Lawsuits and Cheeseburgers

Lawsuits and Cheeseburgers

Rep. Boozman's Column for the Week of March 22, 2004

According to a recent Gallup poll, only nine percent of Americans think fast-food restaurants should have to pay for their customers' expanding waistlines. The rest, which is a vast majority of Americans, believe that an individual's weight problem is a result of decisions made by that person, not by the executives who decide the dishes on McDonald's menu.

However, a few enterprising trial lawyers are pushing their agenda that blames restaurants, advertisers and even farmers for America's obesity problem. Their publicity campaign includes promoting the notion that food, like illicit drugs, is addictive. Leading the charge is personal injury attorney John Banzhaf who earlier this year sent an open letter to fast-food chains insisting they have a "legal duty to warn" their customers that their food "can act on the brain the same way as heroin."

While Banzaf is busy comparing Big Macs to some of the most powerful drugs on earth, cooler heads are looking at the issue from a different perspective. Most Americans believe that they are responsible for where and what they eat. They understand that individuals make a conscious choice to visit a restaurant and are well aware of the impact a particular meal may have on their health. In fact, nine out of ten Americans oppose holding restaurants liable for diet-related health problems.

Recently, I joined my colleagues in the House of Representatives and took a stand for personal responsibility when we passed what has become known as the "Cheeseburger Bill." This bill bans lawsuits that blame the food industry for an individual's poor eating habits and lack of exercise.

The "Cheeseburger Bill" would generally prohibit obesity or weight gain-related claims against the food industry. It would, however, allow obesity-related claims to go forward in cases where state or federal law have been broken and as a result a person gained weight. For example, an obesity-related claim could go forward if a company, in violation of a labeling law, labels a food as fat-free when in fact it contains fat, thereby causing weight gain if someone eats too much of it.

While McDonald's and Taco Bell may be easy targets to blame for our collective weight gain, these frivolous lawsuits won't stop there. If we allow these cases, the door is opened for activists to drag local pizzerias and mom and pop burger joints into court, which will eventually drive them out of business.

For all the talk of lawsuits and cheeseburgers, in the end, this bill is really about responsibility. It is about an individual's free will to decide what they want to eat, where they want to dine and how much food they consume. However, it is also about the fact that a person has to live with the consequences of their dietary decisions.

Above and beyond, we should continue promoting healthy lifestyles and we can do this without entering the courtroom. We should promote health and personal responsibility through education, not through litigation.