§ Ms PrimaroloTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps she takes to monitor regularly dioxins and similar substances in breast milk; what are her most recent findings; and what further plans she has.
§ Mr. SackvilleTwo monitoring exercises have been carried out for dioxins in human milk in the United Kingdom, both as part of a World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Office for Europe initiative. The results of the first exercise were reported in pollution paper No.27: Dioxins in the Environment (HMSO: London, 1989). The second exercise is nearing completion and the results will be published in due course.
Results of the most recent analyses of human milk for total polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organochlorine pesticides were published in Food Surveillance Paper No. 34: Report of the Working Party on Pesticides Residues: 1988–1990 (HMSO: London, 1992). Further analysis of specific PCB compounds is under way as part of the second WHO exercise, referred to above.
The need for monitoring of human milk for these contaminants is kept under review by the relevant working parties of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food's steering group on chemical aspects of food surveillance, on which the Department of Health is represented.
Copies of both papers are available in the Library.