Day 052 - 21 Nov 94 - Page 46
1 said in the Court of Appeal as reported in the Guardian.
2 Plainly, Ms. Steel has got hold of completely the wrong end
3 of the stick. Then your Lordship says: "However, that may
4 be, I thought you called Professor Crawford because you
5 thought he might say that certain elements in a diet do
6 cause cancer or are a cause of cancer. Have
7 I misunderstood that completely?" Ms. Steel: "No, I was
8 going to change the question when it was first brought up."
9 Your Lordship: "Do not let us get distracted about it.
10 I said what I did so that you could appreciate the
11 potential importance of cause as against link, whatever
12 'link' may mean.
13
14 Ms. Steel: "Can I just say, 'link' does not exclusively
15 mean 'cause' because it could also mean 'promotes'." My
16 Lord, I pause there to say that I recall your Lordship
17 saying at one stage in this case that you were unable to
18 see a valid distinction between the words "promote" and the
19 word "cause".
20
21 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I think I had in mind was that if
22 something promoted cancer, it was playing a part in the
23 causation.
24
25 MR. RAMPTON: There is no question about that. I accept -- may
26 I put it this way -----
27
28 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It was the second phase, was it not?
29
30 MR. RAMPTON: It may help if I say now what I believe is the
31 right way of putting it: The reader of the leaflet would
32 have understood, if we are right about the meaning, the
33 allegation that McDonald's food causes cancer as meaning
34 that it gives you the disease which puts you into the
35 cancer ward in the hospital; or it means that you have to
36 have chemotherapy or surgery or radiotherapy or whatever.
37 Cancer to the ordinary man does not mean an initiated cell
38 disorder which may never arise into a malignant tumour.
39 Therefore, I accept that a substance or a combination of
40 substances which assist in the promotion of a malignant
41 tumour or of a cancer from one stage to that from which it
42 progresses into a malignant tumour is a form of causation.
43 I accept that.
44
45 So that here too Ms. Steel is talking about a form of
46 causation. Your Lordship says: "We can argue about that at
47 the end of the case." Ms. Steel: "It is a matter of if
48 there is evidence that cancer is promoted by fat, then that
49 is also relevant to the word 'link'. It is not solely
50 caused is what I am saying." Your Lordship: "It may be,
51 but all I am suggesting is, do not bother about 'link'
52 which may have a variety of meanings, when what you are
53 really aiming at with is Professor Crawford, or I had
54 thought you were, was cause." Ms. Steel: "I was willing to
55 change the question anyway, but we got distracted."
56
57 Then your Lordship says this: "What I said to you about
58 possible interpretation was not so that we could embark on
59 an argument about it now, but so you did not think that it
60 automatically meant victory for you and defeat for
