§ Mr. NealeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress has been made in providing a small group of independent experts to advise the local health authority on the health consequences of the water pollution in the Camelford area of north Cornwall.
§ Mr. FreemanProfessor Dame Barbara Clayton from Southampton university medical school, Professor G. A. Rose of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Professor J. A. Edwardson of the MRC neurochemical pathology unit, Newcastle, and Professor R. F. Packham from the Water Research Centre and Imperial college, London, have agreed to form an expert advisory group. I am most grateful to Dame Barbara Clayton, who will chair the advisory group, and the other members for undertaking this task at such short notice.
The group, to be known as the Lowermoor incident health advisory group, will advise the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly district health authority on the implications for the health of the population in the Camelford area following the contamination of their drinking water in July 1988. They will start work as soon as possible, and their report will be available to Ministers and made public.