asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he is aware that practically all flour used in this country is infested with mites and that this infestation is seriously affecting the health of many, leading in some cases to internal cancer, and is causing wastage and loss of flour and bread; and, if so, if he will take immediate steps to ensure that the large flour millers will cleans and purify all wheat for human consumption before milling in the same way as millers in the U.S.A., Canada, France, Britain, etc., are obliged by statute to cleanse their wheat, whether for home consumption or export, so as to eliminate effectively both mites and their eggs.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Flour Infestation.
There is no foundation for the suggestion that flour used in this country is infested with mites.
All flour millers are equipped with plant to cleanse wheat before milling, as well as for periodic purification.
I cannot accept the Minister's reply as being correct. It is known to every housewife all over the country that if whole flour particularly is kept for any length of time in the house, having been purchased a short time after milling, it develops these mites which could almost walk it out of the house. The Minister must be aware of that. Is he further awarethat in most of the other countries I mentioned flour millers are compelled to cleanse the wheat on the outside before milling to eliminate the mites which come in every farm crop off the land? I am asking the Minister to take this up as a serious matter, because any housewife in town or country can assure him of the truth of what I have said.
I have said that all flour millers in this country are equipped with plant to cleanse wheat and there is no foundation for the suggestion that flour as delivered from the flour mills is infested. It is quite true that if a trader or householder keeps flour for an unduly long period it will deteriorate. May I say also that there is a strong volume of opinion which argues that the insecticides and chemicals used in some countries for cleansing wheat do more damage to health than the mites they are intended to destroy?
I am not referring to the use of insecticides, but to the practice in the United States by which a miller is compelled to wash the wheat before kiln drying and milling. I want to assure the Minister that I have on several occasions examined samples of flour under a microscope and have found it to be literally crawling with mites which come from the threshing, which originate in the land and which are necessary for the growth of the wheat. The Minister and his Department must be aware of that and what I am asking the Minister to do is to insist on millers cleaning the wheat before milling to eliminate these mites or weevils.
I am quite satisfied, following inquiries by inspectors of my Department and of the Department of Agriculture, and by officers of the Flour Millers' Association, that there is no foundation whatever for the suggestion Deputy Blowick has put forward.
Question No. 3.
I should like you, Sir,to allow a further supplementary question by me.
I do not see what a further supplementary question can elicit. The Deputy says one thing and the Minister says the contrary.
The supplementary I wanted to put to the Minister is——
Question No. 3 —Deputy Hession.