Category: Obesity

Art Caplan: Many needlessly getting steroid injections for back pain

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In his latest MSNBC column, Art Caplan addresses a different angle of the fungal meningitis outbreak:

Many needlessly getting steroid injections for back pain, bioethicist says

The quest for relief from pain has now resulted in the deaths of 19 people and a total of 247 confirmed infections of fungal meningitis from tainted steroid injections. Thousands more who got the injections, made by the New England Compounding Center in Massachusetts, are worried that they too may wind up sick or dead.

The horrific outbreak has resulted in the outrage about a lack of oversight of the compounding pharmacy.

But, this tragedy has another aspect that is not getting sufficient attention. Why are so many Americans getting spinal injections?

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Using the Taxing Power for Public Health

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By Scott Burris

In a Perspective in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine, Michelle Mello and Glenn Cohen, both professors at Harvard, write about the prospects for using the constitutional Taxing Power to adopt innovative laws to advance public health objectives.  Cueing off the Supreme Court’s decision in the Affordable Care Act litigation, Mello — who is also a member of PHLR’s Methods Core — and Cohen write that the Court appears to have opened the door for “more targeted, assertive interventions to promote public health” under the Taxing Power than Congress has previously pursued. “For example, instead of merely taxing tobacco sales, the federal government could require individuals to pay a tax penalty unless they declare that they haven’t used tobacco products during the year. It could give a tax credit to people who submit documentation that their bodymass index is in the normal range or has decreased during the year or to diabetic persons who document that their glycated hemoglobin levels are controlled. It could tax individuals who fail to purchase gym memberships. …These strategies depart from traditional uses of taxes by targeting omissions and noncommercial activities that are important drivers of chronic disease.”  Read the full article online at the New England Journal of Medicine online.

Soda Industry Sues to Block NYC Ban on Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Sales

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By Rebecca Haffajee

Sure enough, last Friday the American Beverage Association and others, represented by Latham & Watkins, sued to block Mayor Bloomberg’s ban on the sale of sugar-sweetened beverages larger than 16 oz at certain NYC vendors. The suit, filed in the NY Supreme Court, asserts that the Mayor bypassed the proper legislative process for governing NYC, instead imposing the ban by executive fiat. The petition cites the many proposals considered and rejected by the NY City Council and NY State Legislature with respect to sugar-sweetened beverage (e.g., excise taxes, restrictions on the use of food stamps, warning labels, and product placement rules) as evidence that the legislature has chosen not to act to restrict sales in this sphere. The petition also claims that the scope of the Dept. of Health (DOH) action here is unprecedented, despite the fact that the DOH banned the use of trans fats in foods and required calorie postings at enumerated food service establishments.

Several specific causes of action are alleged by the soda industry, including:

  • that the New York City Charter, in it’s general language, does not delegate the necessary enumerated powers to the DOH to implement such a ban;
  • that even if authority to enact the ban has been delegated by the legislative branch to the executive branch, such delegation is unconstitutional as in violation of the separation-of-powers doctrine (i.e., the legislature cannot cede its fundamental policy-making responsibility to an administrative agency); and
  • that the ban fails to pass rational basis review given it’s arbitrary features that are unrelated to it’s stated purpose (e.g., cutoff at 16 oz size, exclusion of alcohol, and application to certain food establishments but not grocery or conveniences stores).

The plaintiffs request that the court enjoin and permanently restrain the ban.  They also want a decision by Dec. 15, 2012, so that affected businesses can avoid expending funds to comply with the law (set to take effect March 12, 2013). A response from the DOH will be forthcoming before an eagerly awaited court decision. A Cleveland Judge recently sided with the city when it sued the State of Ohio for trying to preempt its regulation of trans fats. Cleveland, the Judge ruled, was within its powers under the State constitution. But this most recent soda ban challenge applies to a different state’s legislative scheme, and a finding in favor of the plaintiffs could render Major Bloomberg’s “War on Fat” via other initiatives also susceptible to challenge.

What do we know about obesity and its prevention in the U.S.?

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By Rebecca Haffajee

As many are aware, the New York City Board of Health recently approved Major Michael Bloomberg’s proposed ban on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) over 16 ounces in size sold at city restaurants, delis, sports venues, movie theaters, and street carts. This “soda ban” is set to go into effect on March 12, 2013. It has been justified on the grounds that it will make headway in combating obesity in NYC.  It piggybacks on a number of other anti-obesity policies enacted in the City, including a transfat ban in restaurants, a requirement that chain restaurants post calorie information, initiatives to help low income residents buy fresh produce, and nutritional standards in schools. In this Blog, Katie Booth conducted a thorough legal analysis of whether the ban could be overturned, concluding that a plaintiff’s chances of waging a successful lawsuit are slim.  Meanwhile, robust commentary in the media and health journals has debated the legitimacy of the ban and government’s role in regulating SSBs and combating obesity.

So what do we know about obesity in the U.S. as a phenomenon, its causes, and possible interventions that work to combat its spread? Although the problem is far from simple, it’s useful to briefly compile the current evidence.

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Are There Any Good Legal Arguments to Overturn the NYC “Soda Ban”?

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By Katie Booth

New York City’s Board of Health has recently approved a ban on all sugar-sweetened drinks over sixteen ounces sold in restaurants, fast food chains, movie theaters, sports stadiums and food carts (with some exceptions). The ban does not prohibit consumers from buying multiple sixteen-ounce beverages or from buying over sixteen-ounce beverages at grocery or convenience stores. The ban has been lauded by some as an effort to curb obesity and criticized by others for doing too little or for invading personal liberty. Photos of members of the Board of Health snacking on junk food and drinking a thirty-two ounce beverage—at the meeting discussing the soda ban—have provided some comic relief in an otherwise heated debate. Now that the ban has passed, restaurant associations and beverage associations have claimed they are going to file suit. Do they have a case? Probably not.

One claim opponents can make is that the Board overstepped its authority by regulating soft drink container sizes. It is unclear if this claim would succeed. The Board of Health has broad authority under New York City’s Health Code, which states that “[s]ubject to the provisions of this Code or other applicable law, the Department may take such action as may become necessary to assure the maintenance of public health, the prevention of disease, or the safety of the City and its residents.” New York City will argue that the ban is “necessary to assure the maintenance of public health” in the face of an obesity epidemic, and will point to the apparent success of the City’s trans fat ban as evidence that such bans are effective in decreasing the intake of unhealthy foods. The beverage industry will likely respond that the ban is not “necessary” because it does not really address obesity—consumers can too easily evade the law by buying multiple smaller sodas or by buying sodas at convenience stores.

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Fatness, Health, & Uncertainty

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By Daniel Goldberg

Reading Nir’s thought-provoking post below sparked a couple of thoughts in my mind regarding fatness, ethics, and population health.  The first is what I take to be the professional obligation to engage seriously with the epidemiologic uncertainty regarding the connections between fatness and health.  With notable exceptions — see the Rudd Center, for example — most of the work in bioethics and law that discusses obesity problems does so by averring (1) that obesity is an enormous problem for public health; and then (2) proceeding to discuss a particular intervention intended to ameliorate it.  But I generally perceive all too much haste with the first step. Read More

No Doctor for the Obese?

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by Nir Eyal

Yesterday, Boston public radio station WBUR interviewed a Massachusetts primary care physician who refuses to admit new obese patients. She claims that it’s because she lacks proper equipment, but she seems to have mixed motives. Earlier she had admitted that it’s rather because she feels that if they don’t lose the weight, “I’m paying the cost of other people’s choices.” I bet if she lacked the equipment for wheelchair-bound patients, she would go buy it.

In an upcoming post (09/07: update here), Holly Fernandez Lynch, who, along with Glenn Cohen, gets kudus for kicking off this blog, will explain whether it’s legal for doctors to reject obese patients. But before rejecting them becomes the next trend, is it right?

A whopping 35.7% of Americans are obese, and the trend continues upwards. Obesity increases risk for heart disease, stroke, type II diabetes, and various cancers. It costs the system a fortune. We must tackle this problem head on. But conditioning physician access on weight loss is not the way. Read More