Day 053 - 22 Nov 94 - Page 35
1 "relationship", "association" and "link" were mentioned
2 more like 100 or 200 times. So it was not something we
3 were concentrating on. There were things that we could
4 have gone into in much greater detail had we realised that
5 the only issue that mattered was "cause".
6
7 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Give me an example now of something you might
8 have gone into with Professor Wheelock. Obviously, you
9 felt, on cancer, that you had quite enough information to
10 cross-examine Dr. Arnott extensively on it.
11
12 MS. STEEL: By the time Dr. Arnott came up, I think we had got
13 hold of the World Health Organisation Report, and I think
14 it kind of alerted us to different lines of questioning.
15
16 MR. MORRIS: If I can just look at Professor Wheelock's
17 evidence, on the first page of his evidence, bundle 24,
18 page 1 of his evidence, he says:
19
20 "It is now generally accepted that diet does play an
21 important role in the development of the so-called
22 degenerative diseases, which include coronary heart disease
23 and some cancers. The precise role of different components
24 in the diet are very difficult to elucidate."
25
26 If causality was what we had to prove, we may have
27 questioned Professor Wheelock up hill and down dale about
28 what he means by "development".
29
30 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is quite clear what he means, or
31 I interpret it as saying that he is saying it is generally
32 accepted that it has a causal role, because it is an
33 important role in the development. This is diet, just
34 generally. You remember Dr. Arnott, when he was asked
35 about that, said he would substitute the word "may" for
36 "does".
37
38 If what you are saying is you want Professor Wheelock to
39 come back so that you can cross-examine him further about
40 why he says "does" rather than "may", that is another
41 matter, because, if I give leave to amend, it may be on
42 condition that you be able to cross-examine further on
43 that. It is for to you judge whether you want to do that
44 because, of course, cross-examining on it may give you
45 extra information or may be an opportunity -- it may end up
46 with a watered down statement rather than what is in tab 2
47 at page 24. But that will be a matter for your judgment.
48
49 MS. STEEL: I think the difficulty is that we have not really
50 prepared to go through specific instances where we would
51 have asked different questions. But, clearly, in our
52 minds, we are aware of the fact that we did not
53 specifically concentrate on "cause", and that we did not
54 ask as many questions on "cause" as we would have done
55 had "cause" been the only issue, as opposed to it being one
56 type of link.
57
58 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Are you talking just about Professor Wheelock
59 now?
60
