Foods Are Not Cigarettes: Why Tobacco Lawsuits Are Not a Model for Obesity Lawsuits

Related articles

Beginning in the 1950s, people suffering from smoking-related diseases started suing cigarette companies.

That made sense. Those companies were found to be suppressing evidence cigarettes cause any number of health issues and trial lawyers were happy to take a cut for helping patients get compensation.

More recently though, people with obesity and obesity-related medical problems have sued companies in the food industry. Some attorneys and activists view anti-cigarette litigation as a model that may be applicable to obesity. However, food is not tobacco, there are no addictive chemicals being pushed into foods to make people crave them, and there are important differences between the two health issues and the two forms of litigation.
Foods Are Not Cigarettes: Why Tobacco Lawsuits Are Not a Model for Obesity Lawsuits

 

Tags: