Day 244 - 03 May 96 - Page 24


     
     1        amount of work on this and I have attended many of his
     2        seminars and talked to him quite extensively about these
     3        specific mechanisms.
     4
     5        I would say, my Lord, that I do not believe what I am
     6        saying differs from the general knowledge and acceptance of
     7        the mode of action of these chemicals.
     8
     9   MR. MORRIS:  You have investigated OP residues specifically?
    10        A.  What I have investigated specifically over some years
    11        now is illness in persons alleged to have suffered from OP
    12        exposure.
    13
    14   Q.   Right.
    15        A.  Really in the context, to narrow it down, I am
    16        conscious as far as I can be of my duties and
    17        responsibilities as an expert.  My primary study is the
    18        systems, surveillance systems, methods of detecting illness
    19        and control mechanisms installed to prevent illness and to
    20        deal with it when it arises.
    21
    22   Q.   So, your position is that the undesirability of ingesting
    23        OP residues into the human body is accepted and the
    24        question for you, as a public health official, is accepted
    25        by everybody in terms of threat to the nervous system?
    26        A.  Not everybody; you can never say "everybody"; but there
    27        is a consensus view that that is the mechanism of damage.
    28
    29   Q.   Right, and your expertise is in analysing whether, in fact,
    30        it has been properly monitored, whether it is present ---
    31        A.  Quite so.
    32
    33   Q.   -- in foods that people are consuming?
    34        A.  I have to rely on other experts.  I have to know
    35        something about the mechanisms in order to assess and to
    36        understand the various control measures, control systems
    37        and the detection systems.
    38
    39   Q.   Right.
    40
    41   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  If your reasoning is correct, in the last
    42        paragraph above the note on Campylobacter we should for
    43        "might" substitute the word "will"?
    44        A.  I think I was being cautious, my Lord.
    45
    46   Q.   That is right though, is it not?
    47        A.  Yes, I think so, yes.
    48
    49   MR. MORRIS:  Sorry, which sentence are we referring to?
    50 
    51   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  The last paragraph.  It is also a single 
    52        sentence above the note on Campylobacter. 
    53
    54   MR. MORRIS:  Yes.  "Will".
    55        A.  Yes, I -- yes, my Lord, I would very much say that.
    56
    57   Q.   Right.  If I continue to read on "Note on Campylobacter":
    58
    59        "From my knowledge of the meat and poultry industries,
    60        I am aware that the causal agent of campylobacter enteritis

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