§ Tim LoughtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what clinical evidence his Department has evaluated regarding mortality resulting from exposure to asbestos. [37588]
§ Dr. WhiteheadOver the five years from 1996 to 2000 specialist chest and occupational physicians participating in the Surveillance of Work-related and Occupational Respiratory Disease (SWORD) and the Occupational Physicians Reporting Activity (OPRA) schemes for the surveillance of occupational respiratory diseases have seen an estimated 4,046 cases of mesothelioma and 434 of lung cancer which they attributed to asbestos exposure, virtually all occupational. Nearly all these cases will eventually have been fatal.
Not all such cases are seen by the SWORD/OPRA network, and the mesothelioma register records that a total of 7,123 people have died from this cause over the five years from 1995 to 1999 (data for 2000 not yet available). The epidemiological evidence suggests that almost all these will have been caused by asbestos
§ Tim LoughtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if the Health and Safety Executive will produce confirmed pathology of mortality from handling asbestos cement in the UK in the last 30 years. [37610]
§ Dr. WhiteheadIt is not possible to confirm the source of asbestos leading to individual cases of asbestos-related disease.
§ Tim LoughtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what recent estimate he has made of the likely cost involved in compliance with the EU ban on white asbestos. [37611]
§ Dr. WhiteheadWhen the Health and Safety Commission consulted in 1998 on draft regulations planned to implement the European Commission Directive banning the marketing and use of all types of asbestos, it carried out a regulatory impact assessment of the costs and benefits entailed.
This assessment estimated that the total costs of regulation in the UK over 10 years would be between £191 million and £241 million. No more recent estimate of cost has been carried out.
§ Tim LoughtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if the Health and Safety Executive will produce confirmed pathology for cases of mesotheliomas linked to white asbestos for persons aged(a) under and (b) over 60 years of age. [37609]
§ Dr. WhiteheadIt is not possible to link individual cases reliably to particular types of asbestos.
§ Tim LoughtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what independent scientific reports have been used by the Health and Safety Executive in formulating their policy toward white asbestos; and which independent scientists have advised the Health and Safety Executive about the dangers of white asbestos. [37587]
1180W
§ Dr. WhiteheadThe Health and Safety Executive has over the years taken advice and commissioned research from a wide range of scientists working in this area. It has also kept the relevant scientific literature under review. In this context it has taken account of the conclusions of the following more recent key reports; Asbestos, Effects on Health of Exposure to Asbestos (Doll and Peto) 1995; Fibrous Materials in the Environment (Institute for Environment and Health) 1997; the 1998 World Health Organisation report on white asbestos; and the 2000 Hodgson and Darnton paper on the quantitative risks of mesothelioma and lung cancer in relation to asbestos exposure. All are published and copies of the report are available in the Libraries of the House.