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
