Day 254 - 22 May 96 - Page 51


     
     1        A.  A variety of studies.
     2
     3   Q.   There were not any cause and effect experiments where
     4        people were fed or required to drink large quantities of
     5        alcohol over a period of time?
     6        A.  That is not an ethical study that anybody could do.
     7
     8   Q.   There was not anything along those lines?
     9        A. Well, yes. I mean, people who have been examined who
    10        have a high alcohol intake, such as alcoholics, people in
    11        various parts of France, and in the United States they have
    12        looked at different population groups, the incidence of
    13        alcohol intake according to racial variations and so on,
    14        and these have all consistently come out as showing that
    15        there is a very close correlation between alcohol intake as
    16        well as smoking and the development of cancer of the mouth,
    17        the throat and the oesophagus.
    18
    19   Q.   But they all might also be affected by people's diet and
    20        lifestyle factors in those countries?
    21        A.  They could be modifying factors, that is certainly
    22        true.
    23
    24   Q.   They could be barking up completely the wrong tree?
    25        A.  No, because to go back to the cancers that we are meant
    26        to be concentrating on, which are cancers of the breast and
    27        large bowel, where there has been a lack of consistency in
    28        the evidence, when one looks at alcohol and the cancers the
    29        oesophagus, the throat and the mouth, there is consistency
    30        of the evidence, and that is the point that I have been
    31        making in all of my statements, that it is the consistency
    32        of the evidence which is the important factor that we
    33        should be discussing.
    34
    35   MR. JUSTICE BELL: What is "Hill's discipline"?
    36        A.  I have to confess I am not sure, my Lord.
    37
    38   MR. MORRIS:  He is referred to on page 40 in the list of
    39        references, about 10 different references.
    40
    41   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It is as basic as this.  Is he medically
    42        qualified?  Is he an epidemiologist?
    43
    44   MR. RAMPTON:  I think I know but I will get it confirmed.  I
    45        believe he is a biochemist who is also an epidemiologist,
    46        and I believe that he works at the hospital in Slough but
    47        I will get the details because it may help your Lordship in
    48        due course.
    49
    50   MS. STEEL:  On page 18 of the study under "Epidemiology", which 
    51        is about colorectal cancer, it says: 
    52 
    53        "Large bowel cancer is amongst the most common cancers in
    54        North America, Australasia and Western Europe".  I take it
    55        you would agree with that?
    56        A.  That is correct.
    57
    58   Q.   And that under "Major Risk Factors":
    59
    60        "the major risk factor for colorectal cancer are genetic

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