Day 206 - 22 Jan 96 - Page 06
1 which is do with hyperactivity, additive-related
2 hyperactivity; and that is on page 11 of the further
3 statement. That is a figure where he says: "The incidence
4 of additives related to hyperactivity is almost certainly
5 significantly greater than the incidence of additive
6 related atrophy. The overall incidence amongst children in
7 Britain to food additives is, therefore, very unlikely to
8 be below one per cent and unlikely to be above 20 per cent"
9 -- which it might be said in the real world is quite a big
10 difference.
11
12 But I think what he is saying there, that is to do with
13 additive-related hyperactivity, as opposed to -----
14
15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do you have the reference where I actually
16 said something to him about whether he had any evidence of
17 the actual adverse reactions which were pleaded in relation
18 to the specific additives?
19
20 MR. ATKINSON: Yes. There are quite a few references.
21
22 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Can you give me one, because it is certainly
23 my recollection, but I have not checked through to his
24 evidence to discover them for myself.
25
26 MR. ATKINSON: Yes. Your Lordship says, on page 51 of day 38,
27 that is 19th October: "The other thing which would be
28 helpful is if you spoke to Professor Millstone, unless
29 Mr. Rampton wants to voice some objection to it, to ask in
30 relation to each of these additives whether he is likely to
31 be able to give me any indication of the extent of
32 hypersensitive reactions in man, for example, at page 9, or
33 allergic gastroenteritis, page 10, because...." Then
34 I think it is the witness who says: "May I make a
35 comment", and your Lordship says: "Just pause for a
36 moment, because I have to say one of the things that
37 occurred to me, going through these matters, is that there
38 are additives which have been in very wide use, I think
39 almost without exception, for a very long period of time.
40 So I am interested in the sort of number or regularity of
41 adverse reactions which have been shown over the years. It
42 is a different approach to the one which has been taken by
43 Dr. Millstone, but it is one which interests me."
44
45 Then, on page 53, the witness, who is really replying to
46 what your Lordship is talking about there, said: "I said
47 this morning that so far as I can tell, nobody knows what
48 the true instance is. Therefore, I do not think I have any
49 evidence to provide and I do not believe anyone else has
50 any evidence to provide at this stage which can give a
51 reliable indication on the frequency of the incidence. All
52 we have is a range of numbers in the literature and the
53 range of criticisms of the way in which those have been
54 generated. In the references that I have recorded in my
55 text, I simply provide evidence to confirm that particular
56 compounds have been shown to a few particular cases to
57 provoke particular symptoms. If your Lordship's main focus
58 is on the question of how frequently do these occur, I have
59 an opinion which I have voiced, and part of my opinion is
60 that most opinions are unreliable, but it is very
