Day 107 - 24 Mar 95 - Page 53
1 Q. Well, tell us, for example, about the effect of gastric
2 acid?
3 A. Significant.
4
5 Q. It is significant?
6 A. Yes.
7
8 Q. Do we have any immune mechanisms within our gut or
9 bloodstream which help us to combat what otherwise might be
10 a case of food poisoning?
11 A. That is arguable. There is an antibody IGA which is
12 believed to have an immune response effect. It is somewhat
13 of a contested issue.
14
15 Q. Leaving on one side then pathogens such as E.coli 0157: H7
16 which you say may not be dose related for the onset of
17 illness, leaving that on one side, I think that is what you
18 told us, is it not?
19 A. No. It is not true to say I said that. I said there
20 is a dose response.
21
22 Q. But you say the dosage may be quite low?
23 A. That is the indication, yes.
24
25 Q. I am sorry I did not get that quite right. But leaving
26 that on one side, I think you have told us, and we can find
27 it elsewhere stated in these papers, that very large doses
28 of, for example, salmonella are required before an ordinary
29 person will become ill?
30 A. In the ordinary sense, yes, indeed.
31
32 Q. We know that it may affect young people, young children and
33 old people with low dosages; there is evidence of that?
34 A. I think the low dose phenomenon is more related to the
35 type of food than it is the type of person, frankly.
36
37 Q. You propose, I think you proposed before the adjournment
38 today, that the sort of dosages which are necessary to
39 produce a case of food poisoning in the ordinary healthy
40 person, whether we are talking about salmonella is
41 something in the order of 100,000 or a million upwards; is
42 that right?
43 A. Yes, 100,000 to a hundred million is taken to be the
44 levels.
45
46 Q. The chances are then that if I get a dosage somewhat less
47 than that, my body is going to be able to cope with it one
48 way or another?
49 A. Yes.
50
51 Q. Can I read on? I am sorry to have gone off at, not a
52 tangent but another course just then. You together write:
53 "Of course not all bacteria are harmful. Within the gut
54 of man and chickens salmonella, listeria and campylobacter
55 live happily and harmoniously under firm biological
56 control. It is only when we eat food on which bacteria
57 have multiplied dramatically that we are are likely to be
58 made ill".
59 A. This is true.
60
