Day 275 - 08 Jul 96 - Page 18

     
     1        pamphlets that were in there about health matters, and I
     2        remember, I do remember, reading pamphlets about the links
     3        between diet and heart disease and cancer.
     4
     5   MR. MORRIS:  My Lord, may I just ask?  Would it be helpful if
     6        you asked the witness her age, because I don't think she's
     7        given it?
     8
     9   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Well, you can do that in due course.
    10
    11   MR. MORRIS:  She says "since 15 years" and...
    12
    13   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes. (To witness)  Do you want to tell me
    14        your date of birth?
    15
    16   MS. STEEL:  I prefer to -- well, actually, it is on the record
    17        already anyway so I might as well.  12th August 1965.
    18
    19   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Mr. Morris, I think I explained to you before
    20        when Ms. Steel has completed her evidence in chief I will
         ask you if you want to ask her  any questions before Mr.
    22        Rampton cross examines.  Yes, you said you had seen
    23        pamphlets about the links between diet and heart disease
    24        and cancer?
    25
    26   MS. STEEL:  Yes.  For example, I remember picking up the
    27        pamphlet with the yellow cover that we have looked at.  I
    28        remember picking that up in a doctor's waiting room, I
    29        think it was. The one that appears in tab 58 of the
    30        defendants' list of documents, bundle 2.  And I also picked
    31        up the "Avoiding Cancer, the European Code" that appears in
    32        tab 59 and the pamphlet -- I think it is a few numbers on
    33         -- about beating heart disease, they are all things that I
    34        picked up, although with the European Code leaflet I do not
    35        know whether or not I picked that up before we got the
    36        writs or whether that was after.  There is actually a copy
    37        of that, there is a poster of the European Code, and I
    38        noticed that it was actually on the wall of my doctor's
    39        waiting room last time I went there, which has exactly the
    40        same points as are in the leaflet, but it is just in poster
         form.
    42
    43             The other thing that I remember reading at the time is
    44        there was a report in The Guardian in 1987, I think it was,
    45        whenever it was at the time I do remember reading about the
    46        Texas State Attorney General and New York and California
    47        taking action against McDonald's for describing their food
    48        as nutritious.  Obviously, I did not read all the
    49        correspondence until after the writs but I do remember the
    50        article being in the paper.
    51
    52             I have also read articles and books concerning food
    53        additives and the possible side effects of those additives.
    54
    55   MR. MORRIS:  I am not sure if you missed out the previous
    56        paragraph or not?
    57        A.  Did I?  Oh, sorry.
    58
    59             "I have read the McDonald's nutrition guide and I do
    60        not think it makes clear that a diet high in fat, sugar,