Dr Judy Ford:
Expert Witness (Chemical Toxins)

Does your case involve Chemical Toxicity or Cancer?

My career was unusual in that I studied Genetics in depth from my second year at University. I received a First Class Honours degree and Ph.D. before going on to work for 30 years in Human Genetics. My previous laboratories have used both chromosomal and DNA techniques and I have extensive experience in counselling. I have taught Genetics at all levels from special courses for matriculation students and their teachers through to full University courses. I have also taught courses to Community groups.

My interest in chemical and radiation toxicity started in 1973 when I started working in Cancer Research. At the time we were examining the bone marrow cells of people with leukemia, looking for specific changes that could be disease specific. Those were early days and it took many years before all the specific chromosome changes were observed. Since then, these specific chromosome changes have been found to affect specific genes, most of which affect the control of cell division.

Although I continued these observations on cancer cells for more than 20 years, I also did a great deal of research on the different ways that chromosomes could be broken and cell division disrupted. Then I went on from studying cells to look at the ways people lived their lives. It was through this "lifestyle" work that I realised that many people were frequently exposed to chemical toxins and that this was causing a great deal of undocumented illness.

CHECK OUT MY C.V.

Lifestyle Research led to me to appreciate the enormous importance of Radiation and Chemical Toxicity. I soon realized that we knew little about how people actually lived their lives and how their lifestyle might affect their cells. This was critical to understanding the real causes of illness. I described my work as putting the person around his or her cells.

My lifestyle research led me to appreciate the importance of chemicals and other lifestyle factors in causing illness. Chemicals are everywhere, at home and work and everywhere in between and they can make us very ill indeed. I am one of relatively few geneticists in the world who has worked extensively in the area of chemical and radiation toxicity (mutagenesis) in humans. There should be many more of us.
 

The photo below shows me with a group of international scientists, invited by the then USSR Atomic Energy Commission IN 1990 to a conference held 5 years after 'the Chernobyl accident'. I'm the tall one three from the right with a lot of black hair. WE WERE ALL MADE TO WEAR RUSSIAN ARMY UNIFORMS, WHICH ACCOUNTS FOR OUR UNUSUAL UNIFORM DRESS MODE.

My Experience in Legal Cases:

The first cases I contributed to were rape cases. These were fairly specialized situations where the women had become pregnant as a result of the rape. At that time I had a laboratory and was very experienced at isolating foetal tissues from curettage. Later I developed DNA techniques in my laboratory and submitted evidence routinely for cases of disputed paternity.

One of the roles of human genetics laboratories is to identify gene or chromosomal abnormalities by prenatal diagnosis in order to prevent the birth of a child with genetic abnormalities. I have evaluated and reported on several cases of missed or incorrect diagnoses, or failure to test or to interpret and act on tests appropriately.

In the early 1990's my research on lifestyle gained a very large amount of international media publicity. As a result I have been asked to evaluate many cases of purported chemical toxicity.

Why I can contribute so much to such cases is:

- Extensive experience in reading medical notes,
- Thirty years evaluating pathology reports,
- Extensive research and clinical experience with       Lifestyle and Illness
- In depth understanding of genes, mutation, chromosomal damage and errors of cell division
- Research into, understanding and teaching others about the mechanisms underlying the development of cancer.

My experience together with my inquiring mind gives me great insight into legal cases. My evidence has been used throughout Australia and several overseas countries.

Preparing for Cases involving Toxic Exposures

All successful court cases require thorough preparation but cases involving possible toxic exposures often require more preparation than usual. Critical evaluation and thinking needs to be applied in the early stages to ensure firstly that a sound case exits and secondly that a sound case doesn’t head in the wrong direction.

This may sound obvious but in my experience many cases fail to establish a strong relationship between the “exposure to the toxic agent” and the “illness” or “disability”. I have often been asked to report on cases, quite late in the proceedings. I am amazed at how often the case (up until then) was considering the wrong chemical as the critical exposure. It is critical to look for all other possible explanations for the outcome under consideration. There are also many cases where the exposure involves more than one chemical.

Download your copy of one of my recent publications: "Chemical Toxicity: How to build a sound case" or "Paying Attention to the Story"

Can I help you with a Medico-Legal Case?

Many medico-legal cases often fall between different academic disciplines. No one person has the expertise to evaluate the whole case. I have found that my experience in human genetics has given me a broad knowledge of different medical disciplines because genes affect all the body organs. Also, my years of research and assessing medical patient records have given me an extensive knowledge of medical jargon, patient management and laboratory test results. I am a lateral thinker, natural sleuth and am prepared to look at each case with an open mind.