Day 035 - 12 Oct 94 - Page 24
1 highlighted, Dr. Barnard, the first sentence there?
2 I have underlined in red the words "a causal"?
3 A. Yes, you have.
4
5 Q. That volume was published in 1982 as a collaborative
6 exercise by a number of American authorities, was it not?
7 A. That is right.
8
9 Q. Look at the front cover.
10 A. Yes, that is right.
11
12 Q. My question is this -----
13 A. Well, this is, it was a committee that put it
14 together. It was one institution, if I understand it
15 correctly.
16
17 Q. Can I ask you this? It is an institution, whichever it
18 be, presumably of some authority?
19 A. Yes, certainly.
20
21 Q. Members of the committee were people of some authority in
22 their particular fields, I expect?
23 A. Yes.
24
25 Q. My question is this: If, in the succeeding 10 or 11
26 years, the evidence had supported those words "a causal",
27 I cannot remember whether it goes on "association" or
28 "relationship".
29
30 MR. JUSTICE BELL: "Relationship between fat intake and the
31 occurrence of cancer".
32
33 MR. RAMPTON: One would expect, would one not, Dr. Barnard, to
34 find repeated and increasingly emphatic uses of those
35 words coming from the various authorities in the field,
36 would one not?
37 A. Not necessarily. This book is considered an
38 authoritative book today.
39
40 Q. I am afraid what happens next, Dr. Barnard, involves you
41 in an awful lot of file juggling. I apologise in advance,
42 but it is inevitable. Can we go on in time six years to
43 the Surgeon General's Report 1988? I am not going back to
44 the bit that I read earlier which was on page -- I drew
45 your attention a moment ago to page 180 in this book, did
46 I not? It was a table based on Doll and Peto, 1981.
47 A. That is right.
48
49 Q. I would now like you to look at a passage, which was not
50 originally copied but is now, on page 224. Since we do
51 not have one, Dr. Barnard, can you please tell us who the
52 Surgeon General is and what his responsibilities are in
53 the United States?
54 A. The Surgeon General is an authority within the
55 Department of Health and Human Services who initiates
56 programmes for health promotion and public education.
57
58 Q. Is there any sense in which it might be proposed in any
59 quarters that he is in some senses a servant or creature
60 of the food industry?
