Advocates meet to plan Big Mac attack on fat

BOSTON — Trial lawyers, public health officials and consumer advocates chewed the fat yesterday about how to successfully sue and regulate the fast-food industry for serving unhealthy foods.

At an obesity litigation conference in Boston, about 120 attendees discussed planned lawsuit methods similar to ones used to sue tobacco companies. Those methods included using guerrilla lawsuits — several types of unexpected filings — against food companies, fast-food chains and restaurants, and pushing the envelope with cases that appear “frivolous” to get bigger results and larger settlements.

“Remember, many social movements were kick-started by litigation,” such as civil rights, environmental, sexual discrimination and tobacco laws, said John Banzhaf III, a conference speaker.

Mr. Banzhaf, a George Washington University law professor, led the charge against tobacco companies through the Public Health Advocacy Institute, and is encouraging lawyers to commit to suing fatty-foods makers and restaurants for millions.

“I don’t profit from these suits, but other attorneys will, and that may be the incentive they need to take on an organization,” such as fast-food giant McDonald’s, which already has paid more than $12 million to settle a fat-content lawsuit, he said.

But foods with high calorie and cholesterol content weren’t the only things being grilled in the auditorium of Shillman Hall at Northeastern University.

Some health advocates also wanted to ban food advertisements geared to children, simplify nutritional labels at restaurants and litigate against public schools that supply soft drinks and unhealthy foods.

“There is no one lawsuit that will solve the obesity problem that has become an epidemic,” said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit health advocacy association.

“It’s going to take a whole lot of lawsuits to make a difference in public policy that will affect the dietary habits of the thousands that suffer obesity-related disease,” he said.

U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher called obesity the largest preventable epidemic in 2001, citing 300,000 annual deaths that cost taxpayers more than $117 billion in medical costs.

About 60 percent of adults and 13 percent of children are clinically obese, according to the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control.

Their condition makes them more susceptible to diabetes, hypertension, gall bladder disease and certain cancers.

Most of the strategy at the eight-hour session focused on ways to compare junk food to tobacco as an addictive drug that makes obesity more of a situational occurrence than one of personal choice.

Mr. Banzhaf cited a study in the February edition of New Scientist magazine that reported foods with fat or sugar cause changes in the brain often associated with addictive drugs.

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