Day 297 - 08 Nov 96 - Page 13
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2 MS. STEEL: Day 22, page 32.
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4 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
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6 MS. STEEL: The statement I mentioned about diet is an important
7 contributory factor to cancer and Dr. Arnott saying that it
8 was a reasonable statement, the quote is from the actual
9 transcript. It is important to remember that although DIET
10 is an important contributory factor to these diseases, it
11 is not the only one, and it says including cancer. And he
12 said that he thought it was a very reasonable thing to say,
13 and that if this is advice being given to the general
14 public, it is very sensible advice to give to the general
15 public.
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17 And he goes on to say, they are saying it is an important
18 contributory factor to these diseases which are things like
19 coronary heart disease and obesity and so on, including
20 cancer, and he said it is a very reasonable position to
21 take. That was on day 22, page 31, line 32.
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23 Obviously we consider that this section of the evidence is
24 the key to it, basically accepting that it is reasonable to
25 give advice to the general public in these terms about the
26 links between high fat, low fibre et cetera diet and heart
27 disease and cancer.
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29 Just some other points that came out of Dr. Arnott's
30 evidence anyway, he did admit that it is established beyond
31 any reasonable doubt that the so-called developed western
32 countries do have a much greater incidence of degenerative
33 diseases. That was on day 22, page 34.
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35 He said he was sceptical of population studies as a means
36 of research because they only gave a broad brush approach,
37 but he did agree that the correlations for links between
38 diet and cancer in the studies are very high, with diet
39 accounting for a perhaps 80 percent of the cancer
40 incidents. That was on day 22, page 37. And although he
41 believed that genetic factors have the strongest causative
42 links to cancer, he agreed that there was an interplay
43 between lots of different factors, including diet. That
44 was day 22, pages 39 and 43.
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46 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I would like just to say what is in my mind
47 about that, and then you or Mr. Morris can say anything and
48 Mr. Rampton can. The way I see it at the moment, although
49 we did not really go into genetics at all, is that what you
50 have in a certain number of people is a gene mutation which
51 gives you a facility to develop cancer, or call it a
52 greater propensity to develop cancer, if you like.
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54 I notice from an article in one newspaper I read earlier
55 this week that they have just identified one particular
56 one, which means people have a much higher potential to
57 develop breast cancer. The difficulty is in identifying
58 just which the gene is and where it is. But that is only
59 part of the matter. It may be that without the genetic
60 mutation you are not going to get cancer however much you
