Dioxins (Hansard, 2 July 1991)

§ Mr. Skinner
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will revert to the previously established lower safety level for dioxin.

§ Mr. Maclean
No safety limit was set prior to the work recently carried out for the World Health Organisation which established a provisional tolerable daily intake of dioxins.
132W

§ Dr. David Clark
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will give the number of municipal and private incinerators where he has conducted tests for dioxins in England on(a) agricultural land or (b) products; what proportions these are of the total number of incinerators in England; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Gummer
Dioxin levels have been measured in milk collected from farms in the vicinity of two of the four high-temperature chemical waste incinerators situated in England and Wales. The preliminary results fall within the range of background levels found in other industrial areas.

§ Mr. Skinner
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will set up a public inquiry into the dioxin levels in milk in the Bolsover area.

§ Mr. Maclean
I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for South Shields (Dr. Clark) on 1 July 1991.

§ Dr. David Clark
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will give the maximum tolerable concentration of dioxins in nanogrammes per kilogramme of milk prior to its level being set at 0.7 nanogrammes.

§ Mr. Gummer
No prior figure was set.

§ Dr. David Clark
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, further to his answer to the hon. Member for Lancashire, West (Mr. Hind) of 26 June, if he will list the names and positions of the scientific and medical experts which calculated the maximum tolerable concentration of dioxins in milk; whether they were members of any Government advisory committees; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Gummer
The chairman of the Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COT) was consulted about the calculation of the maximum tolerable concentration of dioxins in milk and agreed the tolerance level set. The full set of results from the dioxins survey will be considered by the COT before publication later this year. In order to deal quickly with the enhanced levels of dioxins found in the milk from two farms in Derbyshire an expert scientific and medical team from my Department and the Department of Health was assembled to make the detailed calculations which were based on recommendations made in December 1990 by a WHO expert group.

§ Mr. Skinner
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will pay compensation to those who have had their livelihood adversely affected as a result of the dioxin levels in the milk supply in the Bolsover area.

§ Mr. Maclean
I have every sympathy with the two farmers whose milk can no longer go for human consumption and my staff are giving all the help they can. As for compensation, the established principle which applies in such circumstances is that it is the polluter who should pay.