§ Mr. Geoffrey RobinsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will fund research into the effects of sulphur dioxide and related pollutants on lung function in asthmatics and others with respiratory disease and the effects of such pollutants on the incidence of respiratory disease and asthma attacks; and if she will make a statement.
§ Mr. SackvilleThe advisory group of medical aspects of air pollution episodes set up in 1990 by the Government's chief medical officer has prepared two reports on air pollutants. That on ozone was published in 1991 and that on sulphur dioxide in 1992. Copies are in the Library.
The main agency through which the Government support biomedical and clinical research is the Medical Research Council—MRC—which receives its grant in aid from the Office of Science and Technology. The MRC is currently sponsoring some research into factors contributing to the rise of asthma cases and has set up a working party to examine the aetiology of asthma under the chairmanship of Professor A. J. Norman Taylor. This working party is currently considering a range of possible contributory factors to current levels of asthma including air pollution.