Day 040 - 21 Oct 94 - Page 23

     
     1
     2        Do you have any comment to make about the accuracy of what
     3        you wrote in your report and of the evidence you gave to
     4        this court yesterday?
     5        A.  I stand corrected.  I had not copied the numbers down
     6        correctly.  But still, I would observe that the tumour
     7        incidence, which is just over 27 per cent, is high for a
     8        compound on a permitted list.
     9
    10   Q.   Can we turn now, please -- this is the last substance that
    11        I am going to refer to -- Carrageenan; I pronounce it with
    12        a hard G because it has an "h" in the Irish spelling.
    13
    14   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It follows Italian rules, does it not?
    15
    16   MR. RAMPTON:  As it would in Italian, yes.  Put that away now,
    17        please.  Take up again, if you will, Professor Walker's
    18        references and turn to G?
    19        A.  Do you want the JECFA report on Carrageenan?
    20
    Q.   Yes, I do, please.  It is 1984.
    22
    23   MR. MORRIS:  Which one are we looking at?
    24
    25   MR. RAMPTON:  Either J, K or G.
    26
    27   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  J is 10.
    28
    29   MR. RAMPTON:  That is BHA.
    30
    31   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Carcinogenicity studies of Sodium Nitrate.
    32
    33   MR. RAMPTON:  Carrageenan, I am on.
    34        A.  I am on K.
    35
    36   Q.   Which is K, I am told.  Please turn to what is numbered in
    37        the file page 281 right-hand column with the number at the
    38        top 43.  Can we agree, Dr. Millstone, that the effect of
    39        what you have said about Carrageenan, at any rate one
    40        effect of what you said, is this, that whatever evidence
         there might or might not be to cast suspicion on food grade
    42        Carrageenan, the evidence against degraded Carrageenan is
    43        very much stronger?
    44        A.  That has been my reading of the literature.
    45
    46   Q.   Yes.
    47        A.  Yes.
    48
    49   Q.   "Observations in man:  Six patients suffering from
    50        malignant disease of the colon were given five grammes 
    51        degraded Carrageenan daily for 10 days before a colectomy 
    52        was performed.  Samples of normal sections of the colon 
    53        obtained at surgery were examined for any signs of
    54        ulceration and analysed histochemically and chemically for
    55        the presence of degraded Carrageenan in the tissue.  There
    56        were no signs of any ulceration in these samples of gut,
    57        nor was any degraded Carrageenan detected by either the
    58        histochemical or the analytical method".
    59
    60        So, in that case at least, there were no signs that