Day 269 - 25 Jun 96 - Page 45
1 I think that COMA has had this reputation of not
2 particularly wanting to commit itself, because of the
3 political implications which some of these recommendations
4 generate. So I think that one needs to look at this
5 document with the hindsight of history, with COMA reports
6 consistently being that little bit behind the times
7 compared with some of the others.
8
9 I think the best example is one that I quoted was the
10 corresponding COMA report in the early 1970's compared with
11 the report from the Royal College of Physicians, which is
12 the one that really started the action on preventive
13 coronary heart disease in this country. The COMA report
14 did nothing to start preventative action, but the Royal
15 College's report did.
16
17 MR. JUSTICE BELL: We will adjourn there and resume at
18 5-past-2.
19
20 (Luncheon adjournment)
21
22 MR. MORRIS: Can I just bring up one thing. Mr. Rampton
23 referred to something Professor Crawford allegedly said in
24 his testimony last time and it was Mr. Rampton told us that
25 it was on the 5th October 1994, day 31, page 53 about
26 recommendations not including the causative links, the WHO
27 recommendations would not necessarily be causative links.
28 And, in fact, Professor Crawford did actually say the
29 opposite on that page.
30
31 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Read it out.
32
33 MR. MORRIS: Mr. Rampton said:
34
35 "There will come a point where the evidence is
36 sufficiently suggestive of risk that a body will make a
37 recommendation.
38 Answer: Yes.
39 Question: It does not follow from that that the body has
40 concluded that X is the cause of Y?
41 This is not about WHO, this is general.
42 Answer: That is correct but I think if you are referring
43 to bodies like the World Health Organisation and the type
44 of recommendations which they make in these sorts of cases,
45 they are making recommendations which are going to affect
46 Governments throughout the world. They are not going to
47 make those recommendations lightly. I would be very
48 surprised if the World Health Organisation made any
49 recommendations that did not actually embrace the evidence
50 on etiology as a part of their summation of the degree of
51 risk."
52
53 MR. RAMPTON: Quite, and I said at the time, I went on to say I
54 was quite content with that answer, which I remain.
55 A. I apologise, Mr. Rampton. My Lord, I was a little
56 confused. I gave a statement just prior to lunch which I
57 would like to modify.
58
59 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes?
60 A. Reference to the committee on this publication here,
