Day 040 - 21 Oct 94 - Page 26
1
2 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. In the early years it varied
3 enormously, did it not, 500 -----
4 A. Sorry, the ADI which previously had been set?
5
6 Q. Yes.
7 A. Forgive me one moment while I retrieve my text among
8 the material.
9
10 Q. Page 31, ADI at 500 kilograms, a year later they reduced it
11 by a factor of 10 and then in 73 they set 75.
12 A. Yes.
13
14 Q. Yes, thank you. Do not get distracted by that. I just
15 wanted to remind myself what the history was.
16
17 MR. RAMPTON: I do not think there is one at the moment. "Rats
18 and hamsters have been fed five per cent Carrageenan for
19 their lifetimes. Survival was not affected in either
20 species. No statistically significant pathological effects
21 were seen in either species at any of the dietary levels
22 used in the study." This is native Carrageenan,
23 Dr. Millstone, you see?
24 A. Yes, indeed.
25
26 Q. "Rhesus monkeys have been fed", as you say, one can see on
27 page 781 under "monkey" in the left hand column, there were
28 40 of them, 19 male and 21 female, "500 milligrammes a day
29 for seven and a half years. The only effects seen were
30 soft stools or diarrhoea and occasional fecal occult blood
31 which was also seen in untreated controls". "Treated" and
32 "untreated" in this context means did or did not have a
33 dose of the substance under examination, does it not?
34 A. It does.
35
36 Q. It is nothing to do with therapy, is it?
37 A. No.
38
39 Q. "No pathologic effects attributable to the intake of
40 Carrageenan were seen in the monkeys". Can you envisage,
41 Dr. Millstone, that a human being might ingest 500
42 milligrams of -- who is a lot larger than a Rhesus monkey
43 -- Carrageenan a day for seven and a half years?
44
45 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is kilogramme a day.
46
47 MR. RAMPTON: Sorry, milligrammes per kilogram of weight per
48 day?
49 A. I can insofar as there have been cases over the last
50 few years when Carrageenan has been used as a bulking aid
51 in foods, nominally called slimming foods, and under those
52 circumstances it would. If, however, one were to eat a
53 considerable portion of one's diet from the outlets of your
54 client, I think it very unlikely that they could do that.
55
56 MR. RAMPTON: One of the criticisms which is made of McDonald's
57 in this case, Dr. Millstone, is that they do not sell
58 slimming diets.
59
60 MS. STEEL: I do not think that is quite the criticism.
