Day 105 - 16 Mar 95 - Page 08

     
     1        That is why it is so important to have strict control
     2        measures.
     3
     4   MR. MORRIS: It is important when you have those strict control
     5        measures that people keep to the specifications and
     6        regulations that they have fixed for ensuring that control?
     7        A.  Yes, depending on the degree of risk, clearly, certain
     8        things must not happen under any circumstances.  If the
     9        risk is high, if the risk is low, a broader measure of
    10        control would be acceptable.
    11
    12   Q.   Some people have died, have they not, from E.coli food
    13        poisoning from burgers in the States anyway?
    14        A.  I have read the literature from the States and that is
    15        what it says, people have died because of E.coli.
    16
    17   Q.   People have died from Salmonella poisoning, have they not?
    18        A.  Yes, they have.
    19
    20   Q.   So these are food poisoning organisms that should be taken
         very seriously?
    22        A.  Of course, if there is a risk of people dying they
    23        should be taken very seriously.  Again, I feel obliged to
    24        point out, and it is a difficult thing to point out, that
    25        the numbers of people involved in fatal accidents of this
    26        type must be taken into account in assessing the overall
    27        risk.  Of course, it is dreadful if somebody dies, and
    28        every effort must be made to prevent that from happening so
    29        far as is humanly possible.
    30
    31   Q.   The people that have died, or been hospitalised, or
    32        whatever, that is only both the reported and the identified
    33        people, is it not?
    34        A.  It is talking about deaths.  It is important to
    35        distinguish between fatalities and general cases which,
    36        I must say, involve highly unpleasant symptoms but do not
    37        involve death.  I would be confident that deaths as a
    38        result of food borne illness or food poisoning are all
    39        reported.
    40
    Q.   If identified as the cause?
    42
    43   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That is what he is saying, that if someone
    44        dies of food poisoning in this modern world, Eastern and
    45        Western Europe and North America, you would expect food
    46        poisoning to be identified as the result and tests taken to
    47        try and identify the organism responsible?
    48        A.  Indeed so.
    49
    50   Q.   That should all be possible.  Where the difficulty comes is 
    51        deciding what the source of the organism was? 
    52        A.  Yes, that is true. 
    53
    54   MR. MORRIS:  But forgetting fatalities for the moment, the
    55        hospitalisation of people would not always be traced; the
    56        cause would not always be known in terms of specific
    57        bacterial source, would it?
    58        A.  The bacteria causing the illness would be identified.
    59        It is certainly by no means always the case that that
    60        source is identified.  I would agree with that.