§ Mr. Cryerasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will ban the import into the United Kingdom of raw crocidolite and products containing it.
§ Mr. WaddingtonThe Health and Safety Executive is preparing a consultative document for the Health and Safety Commission which contains proposals for the banning of the importation of raw crocidolite and products containing it. It is intended that the consultative document will be published early next year.
A voluntary ban on the use of crocidolite by the United Kingdom asbestos industry, which has been fully effective, has been in operation since 1970.
§ Mr. Cryerasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will provide an official definition of the term "containing crocidolite", of the technique or techniques of analysis to be used and the criteria for deciding whether crocidolite is present.
§ Mr. WaddingtonThe principal analytical methods available for the identification of crocidolite are polarising light microscopy and X-ray diffraction. Other methods have also been used, namely differential thermal analysis, infra-red spectroscopy and electron microscopy. If crocidolite is detected by these means the sample should be treated as "containing crocidolite".
The Health and Safety Executive, in conjunction with Government Departments, is developing standard analytical procedures which will be published when established.
§ Mr. Cryerasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will take steps to allow an employer to treat a given substance as containing crocidolite and be under no further obligation to carry out tests to determine whether crocidolite is in fact present.
§ Mr. WaddingtonIf an employer considers a material may contain crocidolite and adopts the stringent precautions associated with exposure to it, he is under no obligation to carry out tests to prove it is present.
§ Mr. Cryerasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he intends to set the control limit for exposure to dust from existing applications of crocidolite asbestos to 0.2 fibres/ml for a four-hour sampling period.
§ Mr. WaddingtonI understand that the Factory Inspectorate is already applying, in the enforcement of existing legislation on asbestos, the requirement for the control limit of 0.2 fibres/ml over four hours for crocidolite.