Day 040 - 21 Oct 94 - Page 29
1 A. No, those are, I believe, the averages and not the
2 ranges. That is my reading of it.
3
4 Q. I have to say I am surprised because 800,000 to 100,000
5 does not sound like much of an average to me.
6 A. Carrageenan enters the food supply from many sources.
7
8 Q. I understand. But you have some reason for believing that
9 there were significant variations even on the 100,000, have
10 you?
11 A. Yes.
12
13 Q. What were they? Do you know?
14 A. I cannot recall them. I do have in my file on
15 Carrageenan in my study other literature not referred to
16 here which has subsequently led to a revision of the
17 specifications of identity and purity of this material. It
18 was from reading that I had the impression that those were
19 average figures, and that the spread -- the variation
20 within those samples was rather higher than JECFA
21 subsequently came to be comfortable with. That is why they
22 called for revision in the specifications of identity and
23 purity. Oh, yes, on that last occasion -- no, my
24 concern -- well, sorry, can I come back to answering
25 Mr. Rampton's question?
26
27 Q. Yes.
28 A. My concern derives in part from a document from the
29 Scientific Committee for Food (which I received only last
30 month) which has a brief discussion on it which indicates
31 that the Scientific Committee for Food have -- may I just
32 look at the precise wording, they said, and here
33 I am -----
34
35 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Is this something you mentioned in your new
36 statement?
37 A. Yes, my statement. On page 33 of my statement, the
38 lowest paragraph. OK. Towards the -- six lines up from
39 the bottom of the lowest complete paragraph on page 33:
40 "In 1992 the Scientific Committee for Food made a further"
41 -----
42
43 Q. I have read that.
44 A. Right. You see, it was not the re-evaluation. What it
45 seemed to me to indicate was they felt there was a need to
46 re-evaluate the Carrageenan in the light of further data.
47 I have only been able to obtain a small fraction of those
48 further data, and they say there appears to be no immediate
49 urgency, by which I take it they mean there is not evidence
50 that Carrageenan is responsible for acute adverse effects.
51 I interpret that as implying that, whatever evidence they
52 are waiting for and are about to review, are studies of
53 long-term chronic effects.
54
55 So, until that review is complete and the data available to
56 analyse, my doubts remain.
57
58 MR. RAMPTON: Very well. Can I pass now, my Lord, from
59 substances, and what you perceive as their possible long
60 term or chronic effects, very briefly to the question of
