Day 297 - 08 Nov 96 - Page 03

     
     1
     2   MS. STEEL:   Just to remind you that there were also references
     3        to the data about 6 percent of McDonald's staff eating at
     4        McDonald's seven times a week, and that was on day 15, page
     5        50, and 61 percent of their staff eating between four and
     6        six meals a week at McDonald's, and 30 percent eating three
     7        times a week at McDonald's, and that is day 15, page 54.
     8
     9        Just a general point on the US figures, about -- actually I
    10        am not sure if it is US or not, I cannot remember now, but
    11        that large numbers of meals are being eaten by what might
    12        be thought as small percentages but actually works out as
    13        very significant numbers of individuals, in that 22 percent
    14        of customers are heavy users generating roughly
    15        three-quarters of all visits, which is several times a
    16        week.  There was a reference to that on day 15, page 56.
    17
    18        Professor Wheelock was also asked about the 11 percent of
    19        super-heavy users on day 15, pages 56 and 57, and on day
    20        16, page 16 he accepted that in populations where the
         proportion of saturated fats in a diet is high, then the
    22        risks of heart disease will be high.  Obviously, if the
    23        risks of heart disease are high, it is a very real risk.
    24        So that supports our contentions fully.
    25
    26        I was moving on to the third part of your meaning, or the
    27        third part of how we have broken up your meaning, with the
    28        very real risk that you will suffer cancer of the breast or
    29        bowel or heart disease as a result.
    30
    31   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Can you just pause a moment, please.
    32        (Pause)  Yes.
    33
    34   MS. STEEL:   Just in general, in terms of the meaning of 'very
    35        real risk', we would say that the degree of risk that
    36        people will take depends on the severity of the
    37        consequences and that...  Well, I don't know.  If, for
    38        example, you visited X place and if you were told that if
    39        you visited X place you stood a 1 percent chance of getting
    40        cancer, many people would probably decide they were not
         going to visit because they would consider it a very real
    42        risk; whereas if you were told that if you visit X place
    43        you stand a 1 percent chance you are going to lose a pound
    44        out of your pocket, people might very well be willing to
    45        take that risk and they would not consider it a great
    46        risk.  So bearing in mind that cancer and heart disease are
    47        very serious consequences, even if there is only a small
    48        percentage chance of getting those consequences, people
    49        would consider it to be a very real risk.
    50
    51        I think that you only have to see what happened with the
    52        BSE crisis to see that, when confronted with a risk, people
    53        do not want to take the risk.  There was a massive decline
    54        in sales of beef, despite the fact that only a small number
    55        of people had been affected.
    56
    57   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Well, that would be the approach if one said
    58        that a very real risk is a risk which the ordinary person
    59        of averagely robust temperament would think was worth
    60        worrying about.  One approach may be to say, well, take