§ Mr. Bottomleyasked the Minister of Health how many deaths have occurred in the last two years of children suffering from blood cancer, bone cancer and Hodgkin's disease; to what extent these figures represent an increase in the yearly average; what is the relation between thes illnesses and nuclear radiation.
§ Mr. Walker-SmithThe latest available figures for children under 15 (England and Wales) are as follows:
— 1956 1957 Leukaemia and aleukaemia 345 316 Malignant neoplasm of bone 47 29 Hodgkin's Disease 21 22 The death rate recorded for the two years shows no significant departure from the trends of previous years.
For information about the relation between various forms of illness and ionizing radiation I would refer the right hon. Member to the Report of the Medical Research Council's Committee on the Hazards to Man of Nuclear and Allied Radiations (Cmd. 9780) and to the more recent Report of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation and the Medical Research Council's comments thereon (Cmnd. 508).