Day 030 - 03 Oct 94 - Page 30


     
     1        diet and cancer, then you would have to be looking at
     2        research where the hard copies of that research would be
     3        halfway up to the roof.
     4
     5        Furthermore, as I have mentioned, if you are dealing with
     6        cancer, what you are dealing with is a large number of
     7        distinct disease entities.  It is really more appropriate
     8        to talk about cancers than cancer.  Also there is,
     9        I think, literally a multitude of scientific disciplines
    10        which is relevant to the subject.  So, if you take that
    11        approach and believe that the task is to come to an
    12        independent view from scratch on all the scientific
    13        literature -- indeed, if the court here felt that was an
    14        appropriate thing to do as a central part of its case --
    15        you would be here well into the next millenium.  In that
    16        sense it is complex.
    17
    18        If, however, which is the view I take, it is accepted that
    19        actually the task is altogether more simple and that what
    20        you are seeking to do is to find out what is the consensus
    21        of scientific opinion, happily there is a simple mechanism
    22        to do that, which is to go to the reports which form the
    23        basis of my book "Food and Health: The Experts Agree",
    24        which are the export reports which have an appropriate
    25        scientific status.
    26
    27        In that case, as I said in my statement, the task is
    28        relatively simple and the conclusion is relatively simple,
    29        because the reports are there in sufficient number and all
    30        point in the same direction and overall they come to the
    31        same conclusion.
    32
    33   Q.   Just moving ahead, I think you have covered a lot of the
    34        points.
    35
    36   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You only need pick on the matters where you
    37        either think that there is something to be usefully added
    38        or where you are not sure what Mr. Cannon means, so far as
    39        his statement is concerned, and then you can go to the
    40        extracts from his book.
    41
    42   MR. MORRIS:  Yes.  Just moving on to page 5, where you talk
    43        about cause, that there is some confusion about what
    44        constitutes cause.  Would you like to expand upon that?
    45        A.  Yes, in this context.  Clearly, this can be quite an
    46        emotional issue, because if it is alleged that a specific
    47        product which may be high in fat or sugar, for example,
    48        causes disease, then that view would be clearly contested
    49        by the interested party, and understandably so.
    50 
    51        If, however, the statement is that a national food supply 
    52        which is high in fat and saturated fat increases the risk 
    53        in that population of cardiovascular disease and certain
    54        cancers, that is a different matter.  If you go down from
    55        that and say a diet eaten habitually throughout life
    56        increases the risk in that individual person, the answer
    57        is, yes.
    58
    59        If then you get down to saying:  Would a specific diet
    60        eaten in a week increase that disease or a meal increase

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