Day 008 - 07 Jul 94 - Page 20
1
Q. Is he employed by McDonald's?
2 A. No.
3 Q. Is he any kind of McDonald's agent?
A. No.
4
Q. A McDonald's stooge or pawn?
5 A. No.
6 Q. Does he have an independent career as a public health
officer?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. He gives some history of the controversy, if we can call
it that, "The Public Health Roots", which is very
9 interesting, but we need not read. Over the page we see
this. This is page 61, I hope, is it?
10 A. Yes, 61.
11 Q. "Disposables and Disease Prevention. The social and
environmental impacts of disposables for foodservice and
12 packaging cannot be fairly evaluated outside the context
of disease prevention". Do you agree or disagree with
13 that statement?
A. I absolutely agree with that.
14
Q. "Foodborne disease is rampant in the United States --
15 indeed in the world. The Canadian researcher Dr. Ewen
Todd estimates the incidence of disease in the U.S. to be
16 greater than 12 million cases annually, at a cost
approaching $10 billion a year.
17
His is a conservative estimate. Food and Drug
18 Administration microbiologists Dr. Douglas Archer and Dr.
John Kvenberg have placed the range of disease between 24
19 and 81 million cases per year.
20 These are not just self-limited stomach upsets. For
people at greatest risk -- the elderly, the very young,
21 the ill and the immune suppressed -- these are life
threatening episodes.
22
For the rest of us, too, there may be serious
23 consequences. Evidence is growing that these bouts of
gastroenteritis may be the cause of chronic, debilitating
24 diseases, such as reactive arthritis".
25 Now here, perhaps the important part of this document
begins -- well, that last part is very important obviously
26 -- but this is what matters for this case: "One of the
principal causes of foodborne disease, according to the
27 Centers for Disease Control," what are the Centers for
Disease Control, do you know?
28 A. No, I do not.
29 Q. "... is improperly sanitized utensils. Dishwashing
machines often do not operate properly, or the dishwasher
30 does not know how to operate them, or does not handle the
washed dishes in a sanitary manner, often handling them
