Day 244 - 03 May 96 - Page 18
1 you would expect to find organochlorines, because of the
2 different mode and because of their predilection for fat
3 science, which is the last place in the world that you
4 would like for OPs, and the last place you would expect to
5 find them. So, in fact, much of the, if not all of the,
6 routine pesticide testing carried out -- and it is actually
7 by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate on behalf of the
8 Ministry -- is, to that extent, wholly irrelevant. It will
9 not find the very pesticides which are routinely applied to
10 meat animals.
11
12 Q. So these OPs, during the 1980s were directly applied to the
13 animals. It is not a question of them eating them in their
14 feed?
15 A. It was both, and in fact in three ways: Very often it
16 is food waste used to feed animals, and therefore you have
17 a situation where, say, intervention grain is treated many
18 times in store, the bulk of the residue will be found on
19 the husk of the grain which is then milled off. Therefore,
20 if you are finding residues in food, be it the flour, then
21 you are going to find much, much greater residues on the
22 husk which has been discarded and then used for animal
23 feed. Of course, those are not monitored at all.
24
25 So, they are getting it through the feed route. There are
26 also things called "worm boluses" which are, if you like,
27 slow release capsules which are fed to animals and release
28 a systemick, strictly speaking let us use the word
29 insecticide, in the stomach of the animal over a long
30 period, so it is getting a dose that way and, then, yes,
31 the topical applications for worm fly, the stuff is known
32 as a 'pour on', and it is quite literally poured on the
33 back of the animal and allowed to penetrate through the
34 skin into the body of the animal.
35
36 In that sense, these poor animals are actually saturated
37 with a variety of pesticides over the entire working
38 career.
39
40 Q. If I continue to read.
41
42 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That has been going on for a very long time;
43 has it not?
44 A. Not so, my Lord.
45
46 Q. How long do you say?
47 A. The organophosphates only really started coming into
48 use in the early 1980s and more intensively so from 1984
49 onwards.
50
51 Q. But I am talking about worming and warble fly. I can
52 remember being enlisted to help in that over 20 years ago
53 anyway?
54 A. Well, earlier, organochlorines and then dorrisdust(?).
55
56 Q. Different chemicals have been used, but procedure of using
57 some chemical or other to worm or warble fly cattle has
58 been going on for a very long time indeed; has it not?
59 A. The point, if I may, my Lord, is I am addressing
60 really the accuracy of the monitoring and the surveillance
