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

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