HC Deb 03 July 2000 vol 353 cc32-3W
Mr. Baker

To ask the Secretary of State for Health on what date the Committee on Dental Surgical Materials required that no materials containing United Kingdom bovine material be used. [111895]

Yvette Cooper

[holding answer 1 March 2000]: The Committee on Dental and Surgical Materials (CDSM) did not impose a ban on the use of bovine materials in the production of surgical materials. Licensable dental and surgical materials were subject to the guidelines on the sourcing and processing of bovine materials for use in medicinal products that were issued by the Committee on Safety of Medicines as a precautionary measure in March 1989. The effect of the guidelines was to require all United Kingdom licence holders to source bovine material from outside the UK. Existing supplies of dental or surgical products that used UK sourced bovine materials were not withdrawn and it is therefore not possible to confirm when those products ceased to be used.

Mr. Baker

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment his Department made of the risk of transmission of BSE from the use of bovine material in(a) surgical catgut and (b) cosmetic products in deciding whether or not to prohibit the use of such material. [111896]

Yvette Cooper

[holding answer 1 March 2000]: The use of bovine material in the production of surgical catgut was considered by the Committee on Safety of Medicines (CSM), the Committee on Dental and Surgical Materials (CDSM) and the bovine spongiform encephalopathy working party, set up to advise the CSM and CDSM on the implications of BSE for licensable products in the light of the Southwood Report conclusion that any potential risk of transmission of transferable spongiform encephalopathies associated with medicinal products was remote. They advised that, as a precautionary measure, surgical catgut should be subject to the CSM guidelines issued in March 1989 on the sourcing and processing of bovine material for use in medicinal products. The effect of the guidelines was to require all United Kingdom licence holders to source bovine material from outside the UK.

Cosmetic products are controlled by the Cosmetic Products (Safety) Regulations 1996, which implement in the UK the European Union Cosmetics Directive (76/768/EEC). The Department of Trade and Industry has responsibility for these Regulations.

No independent risk assessments were carried out on use of bovine material in cosmetics prior to the opinion of the EU Scientific Committee on Cosmetology (SCC) given in 1996. However, in 1990 the Department of Trade and Industry considered that, although risks were likely to be very low, it would be prudent to take similar action to that taken in the food area on use of UK sourced bovine material. In 1992 guidance was issued by the UK trade associations on the use of bovine and ovine extracts, based primarily on sourcing material from outside the UK or with extracts that conformed with World Health Organisation advice on infectivity.

The National CJD Surveillance Unit monitors the incidence of CJD and undertakes a detailed examination of cases of variant CJD (vCJD) for any evidence of common risk factors. Investigation of the cases to date has found no evidence of an association with the use of surgical catgut or cosmetic products.

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