Day 039 - 20 Oct 94 - Page 66
1 are right, of course, they are all corrupt. Which do you
2 propose as being the likely explanation?
3 A. It is not for me to advance an explanation in respect
4 of the particular individuals. What I do say, however,
5 Mr. Rampton, is this: My understanding of the position is
6 as follows: It is entirely acceptable and accepted
7 practice for members of all of these committees to act as
8 paid consultants to the companies manufacturing and
9 utilizing these ingredients, and they are not compelled to
10 declare those interests with the exception of members of
11 the Committee on Toxicity since 1991.
12
13 I have endeavoured to investigate these matters as
14 carefully as I can. I am satisfied that it frequently
15 occurs that members of these committees enter meetings and
16 act as paid consultants for the companies involved and do
17 not declare those interests either to the scientific
18 secretariat, to the chair of the committee or to the other
19 members of the committee or to the public generally.
20
21 Therefore, I feel that I cannot rule out the hypothesis
22 that there may, from time to time, have been some
23 corruption on some of these committees. I do not have
24 direct evidence in respect of a documentary kind in respect
25 of particular members and particular compounds.
26
27 I have, as I indicated, been investigating these matters
28 for 20 years now, and I am satisfied that, from time to
29 time, members of these committees are both participating in
30 the decision making of these committees and simultaneously
31 acting as paid consultants to relevant commercial
32 interests.
33
34 Q. A fourth possibility, Dr. Millstone, perhaps you would
35 agree, as an explanation for the fact that these
36 distinguished bodies do not appear to pay heed to what you
37 say vociferously theorise or promulgate is this, is it not,
38 that they do not regard you as a reliable source of
39 scientific opinion. That is a possibility, is it not?
40 A. Of course it is a possibility, but insofar as it is a
41 possibility, I think I might reasonably have expected from
42 time to time to have my scientific judgments criticised in
43 the scientific literature. But that has hardly ever
44 occurred. I have from time to time been the recipient of
45 vitriol and abuse, but very rarely scientific critique.
46
47 I find myself in the position where I cannot advance a
48 precise detailed explanation for their conduct. All I am
49 able to do is gather as much scientific information as I am
50 able to gain access to, not having privileged access to
51 unpublished documents most of the time, and compare the
52 evaluations which emerge from these committees with what
53 purports to be the scientific base from which they are
54 nominally derived. I find that there is a clear gap
55 between what the scientific evidence suggests to me and the
56 evaluations which these committees reach.
57
58 Q. I am not a scientist and I do not write scientific papers,
59 Dr. Millstone, but I am going to try, if I may, to see
60 whether we in this court may rely upon the scientific
