Government hardens attitude to EC bathing water proposal

The Government appears to be setting its face against parts of a European Commission proposal to reform the 1976 EC Directive on bathing water quality. A Health Minister told a House of Lords inquiry in October that it sees no need to tighten any of the existing standards - even though a recent British study has suggested that significant levels of disease may be caused by exposure of bathers to faecal streptococci at levels well below even those proposed by Brussels.