51����

THE very things that make our homes cosy—soft furnishings, carpets,
wooden floors and the like—could be magnets for benzene pollution from car
exhausts, claim scientists at the Salvatore Maugeri Foundation in Padua, Italy
(51����, 11 March, p 6).
Because I am especially fond of my creature comforts, I sought a reaction to this finding
from Keith Hill of the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions—his
ministerial responsibilities cover “environmental protection at the local level”.

Hill replied that the DETR commissioned the Building Research Establishment
to carry out a study of volatile organic compounds,…