HL Deb 10 June 1980 vol 410 cc427-8WA
Viscount CRAIGAVON

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will give the most recent annual figure for deaths among young children resulting from accidents with plastic bags; how this figure compares with the figure when this cause of death first became identified as a separate

Year 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978
Age (yrs)
Under1 3 6 3 1 2 3 — 2 1
1–4 5 4 10 3 3 4 3 1 1
5–14 — 2 1 — — 5 1 2 1
Total 8 12 14 4 5 12 4 5 3

In view of the numbers involved, no trend can be identified.

The only figures of such deaths to children under 15 readily available for years problem; and whether they will give selected figures in the intervening period to show any trend, for both before and after printed warnings on such bags became widespread.

Lord TREFGARNE

Accidental death among young children from asphyxia associated with plastic bags first became identified as a separate problem in the United Kingdom in 1959. The use of printed warnings on plastic bags became widespread during the mid 1960s following a voluntary agreement between the industry and the Home Office, which was at that time responsible for consumer safety.

The annual number of accidental deaths among children in England and Wales from asphyxia caused by plastic bags between 1970 and 1978 are as follows:

between 1959 and 1970 are 0 in 1960 and 7 in 1961.

House adjourned at twenty-one minutes past three o'clock.