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
