Day 100 - 09 Mar 95 - Page 53


     
     1        you had a glance at it?
     2        A.  Yes.
     3
     4   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, Mr. Morris.
     5
     6   MR. MORRIS:  What is your understanding of the concern of the
     7        authors of this report?
     8
     9   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No.  I am afraid that is far too wide.  You
    10        must put some suggestion to him.  I had assumed it was
    11        going to be based on the report, so put the suggestion to
    12        him and let us hear what it is.
    13
    14   MR. MORRIS:  Well, is it true to say there are concerns over
    15        pesticide residues, broadly?
    16        A.  There are concerns over pesticide residues broadly
    17        speaking, yes, there are.
    18
    19   Q.   That is a concern, in any event, in other quarters, yes?
    20        A.  What other?
    21
    22   Q.   There are public concerns over pesticide residues?
    23        A.  That is what I am referring to, yes.
    24
    25   Q.   Does it surprise you that beef, for example, in the charts
    26        is second on the list of foods with the greatest estimated
    27        oncogenic risk?  That is the first table.
    28
    29   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It is about halfway between the tomatoes and
    30        potatoes.
    31        A.  Yes.  I am afraid I do not know what an "oncogenic
    32        risk" is.  You will have to explain it to me.
    33
    34   MR. MORRIS:  Maybe in that case ----
    35
    36   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Quite frankly, I think you have to be better
    37        prepared than that.
    38
    39   MR. MORRIS:  Maybe the witness is not the best person to ask.
    40
    41   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It may well be, but it is not necessarily
    42        helpful how near the top of the list it comes.  One has to
    43        know whether there is a degree that any sane person would
    44        be concerned about for their own health.
    45
    46   MR. RAMPTON:  What one notices about this document, my Lord, is
    47        that that part of it which explains how these estimates are
    48        arrived at is not concluded.  It is absolutely useless, in
    49        my respectful submission.
    50 
    51   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I think we probably do need more if you are 
    52        going to pursue it.  If you are going to pursue it, if for 
    53        instance Dr. Arnott comes back, you had better to put it to
    54        him.
    55
    56   MR. MORRIS:  "Oncogenic" actually means linked to cancer,
    57        carcinogenic.
    58
    59   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It does not mean "linked to".  It means more
    60        than that.

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