Your response: from Dr J W King

I wish to compliment W. Rutter and M.T. Simpson on their perceptive comments dated 12 October and 17 October respectively. They have asked an extremely pertinent question (viz. why is there so little vCJD in France and Germany in spite of the large consumption of British beef in those countries during the years before 1996?). The answer, I believe, is one of the points I tried to suggest in my Comment dated 7 October, and that is that vCJD is not caused by BSE. I believe that both these dreadful diseases are caused by chronic exposure to neurological toxins, probably anticholinesterases, introduced into people and cattle.

The possibility that genetically-modified food (some of which contains genes designed to kill pests, so why not also people after prolonged exposure?) may eventually result in a similar health crisis to the vCJD epidemic cannot possibly be ruled out. Perhaps one day there will be a second Phillips Inquiry (into who knew what and when about GM food and why they said that GM foods were safe to eat when there was no proof that this was so). It should be appreciatd that, for obvious reasons, the fact that BSE may not be the cause of vCJD does not necessarily mean that all beef is safe to eat.

With best wishes,

Yours sincerely,

Dr J.W. King