Dr. ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will commission an assessment of the report by Professors Brouwfr, Koeman and Reijndfrs of the Agricultural University of Wagenngen, released in August, concerning the link between PCB pollution and seals' deaths in the North sea.
§ Mrs. Virginia BottomleyAs far as I am aware, no copies of this report have yet been received by United Kingdom Government Departments. We will look at any report on this topic with interest, although the indications so far are that pollution played no significant part in the spread of the seal virus along United Kingdom coast in 1988. The research funded by this Department at the sea mammal research unit of the Natural Environment Research Council on possible links between pollutants and seals' immune system is continuing and relevant work in all North sea states will continue to be reviewed by the International Commission for the Exploration of the Seas.