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
