Day 253 - 21 May 96 - Page 27
1 France, but I think that that is not probably the likely
2 explanation. Hopefully people die in old age but "of it",
3 I do not know what that means.
4
5 Q. No, but there is a serious question involved in this,
6 Professor Naismith. Suppose I die, which I hope I will, of
7 a heart attack when I am, say, 75 -- I not talking about
8 the age, I am talking about the means of exit -- is it
9 known, roughly speaking, how long that condition, which
10 leads to my heart attack, assuming that I have got coronary
11 heart disease which causes it, how long it will have taken
12 to develop before I die at the age of 75 or 80 or whatever
13 it may be?
14 A. Well, there are two major components to coronary heart
15 disease: One is the inclusion of the blood vessels by
16 atherosclerosis and one can live to the age of 90 and be
17 riddled with atherosclerosis and not with a heart attack.
18 The other component is the tendency of the blood to clot,
19 that is thrombosis, and one can die of a coronary
20 thrombosis where a blood clot blocks the coronary artery
21 and starves the heart of blood and you die. That can occur
22 in somebody who has very little atherosclerosis. It is
23 more dangerous when the two are present together and they
24 are influenced, to some extent, by different dietary
25 components.
26
27 Q. Then, finally, I would, if his Lordship would bear with me,
28 I would like you to look at ----
29
30 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just ----
31
32 MR. RAMPTON: We have not had a break, my Lord.
33
34 MR. JUSTICE BELL: How long do you think you will be?
35
36 MR. RAMPTON: This might take about 7 minutes.
37
38 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think we had better have a break, if you
39 can just be patient, Professor Naismith.
40
41 While we are having the break, I would like you to think
42 about what we will do when Professor Naismith has finished
43 his evidence, including the question of Mr. Nicholson and
44 the question of the amendment you would like to make in
45 relation to Brazil rainforest and indigenous people.
46
47 (Short adjournment)
48
49 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, may I hand these in? What I have done is
50 to take the tables, one for his Lordship and there is one
51 for the witness, of what I conceive to be the relevant
52 tables from different parts of the COMA Report, number 46
53 and stuck them together. (Handed)
54
55 They have all got their page numbers on the bottom except
56 for figures 2.43 which are page numbers 86 to 87 in the
57 grey book.
58
59 Can we look, first of all, Professor Naismith, at the
60 left-hand figures 2.9 and 2.10 where we have already
