§ Mrs. Ray MichieTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) if he will make a statement on the number and location of the leukaemia clusters being investigated at present;
(2) what plans his Department has to investigate all leukaemia clusters found throughout the United Kingdom with a view to establishing their cause.
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§ Mrs. CurrieLeukaemia, like other rare diseases, tends to cluster as a matter of statistical chance, and investigation will not necessarily lead to the detection of local environmental causes. Nevertheless, the Government are funding developments in the statistics to facilitate the systematic detection and investigation of clusters. In particular, I refer the hon. Member to my reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Beverley (Mr. Cran) on 30 March 1988 at columns550–51. The small area health statistics unit is funded by Government and its work is guided by a steering committee on which sit independent experts and officials.
Research into the epidemiology of leukaemia is undertaken by a number of cancer registries and research organisations funded both by Government and independently, and arrangements have been agreed between them to co-ordinate the development of methods and their investigations.
Meanwhile, the Department is involved with investigations into leukaemia clusters around Sellafield in Cumbria and Aldermaston and Burghfield in Berkshire. I understand from my right hon. and learned Friend the 665W Secretary of State for Scotland and my right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for Northern Ireland and for Wales that their Departments are involved with a number of investigations.
I refer the hon. Member to the reply given by my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Scotland to my hon. Friend the Member for Tayside, North (Mr. Walker) on 8 June 1988 at columns 600–1 about the report of the Committee on the Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment on the incidence of leukaemia around Dounreay. Also, an independent committee in Northern Ireland is examining the patterns of disease with a possible association with radiation. This will include a search for possible leukaemia clusters. In Wales, an investigation into the incidence of leukaemia on the north Wales coast is in progress.