§ Mr. MansTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, if his Department has responded to the public review draft of the United States Environmental Protection Agency's report on dioxins.
§ Sir Paul BeresfordYes. The Government have completed their initial study of the EPA's draft report on dioxins. My Department has summarised the results of the study in a factual and technical commentary that it has sent to the EPA.
The commentary concentrates on the problems of assessing exposure to dioxins. It deals particularly with those aspects of exposure assessment that have been the subject of considerable recent research and analysis in this country and the rest of Europe. We hope this additional perspective may contribute further depth to what is already a very substantial and important draft.
An expert review of recent scientific work on the health effects of dioxins—including work reported in the EPA draft—is being carried out for the Department of Health by the committee on toxicity of chemicals in food, consumer products and the environment. This review will not be completed for some months: it would, therefore, have been premature to comment in depth on those volumes of the EPA's draft that deal with the health 214W effects of dioxins. Meanwhile, established research findings indicate that the dioxin levels to which the UK population is exposed do not, on the basis of the COT's current advice, present a threat to health.
A copy of the material my Department has sent to the EPA has today been placed in the Library of the House.