Day 100 - 09 Mar 95 - Page 53
1 you had a glance at it?
2 A. Yes.
3
4 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, Mr. Morris.
5
6 MR. MORRIS: What is your understanding of the concern of the
7 authors of this report?
8
9 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No. I am afraid that is far too wide. You
10 must put some suggestion to him. I had assumed it was
11 going to be based on the report, so put the suggestion to
12 him and let us hear what it is.
13
14 MR. MORRIS: Well, is it true to say there are concerns over
15 pesticide residues, broadly?
16 A. There are concerns over pesticide residues broadly
17 speaking, yes, there are.
18
19 Q. That is a concern, in any event, in other quarters, yes?
20 A. What other?
21
22 Q. There are public concerns over pesticide residues?
23 A. That is what I am referring to, yes.
24
25 Q. Does it surprise you that beef, for example, in the charts
26 is second on the list of foods with the greatest estimated
27 oncogenic risk? That is the first table.
28
29 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is about halfway between the tomatoes and
30 potatoes.
31 A. Yes. I am afraid I do not know what an "oncogenic
32 risk" is. You will have to explain it to me.
33
34 MR. MORRIS: Maybe in that case ----
35
36 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Quite frankly, I think you have to be better
37 prepared than that.
38
39 MR. MORRIS: Maybe the witness is not the best person to ask.
40
41 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It may well be, but it is not necessarily
42 helpful how near the top of the list it comes. One has to
43 know whether there is a degree that any sane person would
44 be concerned about for their own health.
45
46 MR. RAMPTON: What one notices about this document, my Lord, is
47 that that part of it which explains how these estimates are
48 arrived at is not concluded. It is absolutely useless, in
49 my respectful submission.
50
51 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think we probably do need more if you are
52 going to pursue it. If you are going to pursue it, if for
53 instance Dr. Arnott comes back, you had better to put it to
54 him.
55
56 MR. MORRIS: "Oncogenic" actually means linked to cancer,
57 carcinogenic.
58
59 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It does not mean "linked to". It means more
60 than that.
