§ Mr. Stephen Rossasked the Secretary of State for Employment what studies have been carried out by his Department into accidents involving dioxin in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany and the United States of America in order to prevent occurrence or reoccurrence of such mishaps in the United Kingdom; and if he intends to undertake a study into the recent accident in Milan in order to learn from it.
§ Mr. John GrantIt is the policy of Her Majesty's Factory Inspectorate to study world-wide accident experience in order to advise on suitable precautions to prevent similar accidents occurring in Great Britain. This is only possible however, when manufacturers, Health and Safety Inspectorates or medical authorities make available the results of such accidents in their countries.
An explosion at Coalite and Chemical Products Ltd., Bolsover, was investigated by HMFI to determine the cause and to make recommendations in order to avoid any recurrence. The plant was subsequently redesigned and rebuilt incorporating the modifications recommended. The Employment Medical Advisory Service has been continuously involved in the study of cases of chloracne—a skin condition—since the explosion.
An accident occurred at BASF, AG at Ludwigshafen-am-Rhein in 1953. Little was known of the incident, however, until a paper was published by the company's medical department in 1972, and that paper produced no convincing evidence of adverse medical effects apart from chloracne caused by dioxin, which was inadvertently formed in relatively large quantities when the manufacturing process to produce trichlorophenol went out of control. We have no details of explosions in the Netherlands or the USA.
As regards the recent incident in Italy, I refer the hon. Member to my reply to the hon. Members for Isle of Wight (Mr. Ross) and Harlow (Mr. Newens) on 4th August.