Day 266 - 20 Jun 96 - Page 42


     
     1   Q.   We cannot go through it all, but I take it you -- I am not
     2        suggesting you should, but I take it you do read these
     3        various papers about the relationship between diet and
     4        disease as they come out?
     5        A.   Where significant papers come out.  It is my job to
     6        promote what the consensus of opinion by Health Education
     7        Authority, people working in the field, as to what would
     8        improve the health of people in Salford, which is where I
     9        work, in terms of reducing cancer.  We do not have a post
    10        in our department specifically related to cancer.  It comes
    11        into other fields.
    12
    13        When I am preparing a report and looking at reducing fat in
    14        the diet, what would the outcomes be, because we are all
    15        into outcomes these days.  The outcomes would be, you know,
    16        looking at reduction of coronary heart disease in the
    17        Salford area and you might have a secondary bit saying,
    18        "You might also reduce cancers as well".  It would be, if
    19        you like, a secondary piece of benefit that you get from
    20        reducing fat, that you also decrease the cancers and the
    21        coronary heart disease.
    22
    23   Q.   So, you will be well aware that the evidence is
    24        conflicting?
    25        A.   I do not think the evidence is conflicting.  All my
    26        training, everybody I come across, you know, people who are
    27        much greater than me, if you like, in terms of -- I am what
    28        you call a front line person working in the NHS, giving the
    29        advice.  There are people who spend their time looking at
    30        the papers and studying them, and as I am aware from
    31        talking to those people -- and I do talk to these people at
    32        conferences and such like -- there is no disagreement that
    33        reducing fat will prevent certain cancers.  Nobody is
    34        saying all cancers, as the government report said that you
    35        alluded to before, the paragraph was talking about cancers
    36        in general.
    37
    38        Yes, it is true that there is not a consensus about cancers
    39        in general, but specific cancers, the diet related cancers,
    40        the colon cancer, the breast cancer and the others, are
    41        thought to be more diet related.  So, you know, that is
    42        without a doubt the case of anybody working in the field.
    43
    44   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I want to ask a question before we go on.  Do
    45        you see the sentence -- I am not suggesting you should
    46        agree with this or that you should disagree; I just want to
    47        know what your view is, Mrs. Brophy.  Do you understand?
    48        A.   Yes.
    49
    50   Q.   There is a reference to table 11.  There we are, but it
    51        goes on to say:  "The evidence cannot be considered
    52        sufficiently strong to be termed 'causal'", which I 
    53        understand from reading the paragraph to mean the evidence
    54        cannot be considered sufficiently strong to term a high
    55        intake of fat causal of a number of cancers.
    56
    57        Now, supposing I have read it properly, do you agree with
    58        that or not, yourself?
    59        A.   You are referring to the sentence: "The evidence
    60        cannot been considered sufficiently strong to be termed

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