Researchers with the Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (MIND) Institute at the University of California, Davis, have published a study claiming that maternal metabolic conditions (MCs) during pregnancy “may be broadly associated” with neurodevelopment problems, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD), in children. Paula Krakowiak, et al., “Maternal Metabolic Conditions and Risk for Autism and Other Neurodevelopmental Disorders,” Pediatrics, April 2012. The authors apparently analyzed data from children ages 2-5 years enrolled in the Childhood Autism Risks from Genetics and the Environment (CHARGE) study, focusing on 517 children diagnosed with ASD, 172 with developmental delays (DD) and 315 controls. The results evidently suggested that not only were diabetes, hypertension and obesity “more common among mothers of children with ASD and DD compared with controls,” but mothers with obesity “were 67 percent more likely to have a child with ASD than normal-weight mothers without diabetes or hypertension, and were more than twice as…
The U.K. Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld a complaint alleging that a radio advertisement for Budweiser® beer violated rule 19.6 of the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice code by linking the consumption of alcohol to sexual success. According to ASA, the ad produced by AB InBev UK Ltd. featured a male speaker modeled after “the typical American football coach” giving “a motivational style speech” to other male characters preparing for the evening ahead, which would likely include meeting new people. Although InBev argued that the commercial did not explicitly link consumption of its product to sexual prowess but instead “drew upon the commonly attributed American values of optimism, free-spiritedness and a positive attitude,” ASA interpreted the message as implying that “on such nights [] unexpected and significant events, including conception, could take place.” “We considered the ad was likely to be understood as suggesting the group was preparing for…
Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc., which operates 1,250 “fast-casual” restaurants throughout the United States, has sued The Kroger Co. in Colorado federal court, alleging that the grocery store chain has infringed the CHIPOTLE® trademark by using the descriptor on its spicy fried chicken take-out products. Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. v. The Kroger Co, 12-930 (D. Colo., filed April 5, 2012). According to the complaint, Chipotle has invested “tens of millions of dollars” “to create and maintain the goodwill of its CHIPOTLE® national brand,” which evidently includes a commitment to sourcing ingredients “in the most ethical and sustainable manner possible.” In addition to claiming monetary damages, Chipotle argues that Kroger’s use of the word “Chipotle” on its chicken entrée packaging has caused “irreparable harm to the value and goodwill of Plaintiff’s CHIPOTLE® Marks, as well as irreparable harm to Chipotle’s business, goodwill and reputation.” “Kroger’s use of CHIPOTLE… can only be explained by…
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has proposed amendments to its federal meat inspection rules to better align them with the regulations and policies of major trading partners such as the United States and the European Union. According to CFIA, the plan updates a 1990 rule but does not lower food safety standards. Instead, among other things, it would “repeal certain redundant requirements” to make it easier for small- to medium-sized slaughterhouses and meat-processing plants to achieve federal registration so that they could expand trade opportunities both in and outside Canada. Under current law, Canadian plants that are provincially registered cannot sell or export their meat products outside their home province unless they are also federally registered. According to CFIA, 730 establishments are federally registered and approximately 4,000 are not, most notably because “becoming federally registered is expensive, with costs varying greatly from establishment to establishment in relation to the volume…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service and the Food and Drug Administration have announced an April 18, 2012, public meeting in Washington, D.C., to provide information and receive public comments on draft U.S. positions to be discussed at the 40th Session of the Codex Committee on Food Labeling (CCFL) on May 15-18, 2012, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Agenda items include additional conditions for nutrient health claims and comparative claims. See Federal Register, April 9, 2012.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released industry guidance and a draft regulation about a new voluntary initiative intended to decrease the use of antimicrobials in agricultural animals. According to an April 11, 2012, press release, FDA has issued final guidance for industry titled “The Judicious Use of Medically Important Antimicrobial Drugs in Food-Producing Animals,” which “recommends phasing out the agricultural production use of medically important drugs and phasing in veterinary oversight of therapeutic uses of these drugs.” The agency has also published draft guidance that urges animal pharmaceutical companies to voluntarily remove “production uses of antibiotics from their FDA-approved product labels” and “add, where appropriate, scientifically-supported disease prevention, control, and treatment uses.” These two sets of guidance are supplemented with a proposed veterinary feed directive outlining “ways that veterinarians can authorize the use of certain animal drugs in feed, which is important to make the needed veterinary oversight feasible…
U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) has urged the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to “take regulatory action to address the rising health concerns around energy drinks” in an April 3, 2012, letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg. Durbin’s action follows the December 2011 death of a 14-year-old girl that the lawmaker attributed to “caffeine toxicity after drinking two 24 ounce Monster Energy drinks in a 24-hour period.” Noting that FDA has the authority to regulate caffeine levels in soft drinks and additives in beverages, Durbin asked FDA to clarify whether energy drinks should be regulated as beverages or dietary supplements. “Most energy drinks are currently marketed as dietary supplements, therefore they do not need to establish evidence of their products’ safety or adhere to a limit on the level of caffeine,” he wrote. “At the same time, many energy drinks come in single-use containers ranging from 8 ounces to 32…
Citizens Medical Center, located in Victoria, Texas, has reportedly instituted a prohibition on hiring any employee with a body mass index (BMI) higher than 35, or 210 pounds for an individual 5 feet, 5 inches tall or 245 pounds for someone 5-foot-10. Apparently, the hiring policy is not based on the expense of health care for the obese or purported increased absenteeism, but linked to physical appearance. The center’s chief executive officer reportedly said in an interview, “The majority of our patients are over 65, and they have expectations that cannot be ignored in terms of personal appearance.” Because weight is not a protected category in Texas, some believe the policy is not illegal, but others claim the weight-based discrimination violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. In either event, while smokers have been subject to similar policies for some time, weight restrictions are apparently virtually unknown in the medical field. The…
A New York University School of Medicine study claims that Body Mass Index (BMI), the traditional method used to measure obesity, may underestimate the number of Americans who actually qualify as obese. Nirav Shah and Eric Braverman, “Measuring Adiposity in Patients: The Utility of Body Mass Index (BMI), Percent Body Fat, and Leptin,” PLoS One, April 2, 2012. The researchers used BMI and a test called Dual- Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry (DXA), which provides simultaneous measurements of muscle, bone mass and body fat while measuring levels of leptin, a protein that regulates metabolism, on a cross section of 1,394 patients. According to the study, 48 percent of the women and 25 percent of the men were misclassified as non-obese based on BMI but were considered obese based on DXA testing. The researchers concluded that people who have lost a lot of muscle mass as they age, many of whom are women,…
Researchers studying 30,000 adult Mayo Clinic employees, retirees and dependents over a seven-year period have concluded that health care costs for the morbidly obese are far higher than those for smokers. James Moriarty, et al., “The Effects of Incremental Costs of Smoking and Obesity on Health Care Costs Among Adults,” Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, March 2012. The study found that health care costs for smokers exceed those for nonsmokers by $1,274 to $1,401 depending on retirement status, i.e., age, and health care costs for the overweight and obese (ranging from simply overweight to morbidly obese II) exceed those for individuals with normal body mass index by $382 to $5,530. The incremental costs are significantly higher at higher weight categories. While controlling for comorbidities, the researchers found lower incremental costs for obesity, but suggested that such controls “may lead to underestimation of the true incremental costs because obesity is…
