Day 014 - 20 Jul 94 - Page 58
1
What, for example, Professor Walker has done in his study
2 which is about 30 or 40 pages long -- not his report; it
is his paper which was done for the World Health
3 Organisation on nitrates and nitrites -- is that he has
reviewed the whole of the existing body of learning so far
4 as it is relevant.
5 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I understand that, but in two instances
which I remember he has referred to a specific study to
6 support. We had the vegetarian school girls and we had
the Finns who eat a lot of meat and a lot of green stuff
7 as well. If he refers to those specifically and relied
upon them, unless the defendants say (which they may do, I
8 do not know): "We have checked with our expert and we
accept that there was an article which said something to
9 that effect", and they are content to leave it at that,
they are entitled to see the whole article, are they not?
10
MR. RAMPTON: What I am not saying is, because I have not
11 checked, that Dr. Arnott makes in his reports specific
reference to that study. What I am saying is that one of
12 the papers upon which he does rely -- this is how the
layers build up -- does make reference to that study.
13
MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. I may be being pedantic but what I am
14 fixed on at the moment is that this witness has
specifically referred to two articles. I take your point
15 about the grey book, that that is a distillation of an
awful lot of learning, and the way you are putting it is,
16 here we have a responsible committee which has come up
with these conclusions and Professor Wheelock, with all
17 his expertise, happens to agree with them. That is
free-standing. But when we come to vegetarian school
18 girls and healthy Finns, are we not entitled to see those?
19 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, put it this way: If an expert comes to
court and says: "I particularly rely on this, that or the
20 other paper", then he must is produce it. So far as I am
aware, that is what Dr. Arnott has done. If, however, to
21 take this paper as an example, the one I mentioned which
is called Environmental Dietary Factors in Colorectal
22 Cancer" which is dated 1991, and it is by some of the same
authors that wrote the earlier report, that report or that
23 paper alone has 26 references. If those 26 references are
to be incorporated by implication -----
24
MR. JUSTICE BELL: No. I do not think I am talking about
25 that. If can I give an example: I do not suppose it
would be so, but suppose there is an article on vegetarian
26 school girls that comes to the conclusion which Professor
Wheelock has in mind, then the other side is normally
27 entitled to have the reference and, out of convenience, a
copy is provided as well, so that they can find that it
28 was not just three young ladies in Worksop who wrote an
awful lot of letters and you cannot draw any conclusion,
29 safe conclusion, at all.
30 As you probably know, most of my personal experience in
this sort of area is in relation to medical matters. Time
