Researchers with the New South Wales Cancer Council and University of Adelaide have assessed food and beverage TV advertisements broadcast in five major Australian cities during children’s programming from September 1 to October 31, 2010, and found a total of 951 breaches of both mandatory and voluntary regulations. Michele Roberts, et al., “Compliance with children’s television food advertising regulations in Australia,” BMC Public Health, October 5, 2012. According to the study, “[a]lmost 83% of all food and beverages advertised during children’s programming times were for foods classified as ‘Extras’ in the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating. There were also breaches in relation to the amount of advertising repetition and the use of promotional appeals such as premium offers, competitions, and endorsements by popular children’s characters.” The researchers conclude that the country’s current regulatory system “is not providing comprehensive protection for children from exposure to television advertising for unhealthy foods.” They…
NBC’s Open Channel blog has reported “an inexplicable epidemic in Central America, where more than 16,000 people—mostly sugarcane workers— have died from incurable chronic kidney disease [CKD].” According to Open Channel, “hundreds, if not thousands” of people in the sugar-producing city of Chichigalpa, Nicaragua, have allegedly contracted CKD, which has apparently increased “five-fold in the last two decades” throughout the region and turned up in parts of India and Sri Lanka. Citing the Center for Public Integrity (CPI), NBC’s Kerry Sander and Lisa Riordan summarize the unique profile of CKD in sugarcane workers who do not exhibit the obesity, diabetes and hypertension often linked to the disease in developed countries like the United States. “It affects people who don’t have diabetes or hypertension, which are the usual risks factors for chronic kidney disease,” one CPI reporter told the blog. “No one can figure out what it is that’s making all…
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has invited the submission of “videos of people pouring out soda on or about October 24” to celebrate the second annual Food Day. Videos will be accepted until November 7, 2012, with the winning entry receiving $1,000. According to CSPI executive director Michael Jacobson, “Food Day is about inspiring people to change diets for the better and by advocating for better food policies. Making a ‘Pour One Out’ video is the perfect way for a budding filmmaker—or anyone with a smartphone, frankly—to join the movement for healthy, affordable, and sustainable food.” Entries will apparently be judged for creativity, originality and message effectiveness. See CSPI News Release, October 16, 2012.
School districts in California, New Mexico and Illinois have reportedly publicized their intention to ban “Flamin’ Hot” Cheetos® snacks from campus vending machines and lunches over concerns about the product’s nutritional content. According to media reports, the schools in question have described the snack item as “hyperpalatable” with each bag containing 26 grams of fat and one-quarter of the recommended daily amount of sodium. As University of Michigan clinical psychologist Ashley Gearhardt further explained, “Our brain is really hardwired to find things like fat and salt really rewarding, and now we have foods that have them in such high levels that it can trigger an addictive process.” “It’s something that has been engineered so that it is fattier and saltier and more novel to the point where our body, brain and pleasure centers react to it more strongly than if we were eating, say, a handful of nuts,” Gearhardt said. “Going…
A New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) perspective essay titled “The Taxing Power and the Public’s Health” asserts that the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in a case challenging the validity of the Affordable Care Act opens the door to government using its taxing authority to achieve a range of policy objectives including “interventions to promote public health.” According to the authors, assuming that federal, state and local governments can overcome adverse public sentiment or industry opposition, they could, for example, adopt taxing strategies that provide credits to those with a healthy body mass index (BMI) or proof of BMI improvement. The October 18, 2012, essay cites the argument made by health care law opponents who invoked the hypothetical of government taxing people who fail to buy broccoli. The authors state, “nothing in [Chief Justice John] Roberts’s opinion stops the government” from imposing such a tax. They conclude, “The Court…
Two British Columbia residents have reportedly filed individual and putative class action suits against the Canadian meat processor that was forced to recall 1,800 ground beef products in an E. coli contamination outbreak that involved retail chains in the United States and Canada. The class action, filed October 12, 2012, by Erin Thornton in B.C. Supreme Court, names XL Foods Inc. and its owner Nilsson Bros., Inc. as defendants. She alleges that XL Foods was negligent and that both defendants breached disclosure obligations and mishandled the recall. According to news sources, at least 15 people in four provinces have been sickened by the E. coli strain linked to the defendants’ Brooks, Alberta-based plant. Class actions have also apparently been filed in other provinces. U.S. officials reportedly discovered E. coli O157 at the plant on September 3, and the recall began September 16. See The Canadian Press and The Province, October 17,…
The United Farm Workers has reportedly filed a lawsuit against the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) over its alleged “systemic failure” to enforce a 7-year-old regulation requiring farmers to provide water, shade and rest to employees to prevent heat illness or death. Bautista v. Cal/OSHA, No. ___ (Cal. Super. Ct., Los Angeles Cty., filed October 18, 2012). The union contends that “[a]t least 28 farm workers have died of potentially heat-related causes since the regulation was first approved in 2005. This year alone, Cal/OSHA is investigating heat as a factor in the deaths of four people.” The complaint, filed on behalf of individual farm workers, the United Farm Workers (UFW) and UFW Foundation, alleges, among other matters, that Cal/OSHA has failed to (i) “conduct on-site inspections for complaints”; (ii) “evaluate the conditions alleged in a complaint when it does conduct inspections”; (iii) “issue citations for serious, repeat,…
Nestlé Waters North America (NWNA) has removed to federal court a putative class action alleging that the company failed to disclose that its Ice Mountain® 5-gallon bottles are not 100 percent natural spring water, “but are actually resold water sourced from municipal water systems.” The Chicago Faucet Shoppe, Inc. v. NWNA, Inc., No. 12-8119 (N.D. Ill., filed October 10, 2012). The named plaintiff, a company that contracted with NWNA in 2008 to deliver the water bottles to its Chicago office, filed the action on behalf of all purchasers in Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, and Missouri under Illinois consumer fraud laws. The removal notice claims that under the Class Action Fairness Act, diversity of citizenship exists between putative class members and the defendant and that the amount in controversy exceeds the $5 million jurisdictional threshold. “According to NWNA’s records, since October 2009, more than $5,000,000 of Ice Mountain® brand 5-gallon bottled water has…
A coalition of industry and union interests has filed a petition seeking to enjoin or invalidate the New York City (NYC) Department of Health prohibition on the sale of certain sugar-sweetened beverages in servings exceeding 16 ounces from certain types of business establishments. N.Y. Statewide Coal. of Hispanic Chambers of Commerce v. NYC Dept. of Health & Mental Hygiene, No. 653584/2012 (N.Y. Sup. Ct., N.Y. Cty., filed October 12, 2012). The coalition contends that the Board of Health acted beyond its powers in adopting the prohibition and that it is arbitrary and capricious in its design and application. Members of the coalition include trade associations for Korean-American grocers, restaurants, beverage makers, and theater owners, as well as the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and a soft drink and brewery workers union local. According to the petition, the rule does not apply to beverages higher in calories than soft drinks, including alcohol-based drinks, wines,…
A coalition of industry and union interests has filed a petition seeking to enjoin or invalidate the New York City (NYC) Department of Health prohibition on the sale of certain sugar-sweetened beverages in servings exceeding 16 ounces from certain types of business establishments. N.Y. Statewide Coal. of Hispanic Chambers of Commerce v. NYC Dept. of Health & Mental Hygiene, No. 653584/2012 (N.Y. Sup. Ct., N.Y. Cty., filed October 12, 2012). The coalition contends that the Board of Health acted beyond its powers in adopting the prohibition and that it is arbitrary and capricious in its design and application. Members of the coalition include trade associations for Korean-American grocers, restaurants, beverage makers, and theater owners, as well as the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and a soft drink and brewery workers union local. According to the petition, the rule does not apply to beverages higher in calories than soft drinks, including alcohol-based…
