§ Mr. Abseasked the Secretary of State for Defence when the research into the alleged presence of trichothecenes in samples of vegetation from south-east Asia provided from the United States of America by the Chemical Defence Research Establishment will be completed; whether the research includes a review of the Harvard university study relating to the bees' faeces; and whether he will make a statement on the implications of the results to date of the research for the validity of the United States of America State Department claims that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics supplied Vietnam with chemical weapons.
§ Mr. StanleyOur chemical defence establishment at Porton Down has analysed a number of environmental and biomedical samples from alleged chemical warfare attacks in south-east Asia to see whether traces of trichothecene mycotoxins could be detected. These have yielded negative results.
The absence of positive results is not necessarily incompatible with positive findings elsewhere from different samples. We are, however, confident that our analytical techniques would have detected trichothecenes had they been present in the alleged chemical warfare samples analysed at CDE.
Whilst our investigation into trichothecene mycotoxins has proved negative, it is our view on the basis of epidemiological evidence that chemical warfare attacks probably did take place in south-east Asia. We are, however, unable to identify the agent or agents used; nor can we say for certain who may have supplied them.
CDE has also reviewed the Harvard university study, as presented in Scientific American of September 1985, to which the hon. Gentleman refers. CDE has concluded that its own findings neither support nor contradict the theory that "yellow rain" could be bee faeces.