Day 035 - 12 Oct 94 - Page 29
1 health"?
2 A. To tell you the truth I would be very surprised if he
3 would say that, even if the evidence were overwhelming,
4 and the reason is -- well, one reason, aside from the fact
5 that the limitations of the research we have discussed are
6 that physicians, in general, do try to use very cautious
7 and sometimes understated language, so they will use the
8 words "may" and "might" to a tremendous degree. You will
9 see that also in the tobacco literature that stopping
10 smoking may prevent cancer.
11
12 The other part of that is that even tobacco, the link
13 between tobacco and lung cancer, tobacco sometimes causes
14 lung cancer and some people will say tobacco causes
15 cancer. But the fact of the matter is stopping smoking
16 might prevent lung cancer, but it does not always.
17 Smoking may cause cancer, but it does not always, even
18 though those links are quite well established. So, one
19 has to, I think, be very, very cautious. Eating a
20 high-fat diet does not always and predictably cause
21 cancer. There are some people in whom it will and others
22 in whom it will not.
23
24 Smoking cigarettes does not cause cancer in a great many
25 individuals. So, it is perhaps quite reasonable to say it
26 might and it may cause cancer and that these links are
27 there. I regret to say that combined with, perhaps, the
28 natural conservative nature that physicians have it is
29 going to lead to the over-use of words like "may" and
30 "might" when one might like a much stronger phrase that
31 fat causes cancer.
32
33 The fact of the matter is that some people will eat a
34 high-fat/low-fibre diet and not develop cancer.
35
36 MR. JUSTICE BELL: This is my last interruption of your
37 cross-examination at this stage, but I would see the point
38 of that were it not that the Surgeon General uses the word
39 "risk"?
40 A. Yes, I agree.
41
42 Q. If you bring "risk" into the equation, he would certainly
43 be saying that stopping smoking would reduce the risk of
44 lung cancer, would he not?
45 A. Yes, quite correct.
46
47 Q. And over the page he would say "would decrease the risk
48 of", "would decrease the risk of lung cancer"?
49 A. Probably so, yes.
50
51 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I have interrupted more than enough.
52
53 MR. RAMPTON: I was not going to add anything, save perhaps
54 this: Dr. Barnard, if the Surgeon General thought in 1988
55 that substantial numbers of Americans were going to
56 contract these various forms of cancer, or that there was
57 a serious risk that they were going to contract these
58 forms of cancer unless they reduced their fat intake and
59 or increased their fibre intake, he would say so; he would
60 have to. It is his business to say: "Look, watch out!
