§ Mr. Ronald Brownasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list in the Official Report those timbers, imported and home grown, that are injurious to workers when handling them in the course of furniture production; and what action he proposes to take to ban such timbers being used.
§ Mr. John GrantI am advised by the chairman of the Health and Safety Commission that the dust from many timbers, both imported and home grown, may give rise to risks to health including dermatitis, respiratory effects and nasal cancer. But because workers are rarely exposed to the dust from one timber alone it is very difficult to prove a cause and effect relationship. It would be inappropriate to single out particular varieties for special attention unless such a relationship can be established. The policy of the Health and Safety Commission is to deal with exposure to wood dust, like that of any other toxic substance, namely, to limit exposure of persons to levels that are as low as is reasonably practicable and in any case to below the threshold limit value.
A list of timbers which have been implicated with effects on health is given below: 390W
- Balsa wood
- Western red cedar
- Iroko
- Chloroxylon swientenia
- Coco-bolo
- Cocus wood
- Cokus ebony
- Cuban sabicu wood
- Rosewood
- Satin walnut
- Teak
- West Indian boxwood
- Katon wood
- Dahoma
- Guarea wood
- Peroba
- Cashewnut
- Beech
- Elm
- Oak
- Afrormosia
- Pine
- Ebony
- East African satin wood
- African boxwood
- Grenadilla wood
- Mansonia
- East African camphorwood
- Olive wood
- Oregon pine
- Partridge wood
- African mahogany
- Yew
- Larch
- Chestnut
- Indian lamel
- Agba
- Cypress pine
- Chestnut
- Douglas fir
- East Indian satin wood
- Makore
- Machaerium
- African cherry