Day 001 - 28 Jun 94 - Page 36


     
     1        them, they would not then go into their restaurants.
 
     2        The issue, as I pose it is this:  Does the plaintiffs'
              food constitute a significant hazard to human health?
     3        I break the issue down as follows:  First, if -- and it is
              a big "if" -- there is an association between a diet high
     4        in fat and sodium and various degenerative diseases, such
              as heart disease, certain forms of cancer and diabetes,
     5        does it follow that McDonald's can be held responsible for
              this?
     6
              I put the question another way:  Are the crude epithets
     7        used in the leaflet to describe McDonald's food or,
              rather, the effect of it, that is to say, "McCancer",
     8        "McDeadly", "McDisease", and the message conveyed by the
              course cartoon in the middle of the leaflet warranted?
     9        The answer on the plaintiffs' case is plainly that they
              are not.
    10
              The plaintiffs' expert on this topic, as your Lordship
    11        knows, Professor Wheelock (reference yellow V/5 to 7),
              Dr. Arnott (5/10 to 11) and Professor Keene (V/9).   My
    12        Lord, it is right at this stage that I should remind your
              Lordship a little bit about who these people are because
    13        their experience in distinction has some bearing upon the
              answer I have given to the question which I have posed.
    14
              Professor Wheelock is a specialist in nutrition.  He is an
    15        independent consultant on nutrition, in which capacity he
              has since February 1991 advised McDonald's about
    16        nutritional matters.  He has helped them in the production
              of their nutritional information leaflet.  He is also head
    17        of the Food Policy Research Unit at Bradford University
              and Special Professor in Food Science at the University of
    18        Nottingham.
 
    19        Dr. Sidney Arnott was formerly Senior Lecturer in Clinical
              Oncology at Edinburgh University and is now Consultant in
    20        Radiotherapy and Oncology", which for the uneducated is
              cancer, "at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London.  He is
    21        an experienced researcher, with numerous articles and text
              book chapters to his name.
    22
              Finally, Professor Harry Keen, was formally the Director
    23        of the Unit for Metabolic Medicine and Head of the
              Diabetes Unit at Guy's Hospital in London.  He has been
    24        Chairman of the World Health Organisation's Expert
              Committee on diabetes unit mellitus and of their Study
    25        Group on diabetes.  He is now Emeritus Professor Human
              Metabolism and Honorary Consultant of the Unit for 
    26        Metabolic Medicine at the United Medical School of Guy's 
              and St. Thomas's. 
    27
              My Lord, this is the important proposition in the case:
    28        These distinguished experts are all of the same view; it
              is this, that the defendants and their experts -- their
    29        witnesses, I prefer to call them -- have committed an
              absolutely fundamental error -- what one used to call "a
    30        school boy howler" -- in asserting a relationship between
              McDonald's food and the degenerative conditions that

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