Day 039 - 20 Oct 94 - Page 15
1 proportion of that group of rats as we find they reported
2 there -- forgive me, as she reported there.
3
4 A couple of Adrianova's colleagues, Shtenberg and
5 Gavrilenko, published, indeed in the same journal on the
6 same occasion, work on Amaranth showing in rats birth
7 defects, still birth, sterility at relatively lower doses.
8
9 Now, the response in the Soviet Union was promptly to ban
10 Amaranth and withdraw it. Since they did not use it they
11 have never subsequently tested it. The reliability and the
12 validity of the Russian results has long been contested in
13 the West and contested for a variety of reasons -- some of
14 which I discuss here in my document.
15
16 Firstly, in the Adrianova study there was an unusually low
17 background level of cancers in the control group. That is,
18 well, it is unusual now and it was slightly unusual then,
19 but by no means unheard of. As I indicated on page 12,
20 Dr. Jacqueline Verrett, who at the time was a toxicologist,
21 professional toxicologist, working for the US Food and Drug
22 Administration, indicated that it was not uncommon in those
23 days to have control groups of rats in carcinogenicity
24 studies in which no tumours were found.
25
26 In the interim, things have changed. Partly what has
27 happened is that the conditions under which laboratory
28 animals are kept in the 80s and in the 90s are so much
29 higher than they were in those days that these laboratory
30 animals are more or less pathogen free. They are at
31 liberty to eat as much food as they like. The typical
32 laboratory rat getting little or no exercise becomes obese,
33 and that obesity is often sufficient to result in tumour
34 development. We have relatively higher background rates of
35 cancers in laboratory animals in present days than was the
36 case back in the 70s. As it were, the pathogens and
37 parasites that were present in laboratory animals back then
38 prevented the rats becoming so obese, and this has
39 contributed in a rather curious way to making them less
40 vulnerable to spontaneous tumour development.
41
42 During the 70s -----
43
44 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. I can see it in your statement. I do
45 not want to stop you saying anything which is important,
46 but what would most help if you tell me of any addition to
47 or important elaboration of what you have in your
48 statement. I have read the statement.
49 A. OK.
50
51 Q. For instance, there is no need to repeat what is in the
52 middle paragraph on page 12, unless there is something you
53 want to stress or something Mr. Morris asks you about.
54 A. OK. So, merely precis'ing what is in the statement is
55 a waste of everyone's time?
56
57 Q. It is, yes.
58 A. Fine. I would just like to draw attention to an aspect
59 in the middle paragraph because this is something which
60 occurs in respect of other compounds at other stages in
