Day 254 - 22 May 96 - Page 59


     
     1        effect.  This is not 1968, this is 1991, a very view of
     2        previous studies.
     3        A.  Yes, you do remember ----
     4
     5   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It is reviewing studies going back how far;
     6        do you know?
     7        A.  I would not know, but certainly going back a number of
     8        years and we have certainly already discussed the
     9        limitations of case control studies with their
    10        inaccuracies.  This was something we discussed the last
    11        time I appeared here.
    12
    13   MR. MORRIS:  Yes, so you are happy to rely on case control
    14        studies when they do not show correlation as evidence that
    15        there is no correlation?
    16        A.  No.
    17
    18   Q.   But when they do show a correlation, then they should be
    19        discounted?
    20        A.  I am sorry, I have never said that.
    21
    22   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I see nothing which indicates that in the
    23        evidence of the witness.  There is a certain superficial at
    24        least attraction in diet, and any kind of pathology of the
    25        digestive tract from the oesophagus right down to the
    26        rectum?
    27        A.  Indeed yes.
    28
    29   Q.   For obvious reasons.
    30        A.  Yes.  I think that all of us would feel that it would
    31        seem logical to relate things that are passing through the
    32        digestive track to what happens to the track.
    33
    34   Q.   As potential suspects?
    35        A.  Yes.  But the argument that I am making is that we do
    36        not know what the exact relationship is, and that when we
    37        have tried to investigate it, what has happened actually is
    38        that the position has become much more complex than we
    39        thought when we originally started.
    40
    41   MR. MORRIS:  How many decades would you like to wait to find out
    42        what the answer what the exact cause is before you would
    43        positively make recommendations with confidence to the tens
    44        of millions of people around the world who are at risk from
    45        dietary diseases
    46
    47   MR. RAMPTON: I find that purely offensive considering who Dr.
    48        Arnott is.
    49
    50   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes it is and it is not helpful because if 
    51        you look at the meaning I attributed to the leaflet, at the 
    52        end of the day it is not a question of what you advise 
    53        people who might eat at McDonald's to do with regard to how
    54        often they eat.  That might be a very interesting topic but
    55        it is not actually what I have got to decide. What I have
    56        got to decide at the end of the day is whether there is a
    57        risk and, if so, what if they do this, that or the other,
    58        put in very lay terms.  It is not an inquiry into what you
    59        would recommend people to do with regard to McDonald's
    60        food.

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