Day 053 - 22 Nov 94 - Page 51
1
2 So, if we had thought that causal was a specific issue,
3 then I would have gone further in asking the witnesses,
4 when they said that you could not show cause and effect,
5 whether that necessarily meant that the associations that
6 had been asserted between diet and cancer were not
7 necessarily causal.
8
9 MR. JUSTICE BELL: There you are. Are you suggesting there is
10 any difference in attitude between you and Mr. Morris,
11 because you conducted the case in harness and when one goes
12 on to page 30, for instance, when Mr. Morris is asking
13 questions, we have at line 25: "So, you can say that diet
14 is linked to cancer through obesity, but not necessarily
15 through other ---?" Answer: "There is a linkage but not
16 necessarily in terms of causation". "Right. Answer: "I
17 mean, it seems logical to assume that aspects of our diet
18 are involved in the causation of certain illnesses?"
19 "Yes." Then the question: "Including cancer?"
20
21 MS. STEEL: I have said already, I am not disputing the fact
22 that some of our questions were directed at "cause". The
23 initial ones I was picking out there, I am trying to
24 explain that whatever it may or may not appear to
25 Mr. Rampton, I know what my state of mind was. My state of
26 mind was not that we had to prove cause. Those specific
27 questions initially were not directed at proving cause.
28 They were directed at finding out what Mr. Arnott was
29 saying. Later on where "cause" was asked about that, that
30 was because cause was one type of link. Therefore, if we
31 proved cause, we would also prove link. It was not the
32 fact that we had to prove cause. Obviously, it was helpful
33 if we did -- extremely helpful -- but that was not
34 necessarily what we were directing ourselves at. Well, it
35 was not what we were directing ourselves at. We were
36 directing ourselves at proving link and that link was
37 fairly widely accepted as well, as opposed to what
38 Mr. Arnott initially appeared to be asserting, which was,
39 yes, there had been some study asserting the link, but an
40 equal number of studies denying there was a link, so there
41 was not any proof that there was a link.
42
43 MR. MORRIS: In fact, my cross-examination on that part was to
44 establish that there was a link which Dr. Arnott did agree
45 in the end.
46
47 MR. JUSTICE BELL: He did.
48
49 MR. MORRIS: It was hard work.
50
51 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That came before a number of questions
52 about "cause", but I have looked at them. I will just have
53 to make my own view about that. How are we getting on? We
54 are not going to finish today and I cannot sit tomorrow.
55 I personally consider it very important that we go to
56 Ms. Dibb and, since Mr. Mallinson has been moved around,
57 I think it is important we have him. Then it is probably
58 important that we have Mr. Oakley.
59
60 MR. MORRIS: Do you mean Mr. Ashworth on Tuesday?
