Memorandum submitted by Dr Jean Monro
(E1(fw))
I am delighted at the Select Committee's announcement
of an inquiry into the vitamin B6 debate, which I am sure will
give experts in this field an opportunity to put forward their
views.
We have had some 12,000 patients attending here,
many of whom have had evaluation of vitamin B6 using the technique
the Government's own research bodies did for epidemiology studies.
However, our data is already available, both on the youth population,
who are less likely to be abnormal, and on the adult population.
These are all evaluations done at the outset when people might
have been regarded as perhaps "over-the-counter" purchasers
of B6, and therefore would reflect the population at large. As
I said our data is already available, whereas the Ministry tells
me that their data for adolescents is to be processed later this
year and the data for adults has not yet been obtained. Neither
the Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries and Foods nor the Department
of Health have taken up the offer of scrutinising these records
so that they can make the appropriate assessment of whether or
not these people have had a peripheral neuropathy induced by B6,
which is why there is a restriction being considered.
I would like this committee to take this matter
up.
31 March 1998
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