§ Mr. Beaumont-Darkasked the Secretary of State for the Environment when he will publish the report of the steering committee on environmental lead in Birmingham.
§ Mr. Giles ShawThe steering committee's report to its sponsors—the city of Birmingham and the Departments of the Environment and Health and Social Security—is being published today in the DOE series of pollution reports. I am arranging for copies to be placed in the Library.
The steering committee studied the exposure to lead of pre-school children living in inner Birmingham, moving on to more detailed work on the dietary patterns of children of Asian origin as the committee found that they were much more likely to have unusually high levels of lead in their bodies. The committee showed that this does not result from exposure to lead in air or water, nor can it be related with certainty to dietary factors; a more likely source of the lead is old paintwork or dust contaminated by it.
The preliminary findings from the EC blood-lead survey showed that the Birmingham pattern of blood-leads is not repeated in the Spitalfields area of inner London; studies are in hand to see what the position is in some other areas. Research is being carried out into the possibility that lack of vitamin D may adversely affect children's blood-lead levels. And local authorities were recently advised in a circular on the problems of lead in old paint and dust.
The Government are very grateful to the Steering Committee and their many collaborators for their hard work on this project, but our special thanks are owed to the parents of the children who took part in it.