HL Deb 01 March 1977 vol 380 cc611-4WA
Lord AVEBURY

asked Her Majesty's Government:

  1. (1) What checks are made to identify the type of asbestos present in raw asbestos and asbestos containing manufactured products imported into the Linked Kingdom;
  2. (2) Whether tremolite has been identified in raw asbestos or asbestos containing manufactured products imported into the United Kingdom;
  3. (3) How many samples of asbestos or asbestos containing manufactured products were sent to the laboratories of the Health and Safety Executive and the Government Chemist respectively in 1976, and in how many of these was tremolite found;
  4. (4) What epidemiological data referring to how many individuals formed 612 the basis for the Hygiene Standard for Airborne Asbestos Concentrations used with the Asbestos Regulations 1969: and how were these individuals selected;
  5. (5) What advice they have sought or received on the amendment of the Airborne Asbestos Dust Concentrations used with the Asbestos Regulations 1969, in the light of the findings of the report by the Cancer Epidemiology and Clinical Trials Unit, University of Oxford on 678 male workers first employed at the Turner and Newall factory in Rochdale since 1933;
  6. (6) Whether they will publish the findings of the investigation being conducted by the Department of Health and Social Security Cancer Epidemiology and Clinical Trials Unit at the University of Oxford on 678 male asbestos workers at Turner and Newall's factory at Rochdale, giving the number of deaths at 1966 and 1974 from asbestosis, lung cancer, mesothelioma of pleura, mesothelioma of peritoneum, laryngeal cancer, liver cancer, gastrointestinal cancers, cancers of any other organ tissue, and from all other causes respectively: whether they will give the comparable information for women workers, and whether they will give the number of women in the sample;
  7. (7) When information on the study reported to the Conference of the SIAM Institute for Mathematics and Society at Alta, Utah, in the summer of 1976, by Mr. Julian Peto of the Cancer Epidemilogy and Clinical Trials Unit University of Oxford, will be published; and
  8. (8) Whether they will publish figures for dust counts taken at the Rochdale factory of Turner and Newall during the period 1933 to 1974, which Mr. Julian Peto obtained from Turner and Newall in November 1976.

Lord ORAM

The information is as follows: (1) In the case of certain types of raw asbestos this information is recorded on Customs entry documents. Similar information is not required for manufactured products. It is the responsibility of employers of workpeople at risk from asbestos to identify the hazard and to take appropriate precautions.

(2) No. Importers are not required to identify that this material is present on Customs entry documents.

(3) In 1976 1,513 bulk samples and 4,324 membrane filter samples were sent to the Occupational Medicine and Hygiene Laboratories of the Health and Safety Executive. During the same period 4,598 bulk and membrane filter samples were sent to the Laboratory of the Government Chemist. Bulk samples of asbestos may be examined either by optical microscopy or by X-ray diffraction techniques. Tremolite can be detected using both techniques as long as the proportion of tremolite in the sample exceeds 5 per cent, by weight. Identification of tremolite in membrane filter samples is difficult but not impossible. Tremolite has been identified in one of the bulk samples analysed.

(4) The records of clinical examination, chest Arrays and dust exposure of 290 workers who had worked 10 years or more j since 1st January 1933 at an asbestos textile factory form the basis of the hygiene standard for Airborne Asbestos.

(5) The Advisory Committee on Asbestos set up by the Health and Safety Commission under the chairmanship of Mr. Bill Simpson has called for evidence relating to asbestos hazard. A number of submissions have resulted including a report by Mr. Julian Peto of the Cancer Epidemiology and Clinical Trials Unit, University of Oxford, and other data will be solicited from academic and industrial sources.

(6) I understand that in keeping with normal practice, the results of this investigation will be written and published by the Director of the Cancer and Epidemiology Unit at Oxford University in the scientific Press and will deal with the relevant medical and environmental features. The investigation was not commissioned by the Government and there will therefore be no official publication of its findings as such, but it will be studied by the Advisory Committee on Asbestos j set up by the Health and Safety Commission.

(7) I am given to understand that the proceedings of this Conference which will include the paper by Mr. Julian Peto, will be published in the USA at the end of March this year.

(8) Figures up to June 1966 were published by the British Occupational Hygiene Society in the Annals of Occupational Hygiene in 1986. I understand that a summary of all the dust data made available to the Cancer Epidemiology and Clinical Trials Unit, of which Mr. Peto is a member, will be included in their forthcoming paper on asbestos exposure. Figures for dust counts at the Rochdale factory also formed part of Turner and Newall's submission to the Advisory Committee on Asbestos and I would refer the noble Lord to the statement of the Secretary of State for Employment in another place on 18th May 1976 in which he said "the Committee's report and the evidence to it will be published by the Health and Safety Commission". [House of Commons Hansard, Vol. 911, c. 1219.]