Day 053 - 22 Nov 94 - Page 35


     
     1        "relationship", "association" and "link" were mentioned
     2        more like 100 or 200 times.  So it was not something we
     3        were concentrating on.  There were things that we could
     4        have gone into in much greater detail had we realised that
     5        the only issue that mattered was "cause".
     6
     7   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Give me an example now of something you might
     8        have gone into with Professor Wheelock.  Obviously, you
     9        felt, on cancer, that you had quite enough information to
    10        cross-examine Dr. Arnott extensively on it.
    11
    12   MS. STEEL:   By the time Dr. Arnott came up, I think we had got
    13        hold of the World Health Organisation Report, and I think
    14        it kind of alerted us to different lines of questioning.
    15
    16   MR. MORRIS:  If I can just look at Professor Wheelock's
    17        evidence, on the first page of his evidence, bundle 24,
    18        page 1 of his evidence, he says:
    19
    20        "It is now generally accepted that diet does play an
    21        important role in the development of the so-called
    22        degenerative diseases, which include coronary heart disease
    23        and some cancers.  The precise role of different components
    24        in the diet are very difficult to elucidate."
    25
    26        If causality was what we had to prove, we may have
    27        questioned Professor Wheelock up hill and down dale about
    28        what he means by "development".
    29
    30   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It is quite clear what he means, or
    31        I interpret it as saying that he is saying it is generally
    32        accepted that it has a causal role, because it is an
    33        important role in the development.  This is diet, just
    34        generally.  You remember Dr. Arnott, when he was asked
    35        about that, said he would substitute the word "may" for
    36        "does".
    37
    38        If what you are saying is you want Professor Wheelock to
    39        come back so that you can cross-examine him further about
    40        why he says "does" rather than "may", that is another
    41        matter, because, if I give leave to amend, it may be on
    42        condition that you be able to cross-examine further on
    43        that.  It is for to you judge whether you want to do that
    44        because, of course, cross-examining on it may give you
    45        extra information or may be an opportunity -- it may end up
    46        with a watered down statement rather than what is in tab 2
    47        at page 24.  But that will be a matter for your judgment.
    48
    49   MS. STEEL:  I think the difficulty is that we have not really
    50        prepared to go through specific instances where we would 
    51        have asked different questions.  But, clearly, in our 
    52        minds, we are aware of the fact that we did not 
    53        specifically concentrate on "cause", and that we did not
    54        ask as many questions on "cause" as we would have done
    55        had "cause" been the only issue, as opposed to it being one
    56        type of link.
    57
    58   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Are you talking just about Professor Wheelock
    59        now?
    60

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