A number of law professors, including anti-tobacco activist and Public Health Advocacy Institute President Richard Daynard, have written to the heads of four federal agencies, in their role as the Interagency Working Group on Food Marketed to Children, to support the group’s proposed nutrition principles for food marketed directly to children ages 2-17. Details about the proposed principles appear in Issue 392 of this Update. According to the September 6, 2011, letter, the principles “embody a constitutionally permissible set of government recommendations.” Written to counter a trade association letter that urged the group to withdraw the principles on constitutional grounds, the professors’ letter notes that the “recommended nutrition principles contain no mandates” and thus “do not violate the First Amendment.” Observing that the group “is better characterized as a routine governmental advisory body than an oppressive censorship panel,” the professors note, “no federal agency can impose legal repercussions on a…
Category Archives Other Developments
A Japanese research institute recently issued an updated hazard assessment of bisphenol A (BPA) suggesting that the chemical poses minimal or no risk to human health. The Research Institute of Science and Sustainability (RISS), which is part of Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, examined BPA data “from 2005 onwards” to assess its general toxicity as well as its reproductive toxicity in the next generation. According to the assessment’s abstract, “no toxic effects on the reproductive potential of the next generation except for a slight prolongation of gestational length of F1/F2 at 300 mg/kg bw, and a no-observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) of 50 mg/kg bw have been noted.” It also said that BPA carcinogenicity by “oral administration has already been determined to be negative from bioassays.” The abstract added, “with regard to skin irritation, skin sensitization, skin photo-irritability, and photo-sensitization due to BPA, it was believed that there…
The September 2011 issue of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s research and policy journal, Preventing Chronic Disease, features a special section dedicated to “Ethical Issues in Interventions for Childhood Obesity,” where contributors with Public Health Law & Policy, Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, and other organizations discuss how best to balance government’s public health role with private rights and interests. In particular, the section includes articles that explore (i) strategies to limit youth food marketing in municipal spaces not already regulated by federal agencies; (ii) an ethical framework for evaluating popular policies, such as menu calorie labeling and soft drink taxes; (iii) perspectives from the Arkansas Act 1220 of 2003, “the first comprehensive legislative initiatives to combat childhood obesity”; (iv) ethical family and school interventions; and (v) the economic rationale for government intervention. “During the past decade, people throughout the country—from rural communities to…
The American Diabetes Association, American Heart Association and Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) have joined cities nationwide in a new initiative designed “to reduce diet-related disease” by targeting sugar-sweetened beverage consumption. Dubbed “Life’s Sweeter with Fewer Sugary Drinks,” the campaign seeks to decrease “average consumption of sugary drinks to roughly 3 cans per person per week by 2020,” a goal reportedly backed by officials in Boston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Antonio, and Seattle, as well as 110 local and national health organizations. According to an August 31, 2011, CSPI press release, the campaign’s website urges “individuals and families to take the Life’s Sweeter challenge to drink fewer or no sugary drinks,” including “fruit-flavored beverages with little or no juice, sweetened iced teas, lemonades, energy drinks, and so-called sports drinks.” The groups have also called on employers, hospitals and government agencies “to adopt policies that would reduce soda consumption,”…
George Washington University Law School Professor John Banzhaf, who teaches “public interest” law, has issued a press release discussing recent class action claims against ConAgra over its “All Natural” cooking oil representations. According to Banzhaf, such litigation could be in the vanguard of many similar lawsuits against food companies that would be targeted by “both money-hungry lawyers and public-interest attorneys.” He discusses the litigation that he and his students successfully filed against McDonald’s for allegedly misleading consumers about the content of the oil in which it cooks its French fries and notes that many manufacturers claiming to make “all natural” foods could be held liable in consumer fraud actions if the ingredients are genetically engineered or contain high-fructose corn syrup. Banzhaf concludes by suggesting, in light of Forbes calling obesity-related litigation “the next tobacco,” that “perhaps ‘all-natural’ is the next fat.” Banzhaf made a name for himself decades ago by…
An August 23, 2011, USA Today article has highlighted privacy concerns over how bars, restaurants and night clubs use ID scanners to track and share consumer data with other venues, including whether an individual patron “caused a problem” or “started a fight.” As the purveyor of one system explained to journalist Trevor Hughes, the new networked scanners collect information about patrons and “allow multiple bars in a geographic area to alert each other about known troublemakers,” a feature already employed by New York City, Miami, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas establishments. This development, however, has since spurred criticism from groups like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which noted that the systems “come with very few promises of security or confidentiality.” For example, as ACLU legislative counselor Chris Calabrese observed, while Canada has placed legal limits on the use of data gathered by ID scanners, consumer data could be sold to…
A group known as “Individualities Tending Toward Savagery” (ITS) has reportedly claimed responsibility for injuring two Mexican nanotechnology researchers with a parcel bomb, putting scientists around the world on alert. According to an August 21, 2011, Chronicle of Higher Education article, the group has a manifesto that cites Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, as an inspiration and “has been linked to attacks in France, Spain, and Chile, and to a bomb sent earlier this year to a scientist at another Mexican university who specializes in nanotech.” An analyst quoted by the Chronicle also warned that the threats “show signs of someone well-educated who could be affiliated with a college.” The latest attempt apparently targeted the director of a technology-transfer center at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, while an April 2011 bomb was intended for the nanotechnology department at the Polytechnic University of the Valley of Mexico. In addition,…
Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity has published a study claiming that parents misinterpret nutrition-related health claims used on children’s cereal boxes. Jennifer L. Harris, et al., “Nutrition related claims on children’s cereals: what do they mean to parents and do they influence willingness to buy?,” Public Health Nutrition, August 2, 2011. Researchers asked 306 parents with children between ages 2 and 11 to view images of “box fronts for children’s cereals of below-average nutritional quality, as assessed by a validated nutrient profiling model,” featuring claims such as “supports your child’s immunity,” “whole grain,” “fibre,” “calcium and vitamin D,” and “organic.” The study authors provided “possible meanings for these claims” and asked participants “to select any that applied with the option to write in additional meanings,” as well as “indicate how the claim would affect their willingness to buy the product.” According to the study, “the majority of…
In an August 17, 2011, letter to the U.S. Department of State filed on behalf of more than 400 foreign guest workers recruited by the Council for Educational Travel, USA (CETUSA) to work for the Hershey Chocolate Co., the National Guestworker Alliance seeks the revocation of CETUSA’s sponsor status as a provider of J-1 visas, which allow foreign students to enter the United States for work, training and internships. According to the Alliance, the university students recruited to work for Hershey paid $3,000-$6,000 in pre-employment expenses and expected to receive wages and benefits comparable to U.S. workers and be provided with educational and cultural opportunities. Instead, they were paid $7.85 to $8.35 per hour, but after automatic weekly deductions for “above-market rent and other expenses, they net[ted] between $40 and $140 per week for 40 hours of work.” They were apparently “offered no cultural exchange of any kind.” Some of…
The Consumer Federation of America will hold its 34th Annual National Food Policy Conference on October 3-4, 2011, in Washington, D.C. Topics will include imported food safety, federal legislative priorities, food marketing and social media, and the global food system.
