Day 052 - 21 Nov 94 - Page 46


     
     1        said in the Court of Appeal as reported in the Guardian.
     2        Plainly, Ms. Steel has got hold of completely the wrong end
     3        of the stick.  Then your Lordship says:  "However, that may
     4        be, I thought you called Professor Crawford because you
     5        thought he might say that certain elements in a diet do
     6        cause cancer or are a cause of cancer.  Have
     7        I misunderstood that completely?"  Ms. Steel:  "No, I was
     8        going to change the question when it was first brought up."
     9        Your Lordship:  "Do not let us get distracted about it.
    10        I said what I did so that you could appreciate the
    11        potential importance of cause as against link, whatever
    12        'link' may mean.
    13
    14        Ms. Steel:  "Can I just say, 'link' does not exclusively
    15        mean 'cause' because it could also mean 'promotes'."  My
    16        Lord, I pause there to say that I recall your Lordship
    17        saying at one stage in this case that you were unable to
    18        see a valid distinction between the words "promote" and the
    19        word "cause".
    20
    21   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What I think I had in mind was that if
    22        something promoted cancer, it was playing a part in the
    23        causation.
    24
    25   MR. RAMPTON:  There is no question about that.  I accept -- may
    26        I put it this way -----
    27
    28   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It was the second phase, was it not?
    29
    30   MR. RAMPTON:  It may help if I say now what I believe is the
    31        right way of putting it:  The reader of the leaflet would
    32        have understood, if we are right about the meaning, the
    33        allegation that McDonald's food causes cancer as meaning
    34        that it gives you the disease which puts you into the
    35        cancer ward in the hospital; or it means that you have to
    36        have chemotherapy or surgery or radiotherapy or whatever.
    37        Cancer to the ordinary man does not mean an initiated cell
    38        disorder which may never arise into a malignant tumour.
    39        Therefore, I accept that a substance or a combination of
    40        substances which assist in the promotion of a malignant
    41        tumour or of a cancer from one stage to that from which it
    42        progresses into a malignant tumour is a form of causation.
    43        I accept that.
    44
    45        So that here too Ms. Steel is talking about a form of
    46        causation.  Your Lordship says: "We can argue about that at
    47        the end of the case."  Ms. Steel: "It is a matter of if
    48        there is evidence that cancer is promoted by fat, then that
    49        is also relevant to the word 'link'.  It is not solely
    50        caused is what I am saying."  Your Lordship: "It may be, 
    51        but all I am suggesting is, do not bother about 'link' 
    52        which may have a variety of meanings, when what you are 
    53        really aiming at with is Professor Crawford, or I had
    54        thought you were, was cause."  Ms. Steel: "I was willing to
    55        change the question anyway, but we got distracted."
    56
    57        Then your Lordship says this: "What I said to you about
    58        possible interpretation was not so that we could embark on
    59        an argument about it now, but so you did not think that it
    60        automatically meant victory for you and defeat for

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