Day 057 - 29 Nov 94 - Page 04
1 the word "cause" was only mentioned 20 times. Having gone
2 through them, having gone through those 20 that are listed,
3 only 10 of them are instances of me and Mr. Morris using
4 the word "cause" and not all of them were relevant to
5 cancer.
6
7 I would say that is a very clear indication that we were
8 not concentrating on "cause" as the issue because, as
9 I said last week, the words "association", "relationship"
10 and "link" came up probably about 200 or so times during
11 cross-examination.
12
13 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. It was apparent, though, was it not, in
14 some of those cases when at least where "association",
15 "relationship" or "link" was used, that the witness was
16 using it as causal association, causal relationship or
17 causal link? The words "link" or "relationship" or
18 "association" were used on certain occasions. I asked
19 him, in effect, whether that was causal link. The answer
20 was "yes" and the witness went back to just using the word
21 "link" again. But it was clear it was a causal link on
22 some of those occasions that the witness was considering.
23
24 MS. STEEL: It may be now, but if I can say so, at the time, as
25 far as we were concerned, the word "link"" was the
26 important word and we did not go as far as we would have
27 gone had we known that cause was the only type of link that
28 mattered as far as what the issue in the case was.
29
30 I think it is different looking back on what it may appear
31 to read now as well to our state of mind at the time.
32 I accept that in some instances it could look as though
33 that was what we were concentrating on, but that is not in
34 fact the case. The fact is that, as far as we were
35 concerned, it was link that mattered. As I say, cause is
36 one type of link, but there were others as well.
37
38 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do you want to try again, in case I have
39 missed something, explaining in your own words what kind of
40 link in relation to diet and disease, leave aside "meal"
41 for a moment, because the use of "diet" and "meal", I am
42 conscious of the different words, so just focus on "diet"
43 for the moment. You see, it might help you if I put it
44 this way, that bearing in mind the "McCancer", "McDisease"
45 and perhaps "McDeadly", bearing in mind the cartoon which
46 has a hamburger devouring a cow, or a steer, which is
47 referring to a slaughterhouse which is where steers are
48 killed, at one end and devouring a person at the other,
49 bearing in mind the heading "What's so healthy about
50 McDonald's food?" and bearing in mind what actually appears
51 in the whole of the relevant parts of the text, I have to
52 say that, while not forming a final view, I find it
53 difficult to see how the leaflet, being realistic, can mean
54 other than that a diet high in fat etc. Is causally linked
55 with cancers of the breast and bowel and heart disease, and
56 that McDonald's meals which fit that description are also,
57 therefore, causally linked with cancers of the breast and
58 bowel and heart disease in some way.
59
60 It may be that the meaning is that if you eat enough
