Day 244 - 03 May 96 - Page 18


     
     1        you would expect to find organochlorines, because of the
     2        different mode and because of their predilection for fat
     3        science, which is the last place in the world that you
     4        would like for OPs, and the last place you would expect to
     5        find them.  So, in fact, much of the, if not all of the,
     6        routine pesticide testing carried out -- and it is actually
     7        by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate on behalf of the
     8        Ministry -- is, to that extent, wholly irrelevant.  It will
     9        not find the very pesticides which are routinely applied to
    10        meat animals.
    11
    12   Q.   So these OPs, during the 1980s were directly applied to the
    13        animals.  It is not a question of them eating them in their
    14        feed?
    15        A.  It was both, and in fact in three ways:  Very often it
    16        is food waste used to feed animals, and therefore you have
    17        a situation where, say, intervention grain is treated many
    18        times in store, the bulk of the residue will be found on
    19        the husk of the grain which is then milled off.  Therefore,
    20        if you are finding residues in food, be it the flour, then
    21        you are going to find much, much greater residues on the
    22        husk which has been discarded and then used for animal
    23        feed. Of course, those are not monitored at all.
    24
    25        So, they are getting it through the feed route.   There are
    26        also things called "worm boluses" which are, if you like,
    27        slow release capsules which are fed to animals and release
    28        a systemick, strictly speaking let us use the word
    29        insecticide, in the stomach of the animal over a long
    30        period, so it is getting a dose that way and, then, yes,
    31        the topical applications for worm fly, the stuff is known
    32        as a 'pour on', and it is quite literally poured on the
    33        back of the animal and allowed to penetrate through the
    34        skin into the body of the animal.
    35
    36        In that sense, these poor animals are actually saturated
    37        with a variety of pesticides over the entire working
    38        career.
    39
    40   Q.   If I continue to read.
    41
    42   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That has been going on for a very long time;
    43        has it not?
    44        A.  Not so, my Lord.
    45
    46   Q.   How long do you say?
    47        A.  The organophosphates only really started coming into
    48        use in the early 1980s and more intensively so from 1984
    49        onwards.
    50 
    51   Q.   But I am talking about worming and warble fly.  I can 
    52        remember being enlisted to help in that over 20 years ago 
    53        anyway?
    54        A.  Well, earlier, organochlorines and then dorrisdust(?).
    55
    56   Q.   Different chemicals have been used, but procedure of using
    57        some chemical or other to worm or warble fly cattle has
    58        been going on for a very long time indeed; has it not?
    59        A.  The point, if I may, my Lord, is  I am addressing
    60        really the accuracy of the monitoring and the surveillance

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