Day 023 - 13 Sep 94 - Page 25
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2 MS. STEEL: No. 58 in the Defendants.
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4 MR. MORRIS: Defendants' documents, Nutrition. This is: "Can
5 you Avoid Cancer?" from the Health Education Authority
6 England, The Cancer Education Co-ordinating Group, United
7 Kingdom and Ireland and the Scottish Health Education
8 Group. It is about, presumably, avoiding cancer on the
9 subject of food. On pages 18 and 19 it has "What you can
10 do" on the right-hand side, yes? Their guidance is to
11 avoid being overweight and to cut down on fats. Do you
12 think that is quite a reasonable approach?
13 A. Yes. As we said yesterday, in the situation where you
14 actually do not know the answer necessarily but where
15 certain experimental or study of evidence has suggested
16 that certain aspects of diet may be important, it is only
17 sensible advice when you are producing a document for the
18 general public to suggest to them that where you do not
19 know the answer it would be prudent to reduce your fat
20 intake, particularly as we know that fat intake and other
21 diseases, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, are
22 much more strongly related.
23
24 Q. Just on their chart on page 27 of that document under
25 "Food", this is a chart on prevention of cancer deaths.
26 In the "Food" they put their cards on the table in this
27 document in terms of saying that about three per cent of
28 cancer deaths are definitely preventable that are
29 attributed to food. Sorry, of those cancer deaths that
30 they attribute to food, which is something nearer about 35
31 per cent of all deaths, three per cent or four per cent or
32 something, could be definitely preventable and the others
33 are possibly preventable. So again they are putting their
34 cards on the table as they are saying something like 35
35 per cent of cancer deaths are attributable to diet?
36 A. They do not say that, in fact.
37
38 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Look at the script in the left-hand column,
39 Mr. Morris.
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41 MR. MORRIS: Yes. From that script it implies that -- the only
42 assumption I can make is that the hard green is definitely
43 preventable.
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45 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. I am not contradicting you. Maybe you
46 have read it already, but I want Dr. Arnott to read what
47 is in the left-hand column. My photocopy is not very
48 good, but I assume beneath the solid black hatching which,
49 I assume, is what you suggest is three per cent in the
50 food column ---
51
52 MR. MORRIS: Yes.
53
54 MR. JUSTICE BELL: -- there is some lesser kind of hatching
55 which has not shown at all before "equals possibly
56 preventable" on my copy, but seems to go much higher in
57 the food column. Is that right? Can you just hold it up
58 so I can see?
59
60 MR. RAMPTON: It is green. We have only black and white.
