HC Deb 24 May 1994 vol 244 cc127-8W
Mr. Llew Smith

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many deaths have been recorded in each year since 1979 arising from the over-exposure to radiation doses from X-ray equipment used to examine industrial welds and other industrial uses.

Mr. Michael Forsyth

Neither the national mortality statistics nor the Health and Safety Executive's database of fatal accidents show any deaths from acute overexposure to any type of radiation in the period 1979 up to April 1992—latest available information.

However figures from the Department of Social Security show that between 1983 and 1988 there were five awards of industrial death benefit for the prescribed diseases due to electro-magnetic radiations, other than radiant heat, or to ionising particles. It is not possible to say whether these individuals were industrial radiographers, or other exposed workers. Nor is it possible to determine when these individuals were exposed.

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