Day 038 - 19 Oct 94 - Page 58


     
     1        is prohibited along with all other coal-tar dyes.  Do you
     2        know why?
     3        A.  I think that is a general policy in Norway.  I mean,
     4        the Norwegian Government, as I understand it, first argues
     5        that there is not a need for these compounds, and also
     6        thinks that the frequency of reaction as estimated by
     7        Scandinavian scientists of around one per cent is
     8        sufficiently high for them to deem that an unacceptable
     9        hazard.
    10
    11   MS. STEEL:   Is the one per cent figure, is that something that
    12        they have said the Scandinavian ----?
    13        A.  No, I have not seen it said by the Norwegian
    14        Government, but estimates of that order of magnitude have
    15        been provided in other work by Lennart Juhlin and Gerd
    16        Michaelsson.
    17
    18   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Can you refer us to any of the papers which
    19        are in your footnotes which do that?
    20        A.  No.  I have not prepared a discussion of the evidence
    21        of the frequency of intolerant reactions.  I had not been
    22        led to expect that that would be an issue which would be
    23        discussed.  I do not have them with me.  I have that
    24        material on file back in Brighton.  I can provide it, but
    25        I do not have it in these footnotes or in these documents.
    26
    27   MR. MORRIS:  I think part of the problem is that -----
    28
    29   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Let me just ask a question.  Is the one per
    30        cent related to Sunset Yellow or again reactions to
    31        additives across the board?
    32        A.  Across the board is my recollection of their work.
    33
    34   Q.   I have to say I am very anxious to adjust a reference to a
    35        paper; it is not only I have not seen it, Mr. Rampton has
    36        not seen it -- you have not seen it either.
    37
    38   MR. MORRIS:  As far as we understand our case, and the original
    39        words in the fact sheet complained of, is that this section
    40        relates to a phrase.  It does not mention additives earlier
    41        on.  Then it says later on, especially in the section about
    42        children, that the food "is at best mediocre, at worst
    43        poisonous".  "At worst poisonous" does not imply a figure
    44        on the frequency.
    45
    46        So, the frequency matter has not really been at the
    47        forefront of this section; it is just really Dr. Millstone
    48        has tried to show that these are reactions and are
    49        implications of these additives.
    50 
    51   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What you have to face -- all I am doing is 
    52        thinking aloud at the moment -- is the possibility that 
    53        when I come to say what "at worst poisonous" means, I will
    54        not think that that just means that one in 10,000 members
    55        of the public may suffer some adverse reaction to it, or
    56        even if there were evidence of this at the end of a long
    57        life might turn out to have some chronic illness caused by
    58        an additive, although that does not really seem to have
    59        come into the equation at the moment.
    60

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