HC Deb 19 March 1959 vol 602 cc627-9
45. Mr. Beswick

asked the Prime Minister if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the Boeing 707 aircraft which suffered an auto-pilot failure on 3rd February was found on inspection to be mildly radioactive throughout its outer skin; how far details of this condition have been made available to his advisers under the agreement with the United States of America for exchange of nuclear information; what research has been or is being conducted in this country into the radiation to which high altitude aircraft are subjected; to what extent the natural radiation in the upper atmosphere is being increased by nuclear weapon tests; and if he will make a statement.

The Paymaster-General (Mr. Reginald Maudling)

I have been asked to reply.

I have had no official report from the Americans, but I understand that Press reports were substantially correct. A very low level of radioactivity was found on certain parts of the aircraft exterior. No cabin contamination was found and there is no reason to think that the activity had any effect on the behaviour of any of the aircraft instruments.

Measurements have been taken at high altitude by aircraft flying in this country and made available to the United Nations Scientific Committee on Radiation Hazards. The increase in radiation in the upper atmosphere is linked with the deposition at ground level. Reports of measurements in the United Kingdom are published regularly and placed in the Library of the House.

Mr. Beswick

Whilst I agree that this accident was not caused by radioactivity, the inspection which followed disclosed a phenomenon which is most significant. Can the Paymaster-General assure us that there is adequate research into this matter? Will he also bear in mind the factor, which the Prime Minister appears unable to grasp, that the spread of radioactive fall-out in the upper atmosphere is not necessarily even but is concentrated in the air streams and that we appear to be laying up for ourselves a problem in the upper atmosphere, which we hope to be using in greater degree in future years, about which we know insufficient? Will the right hon. Gentleman therefore ensure that there is adequate research into these problems?

Mr. Maudling

This is a very interesting phenomenon, but it can be exaggerated, as is shown by the fact that the level of radioactivity concerned was very low.

Mr. Bowles

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that Dr. Mont Follick, on his deathbed, told a late hon. Member of this House that he was dying through a disease which he got through sailing too close to Christmas Island and that he was suffering from radioactive anaemia and had the same treatment as the Japanese sailors? Is it not about time that these tests really were stopped?

Mr. Maudling

It is important in these matters to rely only upon scientifically-assessed evidence.

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