§ Mr. GardinerTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what progress has been made on the independent review by Academy of Medical Sciences of the open-air trials in the UK using zinc cadmium sulphide carried out by the former Chemical Defence Establishment between 1953 and 1964. [116659]
§ Dr. MoonieI am pleased to announce that Professor Lachmann and his team have now completed their review and reported. The study compared the population's possible exposure to cadmium from the open-air releases during the trails conducted between 1953 and 1964, to the cadmium exposure which people would otherwise have encountered from the environment. The material used for the trials was zinc cadmium sulphide, which is not itself an agent of biological or chemical warfare. It was used as a tracer to simulate the dispersion in the open air of biological warfare agents.
The Ministry of Defence welcomes the main conclusion of the report that there was no danger to public health arising from the use of zinc cadmium sulphide for the trials. The report also concludes that there was no evidence to show that the land based trials produced any higher level of cadmium concentrations in the soil than would normally be observed in the UK. Nor was there any evidence to show that cadmium released into the atmosphere during the airborne trials would have caused any ill effects. No increased incidence of diseases associated with cadmium toxicity was found in the areas where the trials took place.
The report by Professor Lachmann and his team is being published and I will arrange for copies to be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.