by DAVID DYSON
THE MOST DRAMATIC changes to firearms legislation in the UK in recent times were totally reactive, resulting from public outrage following the murderous sprees of Michael Ryan in Hungerford and Thomas Hamilton in Dunblane. The recent tragic events in Cumbria have once again thrown firearms legislation into the forefront of public scrutiny; whether further restriction will follow once again remains to be seen.
by JOHN McGLINCHEY of Forensic Engineering Solutions
GET CONVICTED of Dangerous Driving Causing Death, and you’re off to jail.
When you get there, roadsafety pressure-groups will lament the apparent leniency of your sentence and quote statistics about the death toll on the roads and the effect of the bereavement on the immediate families.
by Dr BOJAN FLAKS PhD DSc CBiol FIBiol FRCPath, of InfoResearch International TOXICOLOGY IS the science of poisons.
It is the study of the adverse effects of chemicals on living organisms, including the study of symptoms, mechanisms, treatments and detection of the poisoning of people or animals.
It is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as: “...that department of pathology or medicine which deals with the nature and effects of poisons. So Toxicologist, a person versed in t[oxicology]”.
by Dr ANTHONY CLARKE, consultant rheumatologist
IN THE LAST issue of Your Expert Witness, Mark Phillips challenged the concept of the likelihood of clinicians being able to predict by how much an injury could bring forward degenerative change. I would like to take that argument further and challenge the related topic of acceleration of socalled constitutional musculoskeletal problems by trauma.
As a rheumatologist with a special interest in chronic pain I am frequently asked to provide an opinion where an orthopaedic surgeon asserts that there are degenerative changes visible on x-ray and that inevitably the claimant would have similar disabling symptoms within two or three years. On what evidence is that opinion based?
by NICHOLAS GALL MSc MD FRCP, consultant cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist at King’s College Hospital and honorary senior lecturer at King’s College London. Nickgall@doctors.org.uk.
CARDIOLOGY is the medical specialty dealing with heart problems, but also with other related areas such as blackouts of uncertain cause and high blood pressure. In the past cardiology was an extension of general internal medicine, staffed by doctors with an interest in the area.
