Day 039 - 20 Oct 94 - Page 64


     
     1   Q.   It is not the servant of any particular government or any
     2        particular national interest?
     3        A.  I think it is -- the impression I have in my contacts
     4        with the secretariat of JECFA is that JECFA is, in effect,
     5        the servants of the governments that are providing the
     6        funding to support the scientific secretariat of JECFA.
     7        But I would say in respect of JECFA again the situation is
     8        more closely aligned to that in the UK than in the US, and
     9        the scientific secretariat of JECFA do not themselves
    10        always conduct independent searches of evidence.  They rely
    11        on industry to provide them with the evidence. Therefore,
    12        from time to time, I believe, evidence fails to be put
    13        before JECFA because it has not been sent to the Scientific
    14        Civil Service by the relevant industrial groups.
    15
    16   Q.   No, I am afraid, Dr. Millstone, it goes a very great deal
    17        further than that.  You will not accept, as I have
    18        understood the thrust of your evidence, that the acceptable
    19        daily intakes recommended from time to time by JECFA (and
    20        they are only recommendations) are properly based in
    21        scientific knowledge, will you?
    22        A.  It is correct that I contend (and have contended
    23        consistently for some years) that the scientific evidence
    24        which is available is not by itself sufficient to sustain
    25        many (but not all) of the ADIs which JECFA have set.
    26
    27   Q.   Your approach to this problem is in direct conflict with
    28        that of JECFA ---
    29        A.  Yes.
    30
    31   Q.   -- with that of the European body of the Scientific
    32        Committee for Food; with that of the Committee on
    33        Toxicology in this country; am I right?
    34        A.  In respect of some but not all compounds, yes.  I have
    35        indicated ----
    36
    37   Q.   No, please, Dr. Millstone, we are discussing eight specific
    38        compounds.
    39        A.  In respect of these, yes.
    40
    41   Q.   In respect of those, yes?
    42        A.  Yes.
    43
    44   Q.   My question is this: Why do you suppose that it is, if you
    45        are the leading independent expert on food additives safety
    46        policy in this country at the present day and, presumably,
    47        for some number of years past, they do not pay attention
    48        to, absorb and conform with what you say?
    49        A.  It is very difficult to know because they operate in a
    50        relatively opaque manner.  The members of the Joint Expert 
    51        Committee on Food Additives are formally nominated by, on 
    52        the one hand, the World Health Organisation, on the other 
    53        hand, the Food & Agriculture Organisation.  But, as far as
    54        I understand these matters, those two organisations, the
    55        UN, FAO and the WHO, derive their nominations from
    56        nominations that come forward from independent individual
    57        governments who are themselves members of the overarching
    58        body called Codex Alimentarius Commission, plus the
    59        European Commission.  If you want to know why, for example,
    60        the British government or the European Commission has not

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