Day 009 - 08 Jul 94 - Page 34
1 A. Anything is possible, but based on the way that we
communicated this, the priority that we took as a
2 business.
3 Q. They would not dare do it?
A. They would not dare do it because they do not want to
4 lose McDonald's business, our suppliers.
5 Q. If it did happen, it would be stopped immediately?
A. Correct.
6
Q. So why was it not stopped immediately in 1988, 1989?
7
MR. JUSTICE BELL: You started this series of questions by
8 saying: "Supposing you know what you do today".
9 MR. MORRIS: OK.
10 MR. JUSTICE BELL: He did not in 1988 know what he knows today.
11 MR. MORRIS: If you knew then what you know today, would you
have stopped it immediately in 1989?
12 A. No, because you cannot simply turn off the faucet. If
you were to take history and place it today, we would have
13 done the same thing we did in 1987. We would have
announced that we plan to phase out of CFCs and we would
14 set forth a plan of action to get that done. We would set
an aggressive timetable, as we did back in 1987, to allow
15 a certain amount of time to phase out and with our goal
being away ahead of anybody else in the industry to get it
16 done.
17 Q. So if you knew you were contributing to environmental
damage that may lead to hundreds of millions of skin
18 cancers, you still would not have been able to stop it
within a week or two weeks?
19 A. I can only -----
20 Q. You would still give yourself a year or a year and a half?
A. Again we are dealing with the issue of ozone
21 depletion, potential ozone depletion. We dealt with the
science at the time.
22
MR. JUSTICE BELL: Mr. Morris, you have to ask how much damage
23 you are going to do and you know you are going to do, if
any, over the period of time. This is all terribly
24 hypothetical, is it not?
25 MR. MORRIS: It is in one way, but the reality is not
hypothetical.
26
MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do you actually want to put what you say
27 they should have done at the time?
28 MR. MORRIS: I think it has all been really gone over.
Mr. Langert, you said in 1978 CFCs were ordered to be
29 removed from aerosol cans?
A. No, I did not say that. You presented that
30 information.
