THE EU is being urged to investigate an alleged "dirty tricks" campaign against the carpet industry.

Wyre Forest Euro MP Neena Gill has called on European Commissioner Mario Monti to look into the Healthy Flooring Network, which has cited carpet as a cause of asthma in children.

Her action comes after the Kidderminster-based Carpet Foundation, which represents 13 manufacturers, discovered the pressure group was funded by Pergo - a Swedish wood-floor producer.

The network claimed wooden flooring was healthier than carpets, which it alleged contained dangerous chemicals and trapped dust-mites whose droppings are a leading cause of asthma.

Ms Gill told commissioner Monti she believes the network's campaign may be in breach of EU law forbidding anti-competitive practices.

The Carpet Foundation was incensed at report author Dr Jill Warner's claims, pointing out up to 5,000 jobs in Kidderminster and 50,000 nationwide had been put at risk.

Now the carpet group has discovered the senior lecturer in allergy and immunology at Southampton University, has published two reports.

The first contained strong claims for the media and a "watered-down" version for a scientific journal, whose editor-in-chief is her husband.

Carpet Foundation executive director Mike Hardiman said: "We are interested to know why there should be two separate reports. The scientific world would not buy the contents of the report sent to the press.

"In the press report she claims that 100,000 dust mites could live in a square metre of carpet.

"However, the scientific report was watered down and the suggestion about dust mites did not appear."

Dr Warner was commissioned by the network to review 182 scientific papers on allergies and domestic living situations.

She produced a report Allergic Diseases and the Indoor Environment

However, Mr Hardiman stressed the report Controlling Indoor Allergens in the scientific journal was less anti-carpet and only quoted 100 out of the 182 scientific papers.

The editor-in-chief of the unbiased journal Paediatric Allergy and Immunology is John Warner, Dr Warner's husband.

Dr Warner would not comment on the reports and referred to a statement made on her behalf by Southampton University.

In it she said: "I was not aware of the source of the funding provided by the Healthy Flooring Network for the report into aspects of allergen avoidance and asthma.

"While I am disappointed not to have been informed of the source of the funding, I can affirm that it would have made no difference to the outcome of the report, which was essentially a literature review whose findings were based on the large amount of research already carried out on this subject."