Letter to the National Restaurant Association
Putting the Organization and Its Members
On Legal Notice of the Potential Addictive Properties of Fast Foods [main page]
Thursday, May 8, 2003
National Restaurant Association
1200 17th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
ATTN: Mr. Steven Anderson, President & CEO
RE: LEGAL NOTICE REGARDING ADDICTIVE PROPERTIES OF FAST FOODS
Dear Mr. Anderson:
I am writing to be sure that you,
your national association, your affiliate state organizations, and the individual
members of each are fully aware and on notice of recent research.
This research strongly suggests that,
as recently summarized in the respected publication, NEW SCIENTIST,
at least some fast foods “can act on the brain the same way as nicotine
and heroin.”
The article – Burgers on the Brain:
Can You Really Get Addicted to Fast Food?- The Evidence is Piling Up, and
the Lawyers are Rubbing Their Hands – summarizes some of this evidence,
including studies in which withdrawal symptoms were induced in laboratory
animals. The associated editorial comment – A High With Your Fries?:
Even If Fast Food Is Not As Additive As Tobacco, It Still Merits A Health
Warning – indicates the need for an appropriate warning to customers who,
unlike those within the trade or profession, might not otherwise be aware
of this important information.
As you and your members might already
know, several courts have held that cigarette manufacturers may be liable
for failing to disclose that their products might be addictive, even though
the general health dangers of smoking were so well known as to be regarded
as common knowledge See State of Texas v. American Tobacco Co.,
14 F. Supp. 2d 956, 966 (E.D. Tex. 1997); Castano v. American Tobacco Co.,
961 F. Supp. 953, 958 n.1, 959 (E.D. La. 1997); American Tobacco Co. v.
Grinnell, 951 S.W.2d at 429-31 (Sup. Ct TX ); and Burton v.
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 884 F. Supp. 1515, 1525-26 (D. Kan. 1995).
By analogy, even if all courts find that the general dangers of eating fatty
and calorie-rich foods at fast food restaurants are likewise common knowledge,
liability for causing obesity and its related diseases may nevertheless be
premised on the theory that the public is much less aware of the addictive-like
effects of many fast food than they are of the widely-publicized addictive
nature of nicotine in cigarettes.
For these reasons, it may be appropriate
and prudent for your organization(s) and your member restaurants to consider
what warnings or informational notices about the possible addictive properties
of fast foods is appropriate in light of this and other related research –
especially since the law imposes a duty to warn far before the evidence of
potential harm is conclusive. To assist you in this endeavor, and to
put you on notice of the problem, I am enclosing excerpts from the NEW
SCIENTIST article. [http://banzhaf.net/docs/newsci.html
] For more general information on the topic of liability, please see:
http://banzhaf.net/obesitylinks
In light of these scientific studies,
it may also be prudent for fast food companies to review their policies to
be sure that nothing they are doing could be construed by a jury as seeking
to take advantage of and/or enhance the possibly addictive properties of their
foods. Changing the cooking temperature so as to increase the amount
of fat absorbed during cooking, adding sugar to foods like french fries where
it is not ordinarily expected, etc. might well seem to jurors like the activities
of cigarette manufacturers to increase (“spike”) the addictive effects of
their products.
Yours truly,
Prof. John F. Banzhaf III