Day 031 - 05 Oct 94 - Page 51


     
     1        I expect you have been told that.  Ms. Steel was a moment
     2        ago attempting to define for you your own expertise.  Do
     3        you think you would mind doing it for me?  I will not feed
     4        words to you.
     5        A.  With respect, I have always tried to put the view that
     6        I am the last person that should be asked to define my
     7        expertise, but I think it is reflected in the fact that I
     8        was invited in 1977 to be the rapporteur for the conjoint
     9        World Health Organisation and Food and Agriculture
    10        Organisation Committee on the role of dietary fats and
    11        oils in human nutrition, and that I was also a member of
    12        the British Nutrition Foundation's task force and have
    13        been invited on many occasions to lecture in the United
    14        States, Canada, Japan, Australia and Sweden and various
    15        other countries on this issue.
    16
    17   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I do not think Mr. Rampton is challenging
    18        your place on those.  If you met someone for the first
    19        time and they asked you what you did you would tell them.
    20        If they said:  "What is your particular field?" what would
    21        your answer be to that?
    22        A.  My particular field is dietary fats and fatty acids.
    23
    24   MR. RAMPTON:  And its relation to human health?
    25        A.  That is correct.
    26
    27   Q.   There are two things arising out of that, Professor
    28        Crawford:  I take it, therefore, without taxing your
    29        modesty that you do not propose yourself as an expert in
    30        the purposes and effects of advertising?
    31        A.  I do not propose myself as an expert of that matter.
    32
    33   Q.   So the views you have expressed on that matter, are those
    34        of a layman albeit, an intelligent, well-educated layman?
    35        A.  I would hope that would be correct.
    36
    37   Q.   Second this, Professor Crawford, and perhaps more germane
    38        to your presence here, you mentioned, in particular, oils?
    39        A.  Yes.
    40
    41   Q.   As well as fatty acids?
    42        A.  Yes.
    43
    44   Q.   By that I take it we include fish oils?
    45        A.  Yes.
    46
    47   Q.   You mentioned fatty acids called by you n-6 and n-3.  Are
    48        those what are sometimes called by other people omega 3
    49        and omega 6?
    50        A.  Yes. 
    51 
    52   Q.   Can I ask you this:  How do you react to a suggestion that 
    53        humans should disavow the consumption of fish or fish oils
    54        because the omega 3s or the n-3s to be found in such
    55        substances, are unstable and apt to unleash free radicals
    56        which are themselves dangerously carcinogenic?
    57        A.  My reaction to that is that it is -- I would be
    58        surprised if that statement was made by somebody with a
    59        deep knowledge of the subject.  The food chain by its very
    60        nature is quite remarkable in the fact that it actually

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