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
