HC Deb 20 June 1988 vol 135 c413W
Mr. Ron Davies

To ask The Secretary of State for Social Services what studies have been conducted by his Department, water authorities or other bodies into a possible link between high aluminium levels in water supplies and senility; and if he will make a statement.

Mrs. Currie

The Department has not commissioned any research into a possible link between high aluminium levels in water supplies and senility. I understand that the Medical Research Council, which is the main agency through which the Government support medical research in the United Kingdom and which receives a grant-in-aid from the Department of Education and Science, has supported two studies on this subject in its own units. The results of one of these studies have still to be published. I am also aware that other research on this subject has been carried out at the University of Surrey, but details are not held centrally.