§ Mr. Lomasasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what research is being done in the problems of accidental radiation and its consequences.
§ Mr. MoyleThe National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) tells me that in considering the effect of ionising radiation on man, the source of the radiation, accidental or otherwise, is immaterial. Work in this field is being carried out at present in the United Kingdom by the Medical Research Council, NRPB and a number of university departments and research institutes. A wide variety of studies is being undertaken, ranging from work with animals in which the effects of radiation on cells and organs and the metabolic pathways of radioactive substances are being investigated, to follow-up studies on groups of men exposed to ionising radiation during the course of their work. The subject has been recently comprehensively reviewed by the United Nations Scientific Committee on the effects of ionising radiation in their publication "Sources and effects of ionising radiation" (United Nations, New York, 1977).
§ Mr. Lomasasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish the latest available figures showing the number of people who have suffered from accidental radiation; and if he will list the kind of illnesses which might be expected, and which have developed.
§ Mr. MoyleFigures showing the number of persons subject to the Factories16W Act 1961 who have received doses of radiation in excess of the statutory permitted levels are published in the annual report of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Factories (HMSO). The recent figures are as follows:
NUMBER OF PERSONS 1968 87 1969 64 1970 52 1971 78 1972 41 1973 38 1974 28 1975 34* 1976 37* * not yet published. My Department also collects figures of successful claims for benefit, other than death benefit, made under the industrial injuries scheme in respect of radiation-caused diseases—prescribed diseases number 25—but these are not published. The figures since 1948 are as follows:
NUMBER OF SUCCESSFUL CLAIMS 1948 to 1957 63 1958–59 11 1959–60 4 1960–61 2 1961–62 2 1962–63 0 1963–64 2 1964–65 1 1965–66 1 1966–67 4 1967–68 1 1968–69 0 1969–70 1 1970–71 0 1971–72 4 1972–73 3 1973–74 2 1974–75 2 1975–76 1 Exposure to radiation may cause a number of conditions, including inflammation of malignant disease of the skin or subcutaneous tissue, or of the bones, and alterations in the blood such as anaemia, which affects the red blood cells, and certain types of leukaemia, which affect the white blood cells. It may also affect the eyes.