Examination of Witnesses (Questions 278
- 279)
TUESDAY 2 JUNE 2009
Ms Sue Davies, Professor Vyvyan Howard and Ms Georgia
Miller
Q278 Chairman:
Good morning, I would like to welcome the two witnesses we have
in the room, Sue Davies from Which? and Professor Vyvyan Howard,
representing the Soil Association but also to welcome Georgia
Miller who is joining us by video link from Australia and she
represents Friends of the Earth Australia. I would also like to
remind the witnesses and members of the Committee that the proceedings
are being webcast and also that the information note available
for members of the public—who are also very welcome in this
session—sets out the declared interests of members of the
Committee so they will not be repeated whilst asking questions.
In welcoming our witnesses to this fifth public hearing of our
inquiry into nanotechnologies and food I would like to invite
each of you in turn to introduce yourselves for the record and
at that same time if there is anything you would like to say by
way of brief introduction before we move to the questioning then
this is your opportunity. I would also like to emphasise that
given that we are working with a video link the sound quality
is very good but there is a slight delay between what we say and
what Georgia hears and likewise in the other direction, so please
remember to speak slowly and to pause if necessary for Georgia's
response to come through. May I now invite the witnesses, starting
with Sue Davies, to introduce yourselves?
Ms Davies: Thank you very much and thank you
for the opportunity to come and give evidence to you today. I
am Sue Davies and I am Chief Policy Advisor at Which?, the consumer
organisation, where I work mainly on food issues. Which?—in
case you are not aware—is an independent not-for-profit
consumer organisation that campaigns on a range of issues on behalf
of all consumers and we are funded through the sale of our consumer
information, so Which? magazine, Good Food Guide,
Which? Online. This is an issue that we have been looking
at in quite a bit of detail over the last couple of years because
we recognise that nanotechnologies offer a lot of benefits for
consumers but they also raise potential risks, and so we want
to make sure that they are developed in a responsible way so that
consumers can take advantage of them but not unnecessarily be
put at risk.
Q279 Chairman:
Thank you. Professor Howard?
Professor Howard: Thank you very much for the
opportunity to come here today. My name is Vyvyan Howard; I am
a medical doctor, pathologist and I specialise in toxicology,
I am Professor of Bioimaging at the University of Ulster. I have
just finished six years serving on the Advisory Committee for
Pesticides. I have sat on two European expert panels concerning
nanotoxicology; I am in receipt of two EU grants to investigate
the toxicology of nanoparticles. I also gave scientific evidence
to the Soil Association for their consideration in the preparation
of their report. I think we will be talking about the specifics
of it later, but those are the main things.
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