Day 265 - 19 Jun 96 - Page 04

     
     1        region, calls on for advice from time to time so they are
     2        designated advisor, and that might mean to ask their advice
     3        on specific issues, to help to organise a conference, to
     4        speak at the conference, to help convene a conference, that
     5        sort of thing.  Generally, in my case, in the area of food
     6        and nutrition policy, nationally and internationally.
     7
     8             My work as advisor to NAS and the Department of Health
     9        is regular.  That has been going on for about five years
    10        and is continuing.  I should explain that it is the
    11        convention in this country that if you are asked to serve
    12        on a committee or to advise the Minister and you have a
    13        position, as I have, as chairman of the National Food
    14        Alliance, which is the relevant qualification in this case,
    15        the convention in this country is that you are asked both
    16        as representative of an organisation or constituency and in
    17        addition in your personal capacity as an expert.  That is a
    18        convention that would apply to anybody who was asked to
    19        advise government in this field.
    20
    Q.   So your area of expertise was something like food and
    22        nutrition policy?
    23        A.   Food policy or public health or food nutrition and
    24        public health, those overlapping areas.  That is correct,
    25        yes.  If what you are getting at is, am I a scientist
    26        specialising in the cancer field as a researcher, the
    27        answer is no.  It is not that I am not expert as such; I
    28        have never done such work.
    29
    30   Q.   Right.  So it is the food policy and scientific consensus,
    31        and that kind of area?
    32        A.   Yes, except at the same time it happens that last time
    33        I appeared in this Court was about 18 months ago.  Since
    34        then I have accumulated another 18 months of experience
    35        specifically in the field of prevention of cancer by
    36        dietary means.  That is my main work.  My work for National
    37        Food Alliance is voluntary.  It is not paid, although it is
    38        quite absorbing.  My work for the World Cancer Research
    39        Fund is what I mainly do for a living.
    40
    Q.   Right.  OK.  Now, before we come to your latest statement I
    42        just wanted to touch on a couple of things on your second
    43        statement to see if the position has changed or remained
    44        the same.  Have you got your second statement dated --
    45
    46   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  27th September 1994?
    47        A.   Yes, I do.
    48
    49   MR. MORRIS:  On page 2 of that statement, at the bottom of the
    50        page you talk about "the current state of judgment on diet 
    51        and cancer".  Yes? 
    52        A.   Yes. 
    53
    54   Q.   Then you said: "The evidence on diet and cancer
    55        specifically is also voluminous and has been judged as a
    56        sufficiently reliable basis for recommendations addressed
    57        both to health professionals and the general public by the
    58        US National Academy of Sciences 1928 and a number of cancer
    59        research bodies in America and Europe."  Now, we have then
    60        F, you look at the bottom of the page?