§ Mr. BattleTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list by place and date all his Department's surveys into lead levels in the blood of schoolchildren since 1979.
§ Mr. DorrellThe Department has not carried out any such surveys. However, surveys have been commissioned by the Department of the Environment (DOE) and the Medical Research Council (MRC) which is the main agency through which the Government support bio-medical and clinical research in the United Kingdom.
The DOE has published the results of the surveys it has commissioned in its Pollution Report Series "United Kingdom Blood Lead Monitoring Programme, 1984–1987". Report No. 28 (1990) summarises all the results for 1984–87. Details of the results for 1984–1986 are given in reports 22, 24 and 26. Copies of all these reports are available in the Library.
The surveys show a progressive fall in children's blood lead levels.