§ 39. Lieut.-Colonel Bromley-Davenportasked the Minister of Health whether he has yet received advice from the Medical Research Council on the effect upon 600 humans of eating chickens caponised by hormone injections; whether reference has been made in such advice to the evidence submitted by the hon. Member for Knutsford, that the amount of diethylstilbestol used for hormonising chickens and bullocks may be of danger as a cancer-causing agent; and whether he will cause a new investigation to be made into the possible dangers of using caponising injections in chickens in this country.
§ The Minister of Health (Mr. Derek Walker-Smith)The advice of the Medical Research Council, to whom the Press report I received from my hon. and gallant Friend was sent, is that experiments have shown that any trace of oestrogen remaining in the flesh of caponised chickens is extremely small, and that neither carcinogenic nor other undesirable effects are to be expected from the use of diethylstilboestrol. In the light of this advice, no further investigation seems called for.
§ Lieut.-Colonel Bromley-DavenportDoes my right hon. and learned Friend not think it rather alarming that the Department of Health in America has recently reported that the new methods of measurement have shown that the amount of diethystilbestrol found in the bodies of hormonised bullocks and cockerels is far greater than was previously thought and, further, that this substance may be a cause of cancer, besides causing other troubles? Has my right hon. and learned Friend's Department considered this American report in detail?
§ Mr. Walker-SmithI have not been able to identify the committee of the United States Department of Health referred to in the newspaper report sent me by my hon. and gallant Friend, but I have seen a paper published in July, 1957, which reports the conclusions of a member of the staff of the Laboratory of Nutrition and Endocrinology of the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and that report states that the amount of oestrogen in the meat of beef cattle and poultry treated with such compounds presents no hazards to man.
§ Dr. SummerskillIs the right hon. and learned Gentleman aware that, on the contrary, a small amount might have a salutary effect on some individuals?