Day 294 - 05 Nov 96 - Page 34
1 increasingly recognised as a serious health and
2 psychological problem that many children are suffering
3 from.
4
5 Dr. Millstone identified nine additives which carried a
6 risk that were used by McDonald's: sunset yellow
7 colouring, amaranth colouring, sodium nitrate and potassium
8 nitrate preservatives, and colour fixatives, BHA and BHT
9 antioxidants, carrageenan, stabiliser and thickening
10 agents, monosodium glutamate flavour enhancer, and
11 potassium bromate flour improver. As we have heard,
12 potassium bromate was banned in 1989 as a dangerous
13 carcinogen, and was previously widely used in bread
14 products, including McDonald's buns.
15
16 No doubt potassium bromate was quite confidently argued to
17 be safe, up to it being banned, on the grounds that the
18 Committee on Toxicology would not recommend its usage
19 unless it was sure that it was safe -- which is a ludicrous
20 argument. It just means that it had not been proved to be
21 unsafe to such an extent where they could not allow it any
22 longer. That is what happened when they withdrew it, when
23 it was banned in 1989. It had been proven to be a
24 carcinogenic risk.
25
26 Obviously, Mr. Walker gave evidence for McDonald's. There
27 will be references to his evidence tomorrow, which I will
28 not go through in any kind of detail whatsoever, but they
29 will be there to be checked out.
30
31 Dr. Eric Millstone dealt with the risks in detail and in
32 depth, and was obviously challenged up hill and down dale.
33 He had, we believe, quite clearly demonstrated, despite all
34 the challenges, the risks; and that is what we are talking
35 about, we are talking about risks of these additives being
36 used in foods.
37
38 Mr. Walker accepted some of the criticisms that
39 Dr. Millstone was making. He said, "If the object of the
40 exercise was the protection of public health rather than
41 helping companies negotiate their way through regulatory
42 hurdles", then the approach which he was advocating would
43 be adopted, which is to give the benefit of the doubt to
44 the consumer, not to the compound or the industry.
45
46 There was also an issue of the lack of proper ingredient
47 listing on the actual food product itself. Because of the
48 nature of McDonald's food products, there is no reason why
49 they should not have their ingredients listed on them, so
50 that people, for example, who have concerns about the
51 reactions in their child, who may be allergic to certain
52 things, especially hyperactivity concerns, would be able to
53 then know which products to avoid.
54
55 Finally, on the subject of toxicology, not strictly an
56 additive, Professor Walker agreed that styrene can migrate
57 from polystyrene packaging into food, especially fatty food
58 such as McDonald's sell, and that the International Agency
59 for the Research on Cancer had classified styrene as
60 possibly carcinogenic to humans; and, also, styrene could
