§ Mrs. Ann TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what funding the Government are proposing to make for research into the toxicity of aluminium and the long-term consequences of ingestion of aluminium in(a) small and (b) large quantities.
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Mr. Jackson[holding reply 13 July 1989]: The Medical Research Council, which receives a grant-in-aid from this Department, is the main agency through which the Government support medical research. The council, which itself determines the allocation of the funds at its disposal, is supporting research on the possible link between aluminium and Alzheimer's disease at its environmental epidemiology unit at Southampton and at its neurochemical pathology unit in Newcastle. It is also supporting research on the absorption of aluminium from soya-based infant foods at its Dunn nutrition unit in Cambridge. The council is not currently supporting work on the effects of ingestion of large amounts of aluminium.
The council is always willing to consider soundly based proposals for new research programmes in competitlion with other proposals.