Day 039 - 20 Oct 94 - Page 14


     
     1
     2   MR. RAMPTON:  Exactly.
     3
     4   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  If Professor Walker was suggesting that all
     5        anecdotal evidence is unsatisfactory, you would draw issue
     6        with that for the reasons which you have just set out?
     7        A.  Yes, I would indeed.  Whether Professor Walker -----
     8
     9   Q.   Is there more to say than that, Dr. Millstone?
    10        A.  That might be Professor Walker's view; it may not be
    11        Professor Walker's view that anecdotal evidence is
    12        unsatisfactory, but it has really been an official view of
    13        the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.  I was
    14        present a couple of years ago at a meeting of the Guild of
    15        Food Writers when we were being addressed by the then
    16        Secretary of State, Mr. Gummer.  Mr. Gummer then made a
    17        rather curious observation when he said that he was
    18        convinced his own son reacted acutely and adversely to
    19        Tartrazine.  But since his official advisers told him this
    20        could not happen, he had to believe the advisers and not
    21        the immediate experience in his own family.  So, even the
    22        Secretary of State seems to disregard the evidence in his
    23        own family that artificial colours -----
    24
    25   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Let us leave it there -- no disrespect to Mr.
    26        Gummer.
    27
    28   MR. MORRIS:  All I am saying is that, presumably, there is
    29        anecdotal evidence on a wide range of -----
    30
    31   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Mr. Morris has explained very clearly the
    32        different strengths there may be in anecdotal evidence.
    33
    34   MR. MORRIS:  When we say there is anecdotal evidence, say, for
    35        Sunset Yellow, is that strong anecdotal evidence or, you
    36        know, very little and very weak?
    37        A.  As I have indicated, some strong and some is weak.
    38
    39   Q.   With Sunset Yellow?
    40        A.  And with Amaranth.  Should I then go on to the next
    41        category?
    42
    43   Q.   Yes.
    44        A.  Amaranth and carcinogenicity.  The main focus of the
    45        debate -- sorry, one of the main focuses of the debate
    46        about the carcinogenicity of Amaranth has been concerned
    47        with the issue of its suspected carcinogenicity in
    48        laboratory animals.
    49
    50        A study was conducted or several studies were conducted in 
    51        what was then the Soviet Union reported in the early 70s 
    52        and Adrianova reported that two per cent of Amaranth, which 
    53        was then a standard dose in such tests, caused cancer in 13
    54        out of 15 rats.
    55
    56        Now, a group of 15 rats is relatively small and that would
    57        fall short of the standards required of a proper
    58        carcinogenicity study in this day and age.  But even then
    59        and now it is extremely rare to find a compound capable of
    60        causing, apparently causing, cancer in such a large

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