§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what research has been carried out, or is currently being carried out, to see if gas ozone may be an integrated factor in childhood asthma; and if she will make a statement.
§ Mr. SackvilleWe attach particular importance to maintaining the improvements made in child health and are concerned by the increase in reported cases of childhood asthma.
In 1990 an advisory group was convened by the chief medical officer to look at the short-term health effects of exposure to specific air pollutants. Its first report—"Ozone" (published by HMSO in August 1991)—found that there was no conclusive evidence to show that exposure to ozone or other air pollutants at levels occurring in the United Kingdom cause people to become asthmatic, but recommended that there should be further research. A copy of the report is available in the Library.
The Department has raised this with the Medical Research Council; the main agency which supports biomedical and clinical research in the United Kingdom and which in 1990–91 —the latest year for which figures are available—spent £1 million on research into asthma. We have also set up a further advisory committee with a wider remit to co-ordinate work on the assessment of the effects of exposure to air pollutants on health.