house of lords official report - United Kingdom Parliament

1129 Organophosphates
[17 JUNE 2009]
Organophosphates
1130
glaucoma are all in this group and the first two are, to
my knowledge, also caused by OP damage to the
autonomic system.
Is the Minister able to say how much research
has been conducted into the effects that drugs which
act on the acetylcholine system have on patients who
have reported illness following exposure to
organophosphate pesticides? If he knows of none,
does he agree that this is an important consideration
for a large number of agricultural workers, Gulf War
veterans and aircrew? Should this not be an urgent
consideration?
I have made a brief outline of some of the reasons
why I believe that the Official Group on
Organophosphates should reconvene. I have barely
touched on recent developments in this field. I have
asked that it should give the matter priority. I also ask
that on this occasion it produces a report on the lines
of its 1998 report.
7.41 pm
Lord Rooker: My Lords, I support the noble Countess.
Basically, the simple answer to her question should be
yes. I am not going to go into all the background
details because I am not as up-to-date as I was when I
was one of the Ministers responsible in 1997-99 and
then again from 2006-08 in one department, but the
fact that this issue goes across departments is the
central point that I wish to make.
As the noble Countess has said, there has been
progress. The lack of exposure today is a result of
the work that has been done by the industry,
pushed by our officials in the Veterinary Medicines
Directorate, in producing better containers from
which people could not by accident, irrespective of
negligence, be contaminated. There is no question that
this was a serious issue in the past. However, this
means that no new people from farming are coming
into the system for the doctors and the scientists to
look at. As I say, the problem transcends that, but
there has been stagnation.
When we considered this problem in MAFF from
very early on in 1997 and 1998, I had discussions with
the then Minister, Jack Cunningham, who, with his
background as a chemist, took it very seriously. We
picked up from other departments that there were
issues across government in regard to chemicals. Richard
Carden—who, as the noble Countess said, has retired—
would take some pleasure in seeing the Carden Committee
reconvened. He was a first-class civil servant, in my
experience, at MAFF and he chaired a large Whitehall
committee which covered many more departments
than one would imagine. Obviously, as I moved around
Whitehall I did not keep up to date over the years. I
regret that the committee’s deliberations have not been
made public and I can see no good reason for that.
In that period of time, we had probably three
scientific advisers, and now we have a new Government
Chief Scientific Adviser. This problem should be the
first thing on Professor Bennington’s desk and he
should look at it to see what the current situation is.
There are grounds for considering it. I have never seen
a satisfactory answer to the issue of the airline pilots
and the doubts that have been raised about it. I do not
want to be controversial but, if one looks at the big
picture from the outside—at the nature of the doubts
about organophosphates, at the issue of Factor VIII,
dirty blood and blood products, and at the issue of
Gulf War syndrome from the first Gulf War—one
gets the impression of a natural reluctance of the
centre to investigate when these issues arise and a
pattern starts to be formed. That is the point that I
want to make.
In a way, the Carden Committee and what was put
together could overcome and answer some of these
issues. They go across Whitehall departments. I do not
want the Government to be in the dock over them but
a pattern has emerged over a period—there may be
others of which I am unaware—that there is a reluctance
to investigate. Why? “Oh, because there are no new
cases; because of the issue of compensation; because
the science is not quite clear”. Given what has happened
in the United States in the first 100 days, if these
matters were put to President Obama I can envisage
some executive action coming forth. Not by overdoing
the science or taking the scientists’ view, but by giving the
issue a push, a spurt, to ensure that we can put it to
bed.
There is plenty of evidence—I do not think complete
solutions will ever be found—from those who have
been injured, if I can put it that way, in the farming
industry, from those with Gulf War syndrome and
from the issue of the fuel used in aircraft to ensure that
the doubts about the use of organophosphates remain.
These are matters worthy of investigation. In the way
that it does, Whitehall did some joined-up thinking on
this. There was genuine joined-up working in the way
in which the Carden Committee was put together and
worked. I pay tribute to that and I have no problem
with it.
I was on the receiving end over a 10-year period of
delegations which included the noble Lord, Lord Taylor,
and the noble Countess, Lady Mar. I said to officials
on one occasion—I think it was in 2006 or early
2007—after the noble colleagues had left, “One day I
will be a Back-Bencher and she is my model”. That is
true. The noble Countess has shown great tenaciousness
in pushing this issue—it is not a vested interest, although
she has been affected in many ways—getting to grips
with it and not accepting no for an answer. In this
case, Whitehall and the Government reached out.
I do not know whether it is time to call for Carden,
who is well away into retirement—I shall not mention
what part of the country he is in but I had a nice letter
from him when I left government, so I know he keeps a
watch on what is going on—but I hope the lawyers will
not make the final decision; it is important that it is
made on the grounds of science and health. The
Government have a public responsibility and a duty of
care in all these issues. In allowing products onto the
market, however they are used, the Government have
a duty of care. It may be that people will say, “We have
solved all the problems” but, nevertheless, there are
too many unanswered questions. It is probably time,
given the Whitehall committee structure, genuinely to
say to the noble Countess tonight that the answer to
her question should be yes.