Day 053 - 22 Nov 94 - Page 04
1 MS. STEEL: I am coming to explain a bit more, anyway. We would
2 say that the word "link" is an ordinary English word which
3 means "connection", "relationship" or "association", and
4 that, accordingly, the word "linked" used in the leaflet
5 means "connected", "related" or "associated".
6
7 For the assistance of the court, we would explain a bit
8 more about "link", although we would not necessarily want
9 this to be taken as an exhaustive list; and that is that
10 "cause" is one type of link, statistical association is
11 another, promotion is another, and treatment is another.
12
13 Additionally, the word encompasses -----
14
15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What do you mean by "treatment"?
16 I understand the others.
17
18 MS. STEEL: If, say, heart disease can be cured by adopting a
19 certain diet, then it would follow that there was some kind
20 of relationship there, some kind of link.
21
22 Additionally, the word encompasses an indirect link, for
23 example, through obesity.
24
25 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I understand that. But that could be a
26 causal link, could it not?
27
28 MS. STEEL: Yes.
29
30 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Because if you said fatty foods, the greater
31 the risk of putting on weight, the greater the risk of
32 obesity, more adipose tissue, breast cancer, you might say
33 it is indirect, because you have had to go through a number
34 of connective stages, but it would still be a causal link.
35
36 MS. STEEL: Yes; and also changing of the age of menarche, and
37 some of the other ones that were referred to. There is
38 also a protective factor which could be described as a link
39 with fibre and foods with -----
40
41 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The more fat you eat, the less fibre, you
42 say; or there is a tendency, if you have a fatty diet, to
43 have one which is lower in fibre; is that the point?
44
45 MS. STEEL: If you have a diet, for example, that is high in
46 animal products, proportionately, it must be lower in
47 vegetable products, because the "high" indicates that there
48 is more of one than the other. So it is not just the
49 protective effect of fibre; it is also vitamins A and C
50 found in vegetables, in particular.
51
52 The leaflet does actually mention "low in fibre", so
53 obviously we would argue that there is a protective link
54 inferred by that.
55
56 Any one of those, we submit, would be enough to prove the
57 word "link"; and we would say that "cause" goes further
58 than "link" and, if we prove "cause", then so much the
59 better. We would say that we feel we have proved cause, in
60 any event. But whether or not you felt that, we feel that
