§ Mr. Gordon Wilsonasked the Secretary of State for Employment what is the most recent estimate available from current data of the total number of deaths annually from occupationally related diseases, and in particular those estimates relating to lung cancer, heart disease and bronchitis.
§ Mr. MayhewDeaths from diseases attributed to occupational causes are only recorded as such in cases where industrial death benefit is paid (the "prescribed" diseases) or where notification is made under the Factories Act 1961 (the "notifiable" diseases). The most recent currently available figures are 899 deaths in 1977 and 707 (provisional figure) in 1978 from prescribed diseases, and three and nil deaths in the respective years from notifiable diseases (excluding deaths caused by gassing accidents).
Heart disease and bronchitis are not prescribed or notifiable diseases although each may be a contributory factor to death from some disease that is prescribed. Lung cancer is only a prescribed disease in respect of the limited range of occupations liable to contract prescribed disease 37(b); deaths from this disease were nil in 1977 and two (provisional figure) in 1978.
§ Mr. Gordon Wilsonasked the Secretary of State for Employment what studies are currently being undertaken into the percentage of all cancer cases which may be related to carcinogens in the work place in (a) the United States of America and (b) Great Britain; and what significant factors, if any, there may be in such percentages of cancer cases between the two countries.
§ Mr. MayhewA study was published in the United States of America in 1978 entitled "Estimates of the fraction of cancer in the United States related to occupational factors." This was prepared by the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Institute 293W for Occupational Safety and Health. The methodology of this study has been severely criticised by scientists in the United States and in the United Kingdom, and I am informed that, in the view of the Health and Safety Executive, no reliable estimate of the percentage of deaths from cancer that are due to occupational factors can be determined. There is no pathological distinction between non-occupational and occupational cancers, and in many instances a combination of contributory factors exists.
§ Mr. Gordon Wilsonasked the Secretary of State for Employment what estimates he has of the percentages of workers who are fully informed of occupational health risks to which they are exposed.
§ Mr. MayhewI can form no estimate of the percentage of workers who are fully informed of occupational health risks to which they are exposed. However, under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 employers have a statutory duty to provide such information as is necessary to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety at work of their employees; to prepare a written statement of their general policy with respect to health and safety at work; and to bring the statement to the notice of their employees.