lawsuit over trans- fatty acids

[Guest guest]

May 13 lawsuit over trans- fatty acids - fskelton2002

I heard on the news this am that there's a consumer

group suing Kraft for

usin.........

Hi All, See:

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-legal12may12,1,5104974.story?co

ll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dhealth

May 12, 2003

Making a case against trans fats

A lawsuit links Oreos to obesity in the latest attempt

to hold food makers responsible for

growing waistlines.

By Jane E. , Times Staff Writer

Emboldened by the success of legal battles with the

tobacco industry, plaintiffs' attorneys are setting their

sights on a new target: companies that market

fast-food and snack products to an increasingly

overweight American public. The suits seek to hold

companies responsible for the health effects of

hamburgers, French fries, cookies and similar fare.

The latest effort is a lawsuit filed May 1 by San

Francisco attorney L. ph seeking to stop

the marketing and sale of Oreo cookies to California

children because they contain trans fats, a type of fat

that has been linked to high cholesterol, heart disease

and diabetes. The suit, filed in Marin County Superior

Court against Kraft Foods North America Inc., is said

to be the first case nationally to target a product

containing trans fats. Many scientists now say that trans

fats, which are commonly found in cookies, crackers

and margarine, appear to be as unhealthful as saturated

fats found in meat and dairy products.

Commenting on the suit, Mudd, a Kraft spokesman

in Northfield, Ill.,

said: " Nutrition issues are best left to health

professionals and regulatory

agencies. " He said the company has been exploring ways to

reduce levels of

saturated and trans fats in its products.

Critics of these suits say that courtrooms are not the

appropriate place to deal

with such pervasive health problems as obesity, heart

disease and diabetes, and

that individuals should take responsibility for what they

eat and what they feed

their families. A better strategy, they contend, is to

improve food product labeling

and provide more nutrition education to help people make

better-informed

dietary decisions.

Earlier this year, a federal judge in New York threw out

a class-action lawsuit

that blamed the Mc's hamburger chain for obesity,

diabetes and other

health problems in children. U.S. District Judge

Sweet said the plaintiffs

did not demonstrate that Mc's products " involve a

danger that is not

within the common knowledge of consumers. "

That decision, however, did not dampen interest among

some attorneys and

public health advocacy groups.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

estimates that 15% of

U.S. kids ages 6 to 19 and 64% of U.S. adults were

overweight or obese in

1999-2000.

" The strategy of using the courts is a very valuable

one, " said son,

executive director of the Washington-based Center for

Science in the Public

Interest, who says results can be gained in courts faster

than through Congress or

federal regulatory agencies. son's nonprofit

advocacy group focuses on

food safety and nutrition.

But Adam Drewnowski, director of the University of

Washington's Center for

Public Health Nutrition, said the courts are the wrong

battleground. He favors

improving food labeling so consumers can make informed

choices for themselves

and their kids. The surgeon general has estimated that

excess weight and obesity

have an annual public health cost of $117 billion. The

problem is rooted not only

in what we eat, but how much we eat and how much we

exercise.

" I think the average person — and we've done surveys to

support this — is very

well aware of what they need to do to lose weight, " said

B. ,

director of the Clinical Nutrition Research Center at the

University of Alabama at

Birmingham. The problem, of course, is that many people

have difficulty acting

on familiar advice to eat less and exercise more.

Plaintiff's attorneys point out that judges and juries

have been swayed before by

arguments that corporations should be held accountable

when their products

were shown to damage health.

Next month, public health advocates, attorneys and

scholars will gather for the

first conference on " Legal Approaches to the Obesity

Epidemic " sponsored by

the Public Health Advocacy Institute, a group established

by law professors at

Northeastern University and medical professors at the

Tufts University School of

Medicine, both in Boston.

" At least some of the food companies have a lot to do

with making the [obesity]

epidemic happen and perpetuating it, " said A.

Daynard, a conference

organizer who heads the Tobacco Products Liability

Project at Northeastern.

" That makes it at least worth thinking about whether some

of the strategies used

with the tobacco industry may be applicable here. "

One of the conference speakers will be F. Banzhaf

III, a

Washington University law professor whose students filed

a class-action lawsuit

in 2001 against Mc's Corp. that accused the company

of failing to

disclose that French fries prepared in 100% vegetable oil

also contained beef

tallow. To settle the case, Mc's agreed last summer

to pay $10 million to

various groups representing vegetarians, Hindus and Sikhs

and organizations

promoting Jewish dietary laws and children's welfare

issues. The plaintiffs had

contended that food manufacturers and sellers have an

obligation to disclose

product information that a reasonable consumer might want

to consider.

New York City attorney Hirsch didn't get far with

the obesity suit filed

last July on behalf of a 272-pound New York man who

claimed he didn't know

that food at Mc's, 's, Kentucky Fried Chicken

and Burger King

could be unhealthful.

Assisted by Banzhaf, Hirsch filed a class-action lawsuit

in August against

Mc's on behalf of obese children, charging that

Mc's meals made

them overweight and gave them heart disease, diabetes,

high cholesterol and high

blood pressure.

Mc's attorneys contended that it would be

impossible to prove their

foods alone caused obesity and that " every reasonable

person understands what

is in products such as hamburgers and fries, as well as

the consequences to one's

waistline, and potentially to one's health of excessively

eating those foods over a

prolonged period of time. "

The federal judge who threw out the suit gave Hirsch 30

days to refile the suit to

better substantiate his claims about the health dangers

of Mc's products.

Hirsch filed an amended lawsuit in February, accusing

Mc's of deceptive

advertising, processing and sales of burgers, fries, and

fish and chicken

sandwiches.

ph brought his case against Kraft under California

laws that permit

individuals to sue if products are " not known to be

unsafe " by ordinary

consumers.

He contends that hardly anyone outside the science world

knows trans fats are

unhealthful.

Cheers, Al.

Alan Pater, Ph.D.; Faculty of Medicine; Memorial University; St. 's, NL

A1B 3V6 Canada; Tel. No.: (709) 777-6488; Fax No.: (709) 777-7010; email:

apater@...