t57-
Blue Mould Outbreak - Canada
Mr. Wade (ITL, Montreal) telephoned me at 21.00 hours,
21st August, following a meeting he had had that day with
Prof. Friedmann, Dean of Medicine, McGill University, to discuss
any potential hazard which might be associated with the handling
or use of tobacco contaminated with Peronospora tabacina or its
spores (conidia, dospores). The position in Canada is that the
Blue Mould epidemic has subsided, but that about one-third to
one-half of the crop from the lower half of the plant is affected
with the mould. The problem is being tackled at an industry level
but ITL are concerned as a Company with two aspects:-
(a) the possible effect on personnel handling the crop at
the redryers, e.g. sorting, packing.
(b) the possible effect on people smoking tobacco carrying
traces of the mould.
Prof. Friedmann was of the opinion that in the burning
process, the mould spores would be destroyed, but he suggested
that the world-expert in allergies caused by moulds was
Prof. Jack Pepys, Prof. of Clinical Immunology at the Brompton
Hospital. Wade asked me to contact Prof. Pepys for an opinion
on the two potential risks mentioned above.
I duly te lephoned Prof. Pepys on 22nd August and
contacted him at 12.15 hours. Having outlined the problems to
him, I then handed over to Mr. T. G. Mitchell, who provided
further technical information about the sizes of conidia and
dospores of Peronospora.
Pepys bad no hesitation in saying that these were too
large to be deeply respirable and that he foresaw no risk to
workers handling contaminated tobacco. However, he was less
prepared to be definite regarding risk to smokers and suggested
that what would be necessary and ethical to exclude potential risk
would be to conduct patch tests in smokers using extracts of
tobacco with and without blue mould contamination.
Although it was pointed out to Pepys that, while blue
mould occurred in Europe and Australia fairly frequently, no-one
had associated disease with the mould in these countries, he did
not agree with Friedmann that combustion would remove the allergic
risk and expressed the view that chronic bronchitis associated
with smoking might be an allergic response, since the aetiology
of the disease was still unknown.
Pepys said he would be happy to talk to Friedmann if it-
was felt this would he.1p.
BATCo document for Province of British Columbia 16 April 1999

The substance of the above conversation was relayed to
Mr. Wade at 14. 15 hours on 22nd August. he proposed to contact
Prof. Friedmann once more and to suggest a direct approach by
Friedmann to Pepys. Meanwhile, he concluded tentatively that
there was unlikely to be a problem with smokers.
At 15.00 hours on 23rd August, Mr. Wade rang again to
say that he had been in contact with Prof. Friedmann and had
reported to him the substance of Prof. Pepys' views. Friedmann Is
comments were to the effect that Pepys has a tendency to make
unsupported hypotheses and that, in the absence of any concrete
evidence of a higher incidence of bronchitic type diseases in those
European countries where blue mould occurs sporadically each year,
Friedmann's advice was to discount Pepys views. He said he did
not propose to ring Pepys, since this could only lead to involvement
in unresolvable scientific argument. The suggestion that patch
tests should be carried out to investigate a possible allergic
reaction was rejected on the grounds that it would take at least
two years to get approval on a protocol in Canada.
Friedmann's final advice was that he saw no risk on
either count. On reflection, Mr. Wade agreed that Friedmann's
advice to consult Pepys was perhaps unnecessary in the event that
such advice., when received, was discounted.
In the light of the apparently successful use of Ridomil,
Mr. Wade asked that R & D should keep up to date wi tb information
on its toxicity, method of residue analysis, etc.
D. G. FELTON
Copies to:-
R. J. Pritchard, Esq.
Dr. L. C. F. Blackman
D.-.J. Wood, Esq.
T. G. Mitchell, Esq.
0=
R. S. Wade, Esq.
DGF/AIW/5.1.1
2 3rd August, 1979
BATCo document for Province of British Columbia 15 April 1999