New Clause 16
Housing and Regeneration Bill
2:15 pm
Lembit Öpik (Shadow Minister (Housing), Department for Communities and Local Government; Montgomeryshire, Liberal Democrat)
It would not be reasonable to expect the Minister to become an expert on electromagnetic fields, given that his portfolio is housing. However, this is an interesting debate and I hope that I will remain in order, Mr. Gale, if I highlight a couple of thoughts. I have looked at this research myself. I come from a scientific background and my father was a physicist. There is no question but that when dealing with energy, there can be unintended consequences on health, as intimated by the hon. Member for Ruislip-Northwood. It is perfectly plausible to draw an association between radiation and health, so it is reasonable to obtain the Minister’s perspective on how the Government perceive the precautionary principle in relation to radiation sources. We have probably all had some dialogue with individuals who are concerned about mobile phone masts. Indeed, I participated in a conference in this very room on that subject some time ago.
I have looked at a lot of the research on this matter, and I think that much of it is equivocal and circumstantial. One highly publicised research report seemed to be based on a very small sample, and I wondered whether the sample was sufficiently significant to provide reliable results. Nevertheless, if there is not sufficient evidence, it is incumbent on the Government to research the matter further. Will the Minister give us his views on something that I have long regarded as the most sensible way forward on this and other health-related housing and accommodation matters? If we tabulated health data on a geographical basis, we could see whether regular patterns are developing around the country, perhaps around certain industrial sectors or concentrations of radiation sources. That would greatly help us to build a more reliable understanding of the causal links between such relatively new technologies and the human body.
Obviously, there are risks to certain industries. If they were shown to be significant polluters of health, the consequences would be very expensive. Notwithstanding that, strides in technology have been so great that we have probably wandered into a technological environment in which there are unintended consequences on human health that we are only beginning to understand. Will the Minister consider the case for a geographical tabulation of illness around the country? If so, perhaps we can discuss this issue further.