Day 039 - 20 Oct 94 - Page 07
1 Bell's comment on that.
2
3 MS. STEEL: I did not actually understand the point you were
4 making on No. 8. Could you just explain what you were
5 saying?
6
7 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is really this: I only raise it because
8 I do not want there to be a situation in due course where
9 I may underestimate the point which Dr. Millstone is
10 seeking to make, because I think that the article does not
11 actually support what he said when he may well have an
12 answer to my query. It is this: On what I have to admit
13 is a quick reading, it looks as if there were seven
14 patients who had already suffered some kind of allergy.
15 They did control tests on them with a variety of compounds
16 of which Sunset Yellow was one, Tartrazine was another.
17 I cannot find any reference to -- in five of the cases,
18 either there is no mention of there being a reaction to
19 Sunset Yellow or it is said that there was no reaction to
20 Sunset Yellow.
21
22 In one it is said that there was a doubtful reaction to
23 Sunset Yellow and in another it is said there was a
24 positive reaction to Sunset Yellow. I think both those
25 patients were women. I think the paper says that Sunset
26 Yellow was administered in doses of 1, 2, 5 and 10
27 milligrams. I think there may be a reference to the higher
28 doses not always being given.
29
30 When one looks at the summary of the patients, one cannot,
31 although it may appear somewhere else, see what the doses
32 were when there was either a doubtful or a positive
33 reaction. In any event, since the ADI is 2.5 milligrams
34 per kilo of body weight, if one said: "Well, perhaps women
35 may have weighed 50 kilos (about 8 stone), might have
36 weighed more, might have weighed less", 2.5 milligrams by
37 50 would allow 125 milligrams for that person. In fact,
38 I think I probably got my sums wrong but a dose of 1
39 milligram -----
40
41 THE WITNESS: That corresponds, therefore, to less than 1 per
42 cent of the ADI.
43
44 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, that is quite right, and the 10 would be
45 about 8 per cent. So, my original sums when I thought it
46 was much more than the ADI were wrong?
47 A. Yes.
48
49 Q. Which illustrates the whole purpose, if I may say so, of
50 raising this in the first place.
51
52 MS. STEEL: I think that is why I misunderstood it.
53
54 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do you see my point? I might well have gone
55 off and thought that the doses they were giving them were
56 much higher. I am happy to accept I have done my
57 arithmetic wrong but, if it does no more, it illustrates --
58 do you see the point -- the danger of just leaving me to
59 look at something which you are going to rely on on my own
60 later.
