§ Mr. Pardoeasked the Minister of State for Defence if he will publish the Registrar General's Report comparing the incidence of death and disease among staff who have been employed at Nancekuke with the figures for the nation as a whole, which was promised to the hon. Member for North Cornwall in December 1969.
§ Mr. Ian GilmourThe Registrar General's Report on the incidence of death is published below. The Report on the incidence of sickness is not yet completed.
The Registrar General has traced all deaths up to 1969 of persons employed at Nancekuke since 1950, whether during their employment or subsequently, and the certified causes have been determined.
There were 41 deaths, all males, nine during employment at Nancekuke and 32 295W after leaving the establishment. Scrutiny of the written causes of deaths reveals no cluster of unusual causes.
The mortality in the employees was compared with that of males in England and Wales as a whole as follows. From the relevant dates, the man-years at risk in each five-year age-group for each of the 20 years 1950–69 were calculated. These figures were then multiplied by the age-specific rates for males in England and Wales in these years to give expected numbers of deaths. The table below shows the observed and expected deaths from various groups of causes, totalled over the 20 years.
It is clear from the table that there is no evidence of any increased risk from any group of causes. For respiratory diseases, and for all causes, the mortality in the Nancekuke workers is rather less than for England and Wales as a whole. This can probably be explained by regional difference in climatic and social conditions.
MORTALITY AMONGST NANCEKUKE EMPLOYEES AND FORMER EMPLOYEES (MALE) 1950–1969 Cause Group Observed deaths Expected deaths Infective and parasitic diseases — 1.1 Neoplasms 12 12.0 Diseases of nervous system and sense organs 2 3.8 Diseases of the circulatory system 17 18.1 Diseases of the respiratory system 3 5.7 Diseases of the digestive system 2 1.4 Diseases of the genitourinary system 0 0.9 Accidents, poisonings and violence 4 4.1 Other 1 1.2 All causes 41 48.3