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1 these factors are attributable -- that these cancer deaths
2 are attributable to diet. The Surgeon General's
3 extraction of the National Cancer Institute report was
4 actually more generous, giving the range of acceptable
5 estimates ten to 70 per cent. To my reading, that is a
6 bit wide and I would be glad to provide the original
7 Journal of the National Cancer Institute document which
8 Dr. Koop has quoted.
9
10 Q. I understand that because I can see how one may overstate
11 something on a television programme or in an argument
12 between two ordinary people. I want you to think about
13 this. On reflection, and being given time to think about
14 it now, are you saying that you would prefer to substitute
15 for "due to", "there is very strong evidence that"? Is
16 that what you are saying? I am not trying to put you in a
17 corner. I want to give you an opportunity to reconsider
18 the words you used, if you wish to.
19 A. Yes, it does come down to what one means "due to".
20 I would mean, perhaps, the words "attributed to" or
21 "attributable to", or I think it would also be quite
22 reasonable to say that there is very strong evidence that
23 35 to 50 per cent of cancer deaths are caused by dietary
24 factors.
25
26 MR. RAMPTON: Your Lordship has, I hope, now a copy of a much
27 larger part of the Surgeon General's Report of 1988 which
28 we handed up this morning. (To the witness):
29 Dr. Barnard, can you turn to page 188?
30
31 MS. STEEL: If the Plaintiffs have two copies, do you think we
32 could have the book?
33
34 MR. RAMPTON: It is Mr. Cannon's book.
35
36 MR. MORRIS: What was the last page we were on?
37
38 MR. RAMPTON: You have 180 open?
39 A. Yes.
40
41 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What are we looking at now?
42
43 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, the Surgeon General's Report for 1988.
44 I passed up a yellow thing on the front of the file. It
45 comes in two parts; there is the earlier part.
46
47 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. Remind me where I find it?
48
49 MR. RAMPTON: I handed your Lordship a blue file with a yellow
50 label on it this morning, a handwritten label on it.
51
52 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I have put things away in folders as I have
53 got them. I have not just kept them separate. Yes,
54 I have it now.
55
56 MR. RAMPTON: That is in two bits, or should be. There is the
57 Forward, Preface, Summary and Recommendations. Then there
58 is the whole of chapter 4, which is the chapter on
59 cancer. In that second section in chapter 4 one finds
60 page 180, which is a couple of tables. The table,
