To ask the Secretary of State for Health what re-assessment he has made of the research published by his Department in CMO(85)14 on the relationship between nitrate levels in water and cancer incidence. [3489]

CMO(85)14 gave advice on the health effects of nitrates in drinking water and concluded that although a theoretical risk of a relationship between nitrate and cancer remained, the epidemiological evidence as a whole gave no support to the suggestion that nitrate was a cause of cancer of the stomach, or other organs. Since 1985 there has been no good evidence for changing this advice and this is supported by evaluations made bythe Committee on the Medical Aspects of the Contamination of Air, Soil, and Water in 1988, the World Health Organisation in 1993 and the National Research Council in the United States in 1995.