Day 089 - 15 Feb 95 - Page 42


     
     1
     2   MR. RAMPTON:  Your Lordship is quite entitled to take judicial
     3        notice of the smell of ammonia.
     4
     5   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Which question you were asking for, surely
     6        there was no objection to "it has a very strong smell,
     7        presumably, he would be able to tell if there is too much
     8        ammonia" because, surely, I have known that since the age
     9        of about seven.  If there is some particular point -- what
    10        was the worry about it?
    11
    12   MR. MORRIS:  For all we know, the claim by the witness that
    13        ammonia is taken seriously may be completely without
    14        foundation.  So, therefore, the stockmen not noticing the
    15        ammonia, or the witness not mentioning it, may indicate the
    16        fact that what he said before was exaggerated.
    17
    18   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I think we have to use some ordinary
    19        judgment.  I would have thought most stockmen would not
    20        particularly like the smell of ammonia, and the moment they
    21        got a whiff of it or more than a whiff of it, they would
    22        want to do something about it, even if they had total
    23        disregard for the welfare of their stock.
    24        (To the witness):  But am I wrong about that?
    25        A.  No, you are not wrong; you are absolutely right.
    26
    27   MR. RAMPTON (To the witness):  What my question was going to be,
    28        unless, of course, they wear clothes pegs on their nose,
    29        Dr. Pattison, supposing a stockman does notice an
    30        overpowering smell of ammonia, what does he do about it,
    31        which is not a leading question?
    32        A.  The normal procedure is to improve the ventilation, to
    33        put on extra fans, if it is very cold weather they will
    34        probably put on heating as well as extra fans.
    35
    36   Q.   If he should come back the next day or an hour or two later
    37        and the smell is still there or it reappears, what does he
    38        do then?
    39        A.  Well, the fans can be -- there are several fans all the
    40        way down the sheds.  They can be adjusted -- well, first of
    41        all, the thermostat can be adjusted to bring on more or
    42        less fans.  The fans can be brought on in groups or
    43        singularly, whatever is required.  So, if the smell
    44        persists or keeps coming back, it obviously means that the
    45        ventilation in that particular area is not satisfactory,
    46        so they adjust the ventilation accordingly.
    47
    48   Q.   Have I understood it correctly, is there any way of
    49        treating the cause of ammonia emissions or emanations?
    50        A.  I mean, the basic cause is bacterial fermentation in 
    51        the environment/index.html">litter and, as it is a waste product of that, it has to 
    52        be removed.  There is no effective means yet of treating 
    53        the environment/index.html">litter to remove ammonia, although it is something that
    54        is being investigated.
    55
    56   Q.   So you have to treat the effect and not the cause ---
    57        A.  That is correct.
    58
    59   Q.   -- you have to get rid of the ammonia with the ventilation
    60        system?

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