§ Mr. Skinnerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what current investigations are being made by his Department into the causes of bronchitis and emphysema; and if they will be categorised as industrial diseases.
§ Mr. OrmeThe Medical Research Council, which is the main Government-funded body conducting or supporting research in this field, has for many years supported a substantial programme of research into bronchitis and emphysema and current work includes studies of the immunological, genetic and infective aspects of these conditions. Four of the Council's own research establishments are concerned with research into bronchitis and emphysema and the Council has also awarded several research grants in hospitals and university departments. In addition, a questionnaire on respiratory symptoms, first produced by the Council's Committee for Research on Chronic306W Bronchitis in 1966 and recently revised, has become a standard epidemiological tool in the study of chronic bronchitis. In addition to funds provided to the Council by the Health Departments my Department also supports other research in this field. Research is separately undertaken by universities and medical schools.
A close watch is kept on results as they become available. On present evidence I am afraid that I cannot hold out any hope of prescribing these diseases as industrial diseases. To do so under the criteria laid down in the Social Security Act 1975 we should have to be able to distinguish clinically between those cases of bronchitis and emphysema which do arise from a person's occupation and those which do not. This distinction is not possible in the present state of medical knowledge; and the direct link between an occupation and a disease must be established before a disease is prescribed as an industrial disease, since this attracts the special benefits of the industrial injuries scheme. Though bronchitis and emphysema are not themselves prescribed, they may nevertheless be taken into account in assessing disablement under the Act where they accompany the prescribed disease, pneumoconiosis.