Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what research his Department has (a) undertaken and (b) commissioned on the ingestion of crocidolite blue asbestos fibres through drinking water; and if he will make a statement.

The Drinking Water Inspectorate commissioned a research review in 2002 entitled Asbestos Cement Drinking Water Pipes and Possible Health Risks. The resulting report is published on the Inspectorate’s website at http://www.dwi.gov.uk/research/.

This report considered all relevant research, including that on crocidolite blue asbestos fibres, and concluded that ‘the possibility of health effects from asbestos fibres in drinking water has been widely studied but with little evidence for any concern’.

More recent research by the International Agency for Research on Cancer in 2012 and an evaluation by Health Canada also in 2012 informed the WHO’s current position that little convincing evidence has been found of the carcinogenicity of ingested asbestos.