Day 023 - 13 Sep 94 - Page 20
1 respected body of health?
2 A. They would certainly listen to them, yes.
3
4 Q. Are they likely to trust ---
5 A. I cannot answer that.
6
7 Q. -- their conclusions and recommendations?
8 A. I cannot answer that; I do not know.
9
10 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is a slightly difficult question to ask a
11 specialist, because I am sure he is far too modest, but he
12 might say he knows much more about cancer than X, Y and
13 Z. You are asking him what the person who does not know
14 anything about it might think, you see, or trust -----
15
16 MR. MORRIS: Or people that are looking for guidance overall.
17
18 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, but who has no particular expertise.
19 It is very difficult for an expert to put himself in the
20 position of someone who does not have expertise.
21
22 MR. MORRIS: When, for example, McDonald's expert witness
23 previously in this case -- we read this out before, you
24 remember -- said it was generally accepted, Professor
25 Wheelock said: "Whilst it is now generally accepted that
26 diet does play an important role in the development of the
27 so-called degenerative diseases, which includes coronary
28 heart disease and some cancers, the precise role of the
29 different components in the diet are difficult to
30 elucidate". But when he says "generally accepted" -- we
31 did not ask him this question at the time -- would it be
32 reasonable to say that the World Health Organisation is
33 making such statements that that would contribute to
34 someone saying it is generally accepted?
35 A. As I said yesterday, the World Health Organisation are
36 in a situation where we have already accepted -- this
37 group met in 1989, for example. It took until 1990 to get
38 published but that is not uncommon. In the 1970s and 80s
39 there was felt to be a much stronger relationship between
40 food, diet and possible development of cancers. I think
41 it is certainly true to say that there is a relationship
42 between coronary heart disease, diabetes -----
43
44 Q. Let us just concentrate on cancer.
45 A. All right, but what we have learnt in the last few
46 years is that the position is by no means clear. A lot of
47 this information has only become available in the last
48 three or four years.
49
50 Q. Let us look at the position when this report was
51 produced. This is 1990. Although Vernon Wheelock,
52 Professor Wheelock, wrote his evidence and gave his
53 evidence only a few weeks ago ---
54 A. I would say -----
55
56 Q. -- he was saying then it is generally accepted that diet
57 plays an important role in the development of cancer?
58 A. Well, I would have to say that I could not accept
59 that. What I would say is that diet may play an important
60 role in cancer but we actually do not know the answer to
