§ Mr. GillTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what research(a) he has commissioned and (b) evaluated which has been carried out into the effect of organophosphates upon (i) humans and (ii) animals. [28095]
§ Mrs. BrowningBetween 1991 and 1994 the national poisons unit, London, was funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to conduct studies into the effects on human health from acute exposure to organophosphorus sheep dips. Jointly with the Department of Health and the Health and Safety Executive, MAFF has also awarded a contract worth £500,000 to the Institute of Occupational Medicine in Edinburgh to carry out an epidemiological study designed 265W to detect well-defined, predetermined chronic effects in humans of dipping sheep with OP sheep dips. This study is expected to be competed in April 1999.
No current research into the effects of organophosphates on animals is being undertaken by MAFF. Every veterinary medicine must satisfy statutory criteria of safety, quality and efficacy, and responsibility for undertaking or providing information on the necessary research to meet these criteria rests with applicants for marketing authorisations. That research is evaluated as part of the authorisation process. We have, however, agreed two major research projects, worth £1.2 million over three years, on alternatives to organophosphorus sheep dips.
There is also a very large quantity of published scientific literature on organophosphates, including papers on the effects in animals and humans, which is considered by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate as part of the continuing review of the use of OP sheep dips by the Veterinary Products Committee. References to these are widely available from commercial databases.