Day 256 - 04 Jun 96 - Page 83
1 of cigarettes we cannot do that. So, therefore, if one
2 applies that standard -- you can see the point, I am sure.
3
4 So, in the case of diet, at the present time we have no way
5 really short of actually taking a group of subjects and
6 changing their diet, making them adhere to it without
7 exception, and making it for a long period of time and that
8 has not been done. So, in the most rigorous sense we
9 cannot establish causality, not even for cigarettes.
10
11 In turn, now we are talking about, in this field, is really
12 an accumulation of evidence from all different kinds of
13 studies from all kinds of sources. So, for some of us, and
14 many of us, that establishes, if we do not want to apply
15 the strictest possibility, we may not establish causality
16 in the strictest sense but it certainly establishes near
17 causality; enough for us to make decisions, personally, in
18 a society sense.
19
20 So, I mean, it all depends on how we use the word, you see.
21
22 Q. The point is that, although cause and effect are direct
23 sort of -- experiments showing cause and effect cannot be
24 run, set up and run, the consensus is that the relationship
25 is a causal relationship?
26 A. Consistently seen in various kinds of studies, it is
27 also possessed of having biological plausibility from many
28 different perspectives. So the odds of it not being
29 causal, if you will, would be something like one out of a
30 1,000, one in 10,000, or some very small figure.
31
32 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What are you talking about there though;
33 causing what?
34 A. Causing cancer?
35
36 MS. STEEL: The witness has not got the screen.
37
38 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. But we were on cigarette smoking, and
39 I want to make sure that -----
40
41 MS. STEEL: I had gone back to diet.
42
43 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I know you have, but I want to be sure the
44 witness had gone with you, you see.
45
46 MR. MORRIS: Were you answering about the relationship between
47 diet and cancer?
48 A. Yes.
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. But we need to know which cancer --
51 because, again -- diet and cancer.
52
53 MR. MORRIS: Right. The relationship of causality, does that
54 apply to -- the causal relationship between diet and
55 cancer, does that apply to colon cancer?
56 A. Yes.
57
58 Q. Does it apply to breast cancer?
59 A. Yes.
60
