Day 297 - 08 Nov 96 - Page 20


     
     1        stated that everyone should eat less fat, less total fat;
     2        that eight said the recommendation only applied if you were
     3        at high risk, so that would be a total of 93; and that 62
     4        reports say that everyone should eat more fibre.  That was
     5        day 30, page 45 and 46.  When interpreting Doll and Peto's
     6        work, which commissioned in the late '70s, Mr. Cannon
     7        stated that it was fair to say that environmental factors,
     8        which includes diet obviously, account for 80 to 90 percent
     9        of all cancers, and he said that the genetic connection is
    10        not substantial.  Roughly 35 percent of deaths from cancer
    11        were attributed to diet.
    12
    13   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Why did he say the genetic connection is not
    14        substantial?  I mean, it may just be...  Come back to it if
    15        you feel it is important.
    16
    17   MS. STEEL:   That reference was not one that I got myself, so I
    18        cannot actually remember it.  But I will check it.  Yes,
    19        roughly 35 percent of deaths from cancer were attributed to
    20        diet (Pause).
    21
    22        Just on that point, I think at some other point in his
    23        evidence he referred to 160,000 deaths from cancer every
    24        year in the UK.  I can't remember the reference for that, I
    25        will try and dig it out.  So, if we took 35 percent of that
    26        as the ones which he said were being attributed to diet,
    27        then that is a considerable number of people.  That is just
    28        the deaths, that is not including the people who have got
    29        cancer but have not yet died.
    30
    31   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Do you actually have a reference for that?
    32
    33   MS. STEEL:   I think this is all on day 30, page 48 to 50, the
    34        figures.  The 35 percent of deaths.
    35
    36   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
    37
    38   MR. MORRIS:   Can I say that the point about the --
    39
    40   MS. STEEL:   He said that stomach, colon, breast and prostate
    41        cancers are regarded as heavily influenced by diet.  He
    42        suggested that these estimates were constantly being cited
    43        by the government's chief medical officer and in a health
    44        education booklet.  That is all in day 30, page 48 to 50.
    45
    46   MR. MORRIS:   The point is that if 35 percent of deaths from
    47        cancer are attributed to diet, of the ones that are
    48        mentioned in the fact sheet, cancer of the breast and
    49        bowel, it is a much greater percentage.
    50
    51   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Yes.  I have to look at how he feels able to
    52        draw that conclusion.
    53
    54   MR. MORRIS:   The point is that all the evidence we have heard
    55        on breast and bowel cancer on both sides indicates a far
    56        higher percentage of dietary responsibility for those than
    57        other cancers which have not featured in the case.  Those
    58        are the cancers that are specified in the fact sheet.
    59
    60   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Well, I will have to see what I make of his

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