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
