental pollution, whatever Mr Reagan believed, needs to be strictly controlled. This was the logic behind the setting up of the EPA in 1993 and the reason why two years later it began licensing large industrial processes that had the potential to pollute. Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) has been growing in importance in recent years, with the European Community making it "a priority field of action". In the past it was thought that harmful emissions to air, water and land should be considered separately.
Recent studies have shown that this approach can encourage the transfer of pollution problems from one part of the environment to another. With IPC there is only one licence and that serves to prevent or solve the pollution problems in all areas.
In IPC's first year only one such licence was issued and it took three months for the company in question to complete the complicated and time-consuming application. Writing in EMI magazine, Mr Ian McAuliffe, manager of environmental services with the Cork pharmaceutical company SmithKline Beecham, outlined how his company became the first in Ireland with an IPC licence. "Our operation was under Schedule 5.6 (Manufacture of Pharmaceuticals) and Schedule 11.1 (Incineration of Hazardous Wastes) and, consequently, the licence application had to be completed and lodged by September 1st, 1994. We decided to lodge the application as soon as possible as the new licence was crucial to the progressing of our site development plant." The application was extensive, requiring the company to furnish the EPA with information on control and abatement measures for air, water, noise and waste. An EIS (environmental impact study) also had to be completed and submitted with the form. SmithKline Beecham deployed a team of people to work on the application and in July, 1994, returned it completed to the EPA.
The entire process is deliberately transparent and the public is able to view any application and object to a proposed licence under a number of different grounds. In SmithKline Beecham's case there were no such objections and in December, 1994, they became the first company in Ireland to be issued with an IPC licence.
Since then, the EPA has issued more than 200 licences. Companies are obliged to file regular reports detailing that emissions are being monitored and that the equipment necessary to adhere to the licence is being adequately maintained. It is simply "part of business life now", says Mr Charlie Hipwell, head of environmental health and safety at Pfizer Pharmaceutical Production Company in Ringaskiddy, Co Cork.
Pfizer manufactures what is known as the active ingredient in pharmaceuticals. Some of these include the anti-fungal agent Diflucan and cardio vascular product Norvasc. More recently, it has become involved in producing the active ingredient for the impotency drug Viagra.
A multi-national company, it was one of the first American multi-nationals to locate in the area. They employ 300 in their Irish plant and over 50,000 world-wide.
"We went through a lengthy process of providing information to the EPA on various elements of our plant," he says. "Information was on the nature of emissions and the number of outlets in our buildings. We also needed to install a great deal of new technology in order to get our licence which we did in May 1995."
This technology is described under the IPC procedures as BATNEEC (best available technology not Entailing Excessive costs). According to EPA guidelines, it should be used to "prevent or eliminate, limit, abate or reduce emission from the activity". The emphasis is placed on pollution prevention techniques, including cleaner technologies.
Mr Hipwell explains how this works in Pfizer for air and water emissions. "Air emissions from each production building are treated, using the most up-to-date technology to remove any by-products of processing before returning the air to the atmosphere in pure form. Water based waste streams are purified in the waste water treatment plants," he says.
Such pollution prevention is common business practice now, he adds, and part of the social responsibility of businesses. "It keeps industry running in a positive way and means we are being good neighbours within the community in which we operate".
When SmithKline Beecham was applying for its licence in 1994, it met and consulted 16 different external organisations, including Cork County Council and Cork Environmental Alliance. The failure of companies applying for licences to seek professional advice has been shown to incur unnecessary costs in 60 per cent of cases.
"Going it alone when seeking IPC licences, which are required by most industries, is like failing to get help from professional accountants when dealing with tax returns," the managing director of Bord na Mona Paddy Hughes has said.
Last year a seminar to introduce an environmental training programme for Irish industry heard that many Irish companies were "defensive" about the need to take the environment seriously.
The EPA says it wants to see companies take a pro-active view of their environmental responsibilities and realise that good environment management is also good for business.
