Posted on 09/16/2012 6:37:15 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Legal challenges to New York City's ban on sodas larger than 16 ounces are unlikely to be successful, and the ban could spark similar moves in other cities around the country, according to experts.
Thursday, after the city's board of health formally prohibited restaurants from selling sodas larger than 16 ounces after March 12, 2013, organizations around New York City said they would consider suing the city to get the ban overturned.
Laura Palantone, a spokesperson for New York City Beverage Choices, a group against the ban, says the organization will "carefully review the regulation and explore our options now that [the ban] has passed." In a press release issued Thursday, the group said they are "exploring all avenues to challenge the board's ruling, including in court."
But John Cromer, a lawyer with Burns White who has represented food and beverage companies, says New York City likely has the authority to issue the ban, which was championed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
"States, and cities for that matter, have wide authority to regulate public health—smoking bans are a good example, as are motorcycle helmet and car seatbelt requirements," he says. Most likely, organizations will try to argue that the city has no "rational basis" for enacting the ban.
"You can buy as many 16 ounce soft drinks as you want, you can hold a 16 ounce soda in each hand," he says. "They can try to argue that the ban won't do anything to promote public health or argue that it might not reduce obesity, as the mayor is claiming."
Those opposed could also try to say the ban attempts to pre-empt the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's responsibilities or say that the ban violates the U.S. Commerce Clause that regulates trading between states.
"My gut reaction is that the [Commerce Clause] argument has less of a chance of working than arguing there's no rational basis because they're not regulating the sale of soft drinks or soda in the state, they're just limiting what the consumption size can be," he says.
New York City has enacted a number of anti-obesity campaigns over the past few years: Officials there banned transfats from restaurants in 2008 and required fast food restaurants to post calorie counts. Experts say that if the ban is successful at curbing obesity, other cities and states could try to enact similar measures.
"New York City's policy to limit the size of sodas is no longer a local story because it has spurred a national conversation about the health consequences of sugary drinks," Andrew Cheyne, a University of California-Berkley professor who studies the soda industry, says. "This matters because we know from the history of tobacco control that when the public understood the health harms from cigarettes, the industry's main product, they viewed the marketing or political actions taken by the tobacco companies much more critically," making them more likely to support a ban.
Cromer agrees: "New York City has been very progressive on these types of health issues, and a lot of these public health concerns seem to originate there," he says. Though a state would have the authority to enact a similar ban, it's likely similar bans will be enacted on a local level.
"Bloomberg only needed a few votes on a mayor-appointed board," he says. "It's much more difficult to do on a state level."
Well, you’re wrong. Public health is “the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals” - Winslow, Charles-Edward Amory (1920 Jan 9). “The Untilled Fields of Public Health”. Science 51 (1306): 23–33. doi:10.1126/science.51.1306.23. PMID 17838891.
You said EVERYBODY . I live in Japan . I am 60 . Nobody has checked my waist size .
Sieg Heil Fuhrer Bloomberg!
Are large and super size supposed to go away now? Or will they just give out 2 cups. Or maybe make up for it with extra fries. No, wait! That's more salt and they'll need more to drink.
And it's so anti-metric. Half-liters are now illegal.
Yes but it will cost more. Larger sizes are just 20 or 30 cents more for the next larger size. Say you really want 32oz before you could get it for 1.40 but now you will pay 2.20 or 2.40 to buy 2 16oz. I would imagine that a lot of eat in places will probably have a price that allows you to refill though.
I hope the Mayor next outlaws cannolis, bagels and lox.........maybe even seltzer vasser.
You get what you vote for, schmucks.
Leni
Welcome to Bloomturdistan!
While Bloomberg is a dictatorial success in 2012, he would have been great in the Soviet Union until about 1952. In 1953 he would be dead, killed by Beria and Stalin because he is Jewish.
Now Bloomberg is the new Stalin. Guess he never read a history book, or looked at the influence of the Communist Party USA on New York City and the Democrat Party there.
Hey New Yorkers, see what you have done, and you deserve him.
Smaller sizes cost more per oz. So folks will have to pay maybe 33% more for 20ozs.
First they took the cigarettes, and everyone all over the country thought that was just great. People saw nothing wrong with the government telling a privately owned business that their patrons were not allowed to smoke in a private establshment. Now the government is deciding what soda serving size a privately owned business is allowed to serve.
If you ever went to Boston Market for chicken, the only soft drink size they have is, like, 32 ozs. It's the only cup size they carry. Pretty ridiculous if you ask me.
“according to experts”
According to someone’s opinion.
1) The ban will NOT be successful at curbing obesity
2) Other cities "could" try? Hell, EVERY idiotic leftist ban on something they "don't like" has ALWAYS spread like wildfire.
I bet the teenagers in the drive-thru think you’re a nut or a pain-in-the-a$$ or maybe both.
Why don’t you just accept the drink and drink the amount you want to drink instead of wasting it, since they will probably throw it away anyway?
I want them and the managers to know that it is ridiculous. Nobody should be tempted with such an item.
‘There are so many obese people in this town that not only is it disgusting, but there is no way these people are paying attention to their health. They expect me, the taxpayer,, to handle the responsibility, the cost, etc.
It’s my little way of communicating that if they want me to pay, I refect this crap.
I want them and the managers to know that it is ridiculous. Nobody should be tempted with such an item.
‘There are so many obese people in this town that not only is it disgusting, but there is no way these people are paying attention to their health. They expect me, the taxpayer,, to handle the responsibility, the cost, etc.
It’s my little way of communicating that there is an obesity problem and they are contributing.
Pain in the ass, nutty? Okay, but so is the morbidly obese woman marching around carrying, drinking one of these things expecting the gov’t and or insurance company to pay the cost of the myriad complications and diseases caused by the obesity. If she pays, she gets to do anything she wants; but she’s not paying.
These masterminds think people are brilliant for voting fot them, yet people are so idiotic that they cannot decide what to drink, smoke or eat.
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