Day 038 - 19 Oct 94 - Page 19


     
     1   Q.   Right.  In your view are you saying we would ban
     2        everything?
     3        A.  Oh, no, most certainly not.  I think it is possible to
     4        have a reasonable presumption of safety for quite a few of
     5        the compounds.  If I may just look at my notes here because
     6        I have some numbers?
     7
     8   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What is that?  Is that some notes or the
     9        statement?
    10        A.  No, it is some notes -- it is not the statement --
    11        these are notes which I prepared for myself in advance of
    12        coming here today.
    13
    14   Q.   What are you looking at now?  What are you going to tell us
    15        about now?
    16        A.  OK.  The question is, do I think all food additives
    17        should be banned?  Is it possible to make a judgment of
    18        safety?  What I was seeking to do next was go back to two
    19        sets of estimates I have prepared, one in 1988 and one in
    20        1992, of the additives that were then permitted to identify
    21        which portion of them I thought were probably safe and
    22        which portion were hazardous.  Those are numbers which
    23        I had not previously incorporated to any statement.
    24
    25   Q.   Tell us about that then.
    26        A.  In 1988 I published a book with Penguin -----
    27
    28   Q.   Just give us the figures first.
    29        A.  OK.  Of the 299 compounds which I dealt with in that
    30        book, I estimated that in 186 cases there was a reasonable
    31        presumption of safety; and they are compounds like
    32        phosphates, which are typically normal constituents of
    33        human cells, and vitamin C; compounds like that, which
    34        I think there are perfectly satisfactory grounds for
    35        thinking they are safe.
    36
    37        However, in 85 cases I thought there were grounds for
    38        specific doubts about the safety of those compounds.  In 25
    39        cases altogether I thought there was evidence that the
    40        additive could pose a significant toxic hazard to the
    41        entire population.
    42
    43   Q.   Just pause a moment.  Yes, you got up to 296 I think?
    44        A.  Yes.  Forgive me, these subgroups of compounds do not
    45        necessarily sum up to 299, because there is some multiple
    46        counting because some compounds fall into two or more
    47        categories that I am using.
    48
    49   Q.   Continue with your figures.
    50        A.  Had I got to 25? 
    51 
    52   Q.   Yes. 
    53        A.  OK.  In 60 of the 299 there was evidence that they
    54        could pose a problem of allergy or acute intolerance to a
    55        minority of consumers, and in 23 cases the secrecy covering
    56        the data was so exceptional that it was not possible to
    57        make any independent valuation.
    58
    59        I attempted to make a similar count in 1992 because there
    60        was a major change with the implementation of the single

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