Day 256 - 04 Jun 96 - Page 09
1
2 I will move on from that, and I will deal with your -- we
3 did, in passing, mention the China study, and we are going
4 to come on to in a minute. But there are four names on
5 this published material: Chen Junshi, Colin Campbell,
6 Li Junial and Richard Peto. Were they the four main ---
7 A. Yes.
8
9 Q. -- coordinators of the study?
10 A. Right.
11
12 Q. Right. It might be an opportune moment to show
13 your Lordship -- it is a bit fragile, the book.
14
15 THE WITNESS: It has been much used. (Handed)
16
17 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. Thank you.
18
19 MR. MORRIS: Give it to the witness. We might refer to it later
20 on.
21
22 (To the witness) I will read your statement. Do you stand
23 by that statement I read out just now ---
24 A. Yes.
25
26 Q. -- that you wrote? Thank you. The next statement is a
27 letter you wrote to me on August 22nd, 1995. I will read
28 it out:
29
30 "I enclose a copy of the chapter summarising much of the
31 published China Project findings to date, in addition to a
32 companion chapter discussing these findings in relation to
33 the general issue on dietary fat. I would be happy to have
34 you submit the following short statement to the judge in
35 support of these findings:
36
37 'The findings from an investigation of diet and disease
38 relationships in rural China strongly support the
39 proposition that a high fat, low fibre diet is causal in
40 the development of a wide range of cancer and
41 cardiovascular diseases.
42
43 'The strength and uniqueness of this evidence primarily
44 relates to two observations.
45
46 'Firstly, this is one of the first times that an
47 investigation of disease relationships with ranges of
48 dietary fat and fibre well beyond traditional UK and US
49 diets have been undertaken. In brief, the lower is the
50 dietary fat and the higher is the dietary fibre, the lower
51 is the mortality rates for these diseases; this effect
52 proceeds well beyond dietary fat and fibre intakes
53 traditionally used in industrialised countries.
54
55 'Secondly, this evidence is especially robust because the
56 disease causing properties of diets high in fat and low in
57 fibre is now being extended to a wide range of dietary
58 factors, especially including the times and amounts of
59 dietary protein and the types and amounts of so-called
60 antioxidant nutrients. These diets suggest that even small
