HC Deb 14 December 1959 vol 615 cc1020-1
6. Mr. Farr

asked the Minister of Health, as representing the Minister for Science, what investigations he has made into the possibility of D.D.T. and some of its solvents used in agriculture, causing leukemia, aplastic anaemia, jaundice and other blood disorders; and with what result.

Mr. Walker-Smith

Experimental studies undertaken under the auspices of the Medical Research Council and by other workers have provided no evidence that blood disorders can be produced by D.D.T. I understand that manufacturers of this substance avoid the use of solvents which may have undesirable effects on the blood.

Mr. Farr

Again, I point out that research abroad has established that there is a connection between certain toxic sprays and these diseases. Again, I ask my right hon. and learned Friend to ask his right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture to press for an immediate inquiry into this aspect of toxic sprays.

Mr. Walker-Smith

My answer to the latter part of my hon. Friend's supplementary question is the same as my answer to the first part of his supplementary question on the last Question. On the connection between this and blood diseases, it is a fact that occasional reports in medical literature have attributed blood diseases to D.D.T. but the cause of the illness has invariably been poorly substantiated in those cases.