Day 254 - 22 May 96 - Page 09


     
     1        grown during the last 2 years.
     2
     3   Q.   So they started around the time when you gave your
     4        evidence?
     5        A.  No.
     6
     7   MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, that is quite inconsistent.  We listened
     8        to the evidence before.  You know, as well as I do, that
     9        Dr. Arnott said the tendency had been for some time growing
    10        then.  Whether you accept it as evidence or not, that is
    11        what he said.
    12
    13   MS. STEEL:  You said that it was beginning to develop at the
    14        time when you last gave evidence?
    15        A.  No, I did not actually say that.
    16
    17   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Do you have a reference?
    18
    19   MS. STEEL:   Yes.  It is on page 8 of ----
    20
    21   MR. MORRIS:  Today, we are talking about today.
    22
    23   MS. STEEL:  Page 7, line 52.
    24
    25   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You had better just say what you think if one
    26        can pinpoint the beginning of the great scepticism.  I have
    27        to say it seems to me to be rather difficult because there
    28        have always been enthusiasts, and there have always been
    29        sceptics, and what we are now talking about is a body of
    30        common opinion which has become more sceptical, as
    31        I understand it.  Is that what you are meaning to put?
    32        There have been sceptics right from the start and there
    33        have been enthusiasts right from the start, have there not?
    34        A.  In fairness, as I said this morning, when people first
    35        began to relate what appeared to be dietary variations
    36        throughout the world, and the variations in the incidence
    37        of breast cancer and large bowel cancer, it seemed clear
    38        cut that diet or dietary variations could account for
    39        perhaps 80 per cent of the differences.
    40
    41        It is only following that, when people began to try to
    42        confirm these variations, that they ran into difficulties
    43        and appreciated that the situation was far more complex
    44        than had originally believed to be the case.
    45
    46   MS. STEEL:   But that situation, as you said in your statement,
    47        was in the 1960s and 1970s which was a long time before you
    48        last gave your evidence?
    49        A.  Indeed, yes, and it is actually since that time that
    50        there have been inconsistencies in the reports which have 
    51        appeared.  It is not just that the inconsistencies have 
    52        appeared this year, last year or the year before.  It is 
    53        that throughout the time people have tried to investigate
    54        in more detail what appeared to be a relationship between
    55        diet and cancer that inconsistencies appeared.  Thus, there
    56        have been inconsistencies ever since these studies were
    57        first carried out, so you are talking about the 1970s, the
    58        1980s.
    59
    60        What I am saying now is that, as time has gone on and more

Prev Next Index