Day 266 - 20 Jun 96 - Page 43
1 'causal', but most expert groups now consider it prudent
2 to reduce fat intakes in western societies....."?
3
4 Q. Yes.
5 A. Absolutely.
6
7 Q. Do you agree with the bit up to the comma after "termed
8 'causal'"?
9 A. I do not think that it is my role to decide whether
10 something is causal or not causal. I think, you know, you
11 need to go to a conference of people talking about diet and
12 cancer, and the one I referred to in the original
13 statement, I picked on a report which was the most recent
14 up-to-date report there was which looked at the
15 relationship and all the papers published on diet and
16 cancer and the estimates there were, going back to the
17 statement, "between 30 and 70 per cent of all cancers are
18 linked to diet."
19
20 So, there is a big -- I mean, it is certain that there is a
21 large amount of cancers are linked to diet. The question
22 is exactly how much, you know, that is quite a big range.
23 But there are some that are clearly diet related: Bowel,
24 breast, prostate cancer here are clearly related to diet.
25
26 So, I think that in terms of reducing those cancers, I mean
27 the term "causal" -- I think in any diet and health issue,
28 I do not think you are going to get many people standing up
29 and saying "This causes that", because, I mean, if you take
30 the issue of smoking and health it was -- I think most
31 people would now say that smoking causes lung cancer. I do
32 not think that you would say that. But many decades before
33 there was enough evidence to say smoking causes cancer.
34 Everybody agreed that, to avoid lung cancer, you had to
35 stop smoking.
36
37 So, I am just trying to understand what the point of the
38 question is really, although I hope I have answered it
39 sufficiently to help.
40
41 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am trying not to worry about that one
42 unduly. Just express your own view.
43
44 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I am going to pass to my final topic.
45 Unless your Lordship wanted -----
46
47 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, thank you. That is what I wanted to
48 ask.
49
50 MR. RAMPTON: I do not know if your Lordship is going take a
51 break. It may be the right time.
52
53 MR. JUSTICE BELL: How much longer do you think you will be?
54
55 MR. RAMPTON: I do not know. I am trying to do a little bit of
56 fiddley arithmetic, that is all. It might be 20 minutes.
57
58 MR. JUSTICE BELL: We will have our five-minute break now.
59
60 (Short adjournment)
