The quote is taken from a scientific paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine and is referenced from quite a large number of web sites so I assume it is seen as an important paper Bear with me here as I am trying to explain something Would it be fair to suggest that a layman might take it to mean that the real relative risk must have a 95 chance of falling inside the interval or that the speaker is 95 sure that the two things are linked or that the claim that exposure to environmental smoke causes coronary heart disease is 95 likely to be right or some such 125 255 16 233