Day 206 - 22 Jan 96 - Page 12
1 information. The quote from Mr. Atkinson earlier on was
2 something like "no accurate" or "no reliable information",
3 being that the whole specific reactivity of the population
4 was something that needed investigation. That is what he
5 has done; he has come up with a detailed analysis of the
6 situation, rather than just throw figures out of a hat or
7 just dismiss it as if it is not relevant to the population,
8 which some irresponsible expert may have done.
9
10 I think that is basically our case. Ms. Steel will say
11 something.
12
13 MS. STEEL: I have actually got two things I wanted to say. One
14 of them is more or less covered by Mr. Morris, anyway.
15 Just the point about the relevance of tartrazine being that
16 it is another colourant, and just to point out that
17 Mr. Atkinson read out a section of the transcript from
18 page 55 on day 38, where he said: "It is unlikely, in my
19 experience, for some people to be intolerant to some
20 colours, but not either to amaranth or sunset yellow." So,
21 that is like a clear cut example of how intolerance to
22 tartrazine would be relevant to amaranth and sunset yellow,
23 which are other colourants. That was on line 50 onwards.
24
25 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
26
27 MS. STEEL: The other thing is that Mr. Rampton said there was
28 nothing in the pleadings about asthma and eczema, and they
29 are now relevant. When we got the statement from
30 Mr. Millstone, the first statement, we did discuss amending
31 the pleadings. I think it was actually in respect of that,
32 or that being one of the things where we were told there
33 was no need to amend the pleadings, that the statement will
34 be taken as pleaded. It is just really to say that asthma
35 and eczema were mentioned in Dr. Millstone's first
36 statement; on page 11, for example, in the section on
37 amaranth.
38
39 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Read it. Read the bit you have in mind.
40
41 MS. STEEL: It says about amaranth: "This chemical has been
42 amongst the most controversial food chemicals during the
43 last 15 years. There have been some doubts about it since
44 at least 1938. There is some direct human evidence that it
45 can provoke hyperactivity and other symptoms of
46 intolerance, including eczema and asthma....amaranth is
47 banned by the USDA in January 1976." That was just an
48 example.
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
51
52 MS. STEEL: That is all I have to say, really.
53
54 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Thank you.
55
56 MS. STEEL: I do not know whether it is worth mentioning, but
57 tartrazine was actually mentioned in the first statement as
58 well in relation to the section on sunset yellow. So it is
59 not that it has not come in before. Obviously, it is not a
60 separately pleaded thing.
