35. Mrs. Butlerasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, as representing the Lord President of the Council, when the Agricultural Research Council's Radiobiological Laboratory at Compton expects to issue a report on the radioactive content of imported flour, in view of the disclosure by scientists in Minnesota of an increased level of Strontium 90 in 1958 wheat-crop samplings.
§ Mr. GodberThe 1958 results of the United Kingdom monitoring of biological materials, which is carried out at the A.R.C.'s Laboratory at Grove, near Wantage, Berkshire, are expected to be published about the middle of this year. They will cover data on flour imported from various parts of the world, including the U.S.A. The data available from the 1958 programme show that flour imported from the U.S.A. is similar in Strontium 90 content to flour produced in the United Kingdom and give no cause for alarm.
Mrs. ButlerIs the Minister aware that this report is awaited with very considerable anxiety in view of the fact that the Minnesota Commission of Scientists Report showed that one batch of wheat, 878 grown between 1956 and 1958 contained more than six times the supposedly tolerable limit of Strontium 90, and a spokesman of the Commission said that this position would worsen if nuclear tests continued? It really is something which is causing very considerable public anxiety.
§ Mr. GodberI can assure the hon. Lady that we do keep the closest check on these things. I can understand the anxiety to which she referred. We have sought particular information about it. We have not the fullest reports yet, but we have seen Press reports in the New York Times and the Washington Post which stated that this particular sample was a single one in 1957, an isolated case, and that the average is very much lower than the figure included here. It seems to me relevant to remember that this sample was of whole wheat, and the flour which results from it would contain far less Strontium 90 than the original wheat.