§ Mrs. Beckettasked the Minister for the Civil Service if the Civil Service medical advisory service is aware of any clusters of abnormal pregnancies among women users of visual display units in the Civil Service other than that at the Department of Employment's offices in Runcorn; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. HayhoeNo. The Civil Service medical advisory service is not aware of clusters of abnormal pregnancies among women users of visual display units in the Civil Service, either in the Department of Employment's offices in Runcorn or elsewhere.
§ Mrs. Beckettasked the Minister for the Civil Service if he will now publish the report, including the recommendations of the Civil Service medical advisory service, on the cluster of abnormal pregnancies which occurred at the Department of Employment's offices in Runcorn among women users of visual display units.
§ Mr. HayhoeThe report of the Runcorn survey was presented at an international meeting which examined the allegations of reproductive hazards from VDUs and was held in London on 29–30 November 1984. The papers of the conference have been published and are available from Humane Technology, P.O. Box 2, Quorn, Leicestershire LE12 8EG at a cost of £15. Medical and scientific consensus at the meeting was that VDUs do not constitute a reproductive hazard. An account of the meeting was also published in the Health and Safety Information Bulletin —IRS 67 Maygrove Road, NW6 2EJ — on 8 January 1985.
The study of 169 pregnancies in 113 women who had worked in a Department of Employment office in Runcorn over a nine-year period showed that rates of miscarriages, foetal abnormalities and stillbirths in the "exposed" pregnancies were within normally accepted limits, and no clustering of abnormal pregnancies was apparent. There was an unusually low rate of miscarriage of "control" pregnancies, a feature of other studies which have relied largely on mothers' own memories for information about past pregnancies.
The recommendations of the Civil Service medical advisory service are that the outcome of the large scale prospective studies of VDT operators currently under way in north America should be closely reviewed and that further studies on the Runcorn model in the Civil Service are inappropriate. Their close review of international medico-scientific literature and their close co-operation 41W with the Health and Safety Executive on questions of adverse outcome of pregnancy associated with occupation will continue.
§ Mrs. Beckettasked the Minister for the Civil Service if, in the light of further clusters of abnormal pregnancies occurring at fire brigade headquarters in Manchester, he will now reconsider the decision not to continue the Civil Service medical advisory service research on the occurrence of such clusters among women users of visual display units; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. HayhoeI understand that the report of possible clusters of abnormal pregnancies occurring at the fire brigade headquarters in Manchester is based on anecdotal evidence gathered during a survey by the Fire Brigades Union. It appears that the report has not been submitted to the occupational health medical officer for Greater Manchester council nor to a professional journal for medical and scientific assessment. The Civil Service medical advisory service will take into account the findings of the study, after publication in a scientific journal, in its assessment of possible reproductive hazards which might be attributed to VDU usage. The current medical and scientific consensus is that no such hazards exist.
§ Mrs. Beckettasked the Minister for the Civil Service whether the Civil Service medical advisory service has studied the results of American research about the clusters of abnormal pregnancies occurring among the wives of male users of visual display units; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. HayhoeAn intensive search of medico-scientific literature has not elicited the information stated and neither the Civil Service medical adviser nor the chairman of the scientific advisory committee of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists is aware of scientific studies reported in the medical literature which support the assertion.
Full-value discretionary awards Lesser value awards Number of awards Per 1,000 of the average of the 18 + 19 population Number of awards Per 1,000 of the average of the 18 + 19 population Barking 29 13 241 106 Barnet 333 74 — — Bexley 97 28 88 26 Brent 531 125 10 2 Bromley 223 46 56 12 Croydon 87 16 679 126 Ealing 18 4 430 100 Enfield 24 6 217 54 Haringey 128 38 377 111 Harrow 193 60 60 19 Havering 58 15 474 122 Hillingdon 108 27 178 45 Hounslow 54 16 135 41 Kingston-upon-Thames 27 14 84 43 Merton 26 11 156 64 Newham 40 11 198 54 Redbridge 117 34 56 16 Richmond-upon-Thames 105 45 126 54 Sutton 58 23 217 86 Waltham Forest 83 25 496 151 Inner London 2,474 62 4,131 103 Birmingham 172 10 328 18 Coventry 139 24 373 64 Dudley 81 18 681 155