Day 030 - 03 Oct 94 - Page 26


     
     1        beginning in the middle 1980s, to the best of my
     2        recollection, 84/85 and onwards; many others in the
     3        States, but those really are the key organisations in the
     4        States.  Based on that, the American government, which is
     5        to say, specifically, the Department of Health and Human
     6        Services and the US Department of Agriculture, which are
     7        the equivalent of our Department of Health and Ministry of
     8        Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.
     9
    10   Q.   But outside of America, give some of the other -----
    11        A.  Respectively, I think that will do.  It is fair to say
    12        that in the States the evidence on diet and cancer is not
    13        only accepted by -- is accepted within the medical
    14        profession and amongst scientists, but also by government
    15        and, therefore, generally speaking, also by other relevant
    16        sections of society as well, such as industry.
    17
    18        In Europe, the situation is not as developed.  When this
    19        case was brought to my attention first of all, what I
    20        recall saying was that the evidence, or the case on diet
    21        and cancer is not so generally well known in this country,
    22        certainly, as the case on diet and cardiovascular
    23        disease.  It would be, I think, quite impossible for
    24        anyone to mount -- to take the view that evidence on diet
    25        and cardiovascular disease was not established in any
    26        sense of the word in this country simply because the
    27        government in this country has accepted the evidence on
    28        diet and cardiovascular disease, whereas the government in
    29        this country has not yet accepted the evidence on diet and
    30        cancer in the same way.
    31
    32        What has happened in Europe, internationally, is the
    33        European -- the Europe Against Cancer Organisation
    34        produced a report in 1985 on diet and cancer which
    35        contained dietary recommendations of the type already
    36        described.  WHO produced a report called Healthy Nutrition
    37        (which I do not have here) which was specifically for
    38        Europe, to the best of my recollection, in 86/87, which
    39        again contained the same sort of recommendations.
    40
    41        Then on a world basis, the WHO produced a report "Diet,
    42        Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases" in
    43        1990.  Of course, the role of the WHO formally is advisory
    44        only relative to national sovereign states.  The tendency
    45        is that WHO's advice is to be taken on board by developed
    46        countries, or countries which do not have fully developed
    47        health services or advisory bodies of their own; whereas
    48        major developed countries, such as our own, would tend to
    49        want to take their own advice and then they would take
    50        note of what WHO said and respect it.  If WHO issues 
    51        recommendations they do not, therefore, become UK policy. 
    52        That is what I am trying to say. 
    53
    54        What we do have in the UK is, first of all, the European
    55        Code Against Cancer so-called ten commandments, which
    56        apply to the UK inasmuch as we accept we are members of
    57        the European Union.  Also, more recently, the Scottish
    58        statement on the Scottish diet, which makes specific
    59        reference to diet and cancer which was published this or
    60        last year, and which has been accepted by the Secretary of

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