Day 039 - 20 Oct 94 - Page 22


     
     1        prefer that children under six months should not receive
     2        these materials.
     3
     4   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Have they not allowed a margin of safety in
     5        the 12 weeks?
     6        A.  Not as far as I can tell from the literature I have
     7        examined.  There appears to be direct clinical evidence,
     8        especially from children who have been bottled fed on
     9        formula feed mixed with tap water with relatively high
    10        nitrate contents; areas like East Anglia, that have turned
    11        blue as a consequence.
    12
    13        Those symptoms have occurred in infants up to three months,
    14        I believe.  So I do not see any evidence of an assumed
    15        margin of safety in the age they give.
    16
    17   Q.   But no evidence of it having occurred for that reason in a
    18        child over three months?
    19        A.  I have not seen it.  If I was a child -- sorry, if
    20        I was a parent of an infant in an area with very high
    21        nitrate content in the tap water and I was giving them
    22        formula feed, I would not cease using purified water at the
    23        moment when they reach three months.  I think I
    24        would prefer to wait a little longer and continue to use
    25        the purified water.
    26
    27   MR. MORRIS:  Is that because there are nitrates or nitrites?
    28        A.  In the drink.
    29
    30   Q.   In the drink?
    31        A.  Yes, indeed.
    32
    33   Q.   You said about the contribution that the amounts that are
    34        available in food might make?
    35        A.  Yes.
    36
    37   Q.   Is it one of many sources of -- the way it is used in our
    38        case here, one of many sources in food, for example?
    39        A.  Nitrates and nitrites said to occur naturally in many
    40        foods and, indeed, you can take fresh vegetables, for
    41        example, and analyse them.  You will find nitrates present
    42        in those vegetables.  The extent to which one might
    43        characterise this as natural deserves a little caution,
    44        because it is quite clear that the nitrate content of
    45        vegetables is a function of the quantities of nitrogenous
    46        fertilizer applied to those crops, and the levels of
    47        nitrates in crops grown on land which has not been treated
    48        with nitrogenous fertilizer is significantly lower than
    49        crops that have been treated with nitrate fertilizer.
    50 
    51   Q.   But if people are getting a lot of nitrites from various 
    52        sources in their food? 
    53        A.  And water.
    54
    55   Q.   Nitrates, then does the use of it as an additive then
    56        become a contributory problem?
    57        A.  This is a matter of judgment.  There are those who say,
    58        if the levels of nitrates present in foods are a small
    59        fraction of that deriving from other sources, such as
    60        present in the vegetables and present in drinking water, or

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