AN MP is backing a campaign by church organ-makers to avoid falling within EU laws designed to cut the amount of hazardous metals in electronic equipment that ends up in landfill.

Family firm Harrison and Harrison, which employs 50 people at Meadowfield, near Durham City, and has a contract to rebuild the organ at London's Royal Festival Hall, fears for its future because of the rules, which aim to reduce lead content.

Traditional organs, which have pipes made from a lead alloy - to get the tone - are not classed as electronic equipment, but there are fears they may fall within the scope of the directive because they rely on electric blowers.

The concern is that if bureaucrats deem that they are covered by the legislation, then they will not be able to make pipes with so much lead - even though pipes are never dumped in landfill sites.

Company administrator Katherine Venning said: "The lead is never dumped into the environment, everything is recycled. The lead is worked on at relatively low temperatures so that there is no airborne lead, which is the danger for workers.

"All the workers have regular health checks, including blood tests, and all the results show there is no import of lead into the body through working with lead in organ pipe making."

Durham City Labour MP Roberta Blackman-Woods visited the factory and said she was raising the issue with ministers to try to ensure that the rules do not cover organs.

She said: "The quality of craftsmanship and traditional skill here is amazing. It is vital that we find a way to keep this world-renowned company in business. I will be pressing the matter with ministers at Westminster to find a way of allowing this traditional industry to continue, in which Durham is a world leader."