Day 265 - 19 Jun 96 - Page 05
1 A. Can I interject there?
2
3 Q. Yes, please?
4 A. Yes, that is true, and in addition the WHO, but I
5 think the point I want to stress is that these, generally
6 speaking, are recommendations which are based on science
7 but are addressed not merely to scientists in the field but
8 to policy makers and, indeed, the general public.
9
10 Q. Right. Then, at the bottom of that page, the last large
11 paragraph starting:
12
13 "All expert consensus statement issued by
14 authoritative scientific and research bodies by governments
15 and by international bodies in the last twelve years on
16 diet and cancer have basically come to the same conclusion,
17 which is that a diet rich in vegetables, fruit and cereals,
18 preferably whole grain, protects against cancers and that a
19 diet high in meat, fatty foods, fat and salty foods and
20 also alcohol increase the risk of cancers. All of these
21 aspects of the diet evidently increase the risk of cancer,
22 or some cancers, independently of each other. Another
23 authoritative statement issued in the last 12 years on diet
24 and cancer comes to a substantially different conclusion."
25
26 Has that situation remained the same since you wrote
27 that statement or have there been any changes?
28 A. The situation remains the same. That is a fair
29 summary of what such statements say. I am mean, I could
30 myself comment on what they say in that quite often I think
31 their statements draw their conclusions quite broadly, one
32 of the issues being here that it is probably rather a
33 mistake to talk about cancer, singular, if you are
34 referring to what causes and prevents cancer. It is really
35 rather more correct to talk about cancers as they are,
36 effectively, different disease entities.
37
38 So that while I think as a broad generality those
39 statements, the statement I have made there, which is
40 indeed a fair reflection of what such reports say, is
41 accurate, if one wanted to be more precise, say, in the
42 case of alcohol you would be talking about particular
43 cancers. It mean, for instance, all alcohol has no role in
44 melanoma of the skin, for example -- or at least not to
45 anyone's knowledge so far.
46
47 Q. Right.
48 A. Whereas it has a major role in other cancers, which I
49 think are not very relevant to this case, as I understand
50 it.
51
52 Q. You say the situation is broadly the same -- well, it is
53 the same. Since you wrote that statement, have any of
54 those bodies that you have quoted changed their mind and
55 said that they were wrong about the recommendations they
56 made?
57 A. No.
58
59 Q. Have any new bodies made similar recommendations who have
60 not made them before?
