Supplementary letter from the Department
of Health
At the oral session on 22 November, we undertook
to submit additional material to the Sub-Committee on three issues—the
proposed statutory regulation of complementary medical professions,
advice on diet for pregnant and lactating mothers, and pollutants
in the air.
22 NOVEMBER 2006
The proposed statutory regulation of complementary
medical professions
The Government is committed to the regulation
of acupuncture, herbal medicine and traditional Chinese medicine
practitioners. We have set up a Joint Working Group, chaired by
Professor Mike Pittilo, Chancellor and Vice Chair of the Robert
Gordon University in Aberdeen, to prepare the ground for statutory
regulation of these professions.
The Joint Working Group draws together feedback
from all stakeholders, whose involvement is crucial to achieve
a successful way forward. Inevitably, this does take time. Experience
of regulating new professions suggests that we are unlikely to
be in a position to bring forward legislation until 2008-09 at
the earliest.
Once legislation is in force, practitioners
in these three disciplines will only be able to practise if they
are registered with the regulatory body. In order to do this they
will have to satisfy agreed standards, such as holding recognised
qualifications and/or evidence of safe and effective practice.
People will be able to confirm the bona fides of a practitioner
by checking whether they are registered with the regulatory body,
and will also be able to make complaints about a practitioner's
fitness to practise.
Advice on diet for pregnant and lactating mothers
The Department of Health's advice for pregnant
and nursing mothers is set out in The Pregnancy Book and
in Birth to Five, which are given free to first time mothers.
Both provide information and advice on peanut allergy as follows:
"if you, your baby's father or any previous children have
a history of hayfever, asthma, eczema or other allergies, you
may wish to avoid eating peanuts and foods containing peanut products".
In general, women are advised to read food labels carefully and,
if still in doubt about the content, to avoid these foods and
also to check with a health professional about diet during breastfeeding.
Our current advice is based on the conclusions
of the Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products
and the Environment (COT), based on the best available evidence
when it reported in 1998. We recognise that the then available
evidence on development of peanut allergy during pregnancy and
weaning was not conclusive but, noting the uncertainty and the
potential for risk of life-threatening anaphylaxis, our advice
on peanut allergy is precautionary.
We are aware of ongoing research, by both the
Food Standards Agency and other organisations, and keep abreast
of emerging evidence. We shall ask the COT for further advice
when a reasonable body of evidence is available, and will update
our own advice as appropriate.
Pollutants in the air
According to the 1995 report of the Committee
on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP) on Asthma
and Outdoor Air Pollution, air pollution refers to the presence
in the air of gases or particles of matter, which are not natural
to the atmosphere at such concentrations. These are generally
man-made, though the term also applies to unusual natural events,
such as the eruption of volcanoes.
The COMEAP report was confined to the effects
of non-biological pollutants. It excluded aeroallergens (pollens,
mould spores), although it recognised that they are important
causes of respiratory problems—including outbreaks of asthma—and,
being to some extent influenced by man, could be included as pollutants.
The main ambient pollutants which have been studied in relation
to respiratory diseases are particles, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen
dioxide and ozone.
The bulletins issued by the Government's air
pollution service show current levels of air pollution and air
quality forecasts. Measurements are given for ozone, nitrogen
dioxide, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide and particles.
11 December 2006
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