Day 040 - 21 Oct 94 - Page 37
1 A. If you say, is this document intended to allay public
2 anxiety, I think that is entirely correct. That is its
3 primary purpose. I think its primary purpose is not
4 particularly the protection of public health, but allaying
5 public anxiety.
6
7 Q. Can I put it in a more general way? It goes back to
8 something like I was asking at the beginning of your
9 evidence. The government in approving or permitting the
10 use of food additives bases itself upon the advice of the
11 various committees who produce information and
12 recommendations about these things, do they not?
13 A. That is correct, although they do not always follow the
14 advice of those committees.
15
16 Q. I understand that. If and in so far as government has
17 accepted the advice of the Food Advisory Committee which,
18 in turn, has accepted the advice of the Committee on
19 Toxicology, then, in your view, the government is acting in
20 a way which is irresponsible, having regard to the overall
21 health of the nation, is it not?
22 A. Yes, it is my view.
23
24 Q. Yes. One final question: You tell us that in the Michael
25 Beddows claim, a tragic case where a small boy rushed out
26 into the road and was run over; is that right?
27 A. That is my understanding of what happened.
28
29 Q. The parents claimed, I think you said?
30 A. Yes.
31
32 Q. That the reason was that he had eaten some sweets
33 containing some artificial colour?
34 A. That is what they told -- well, I have only spoken to
35 the father.
36
37 Q. That is what the parents claim. Did the father tell you or
38 do you know what the coroner found?
39 A. My understanding, my recollection, of that case is that
40 the coroner's decision at the inquest was that he was not
41 persuaded that there was sufficient evidence to demonstrate
42 that fact beyond reasonable doubt. But there is a
43 difference of opinion there between the coroner and the
44 father. Unfortunately, the father subsequently committed
45 suicide and is not in a position to give his own view.
46
47 Q. Do you agree (and this is no reflection on the late
48 Mr. Beddows, I assure you, or on any other parent, for that
49 matter) there may be a tendency in the parents of unruly
50 children, hyperactive, if you like, to seek to find an
51 external cause or culprit for that condition?
52 A. I have encountered some families of which I would say
53 that that was correct, but I have also encountered
54 families, probably of similar frequency, of whom I would
55 make the opposite criticism, that they were unreasonably
56 reluctant to entertain the possibility that the child's
57 diet might be a contributory factor to its problems. So,
58 both kinds of shortcomings can be found in families.
59
60 Q. I am finished now, Dr. Millstone. If the Defendants should
