All right. The record should reflect the jury has withdrawn from the courtroom. Mr. Blasier, tell me about this report.
Your Honor, we got discovery from the Prosecution on Thursday of what the code of federal regulations allows by way of EDTA in food. I asked Dr. Ballard, who is present in court, he's one of our experts who is not on our witness list to calculate for me how much would that would result in terms of parts per million, per billion, whatever if you ate the maximum dosage in one day that was completely absorbed into your system and all sorts of other conditions which aren't terribly realistic.
I was doing them over the weekend, your Honor, and I provided them to Agent Martz. I tried to fax--
Wait, wait. If EDTA in the blood is an issue from opening statements back in January, isn't this a little late to be doing this?
KEY QUOTEAgent Martz told me when I went to Washington last week that he had performed--a week before last I guess it was--that he had performed some experiments on his own blood that showed the presence of EDTA. He also told me that he hadn't saved any of the data, that he had thrown it all away, that he had not produced the charts for us. I had to ask him for them, and he didn't turn them over. So I assumed at that point that they were going to make some kind of argument that maybe the EDTA in his blood is based on what he eats. And at that point, I decided to use their material and calculate what you would expect to find in your blood if you ate what you're allowed to eat in terms of EDTA.
KEY QUOTEOur experts had told us that you're never going to get above parts per billion from your diet. To me, that was never in issue until he says that he tested his own blood and found some.
All right. Well, the point here though is that you're attempting to elicit testimony from Dr. Rieders concerning a report that was not turned over to the Prosecution, correct?
It was a calculation that I attempted to turn over to the Prosecution as soon as I had it. They didn't have their machine on yesterday. I gave it to Agent Martz last night. I told him, "If you talk to Marcia, please give her this stuff because I couldn't get it through on their fax."
I mean, this is the first I've heard of this calculation. I don't know what counsel is talking about. That's why I'm attempting to confer with Agent Martz now to find out what they did.
Uh-huh. Well, I must say that the issue--I mean, it does peak one's curiosity since we know that EDTA is allowed in certain food stuffs. It does sort of peak your interest whether or not it's naturally occurring in the blood. I mean, that's an inquiry that, you know, either side should have made a long time ago.
We know that all the literature tells us, that if it's there, it's going to be in the parts per billion range period. I mean, that's what the literature says. And we provided them with material from the Environmental Protection Agency that also says you shouldn't see more than two parts per billion in humans.
All right. At this point, have you handed to the prosecuting attorneys a copy of this report?
Your Honor, can I refer to the Environmental Protection Agency material that I gave them last week?
Let's have the jurors, please. Doctor, you may stay seated. And, Mr. Blasier, we'll go to 2:30.
If EDTA in the blood is an issue from opening statements back in January, isn't this a little late to be doing this?
Agent Martz told me when I went to Washington last week that he had performed some experiments on his own blood that showed the presence of EDTA. He also told me that he hadn't saved any of the data, that he had thrown it all away, that he had not produced the charts for us.
As far as I know, our fax is always on.