Obesity Law: Rushing into the Void
Edward P. Richards
Director, Program in Law, Science, and Public Health
Harvey A. Peltier Professor of Law
LSU Law Center richards@lsu.edu
http://biotech.law.lsu.edu

Key Policy Questions
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Why Obesity?
Why Now?
Why Pass Laws?
What Can We Learn From The Past?

Why Obesity?
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Contributes to diabetes, cardio-vascular disease, and cancer
Increasing at a dramatic rate over the past 2 decades
Increasing fastest in children
Fatter earlier means sicker earlier, longer, and more expensively
A serious health problem that disproportionately affects the poor, blacks, and American Indians

The Most Important Reason

Costs of Obesity
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Direct health care costs for the management of diabetes and other secondary diseases
Cost of SSI disability payments
Costs of disability to the economy
Medicaid costs to the states

Why Now?
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Federal government wants to do something about health care costs
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Obesity is the “do it yourself” solution
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Put a little money into regulation and education and the rest is up to individuals
Avoids the hard issues:
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Access to care
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Drug pricing
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Etc.

Why do Motives Matter?
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Reducing obesity will take a very long term
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Preventing the next generation from being as fat is the important goal
Costs will go up before they go down
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The complications of the already obese
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The cost of obesity treatment
Governmental timeframe

Is Obesity an Unintended Consequence of
Past Laws?

Farm Policy
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Make food more affordable
Make a larger variety of food available
Make meat affordable for everyone
Make more fresh food available
Unintended consequences
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Supersizing as marketing edge
Larger portions at home
The snack culture

Land Use
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Separate commercial and residential development to make neighborhoods more healthful
Encourage greenspace development to reduce the cost of housing
Low density housing requires automobiles, so there is no need to walk

Building Regulations
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Fire regulations keep stairs closed and at the edge of the building
Security regulations often limit routine access to stairs
ADA and other regulations require easy access for handicapped persons, but non-discrimination regs also prevent this access from being limited to disabled persons

Vending Machines in Schools
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Driven by budget cuts
Generate important income for many schools
Lead to the breakdown of rules against eating in schools, otherwise no income
If you eliminate the vending machines, will you make up the income?
If you put “healthy” snacks, are you missing the point that unlimited snacks are the problem?

School Lunches – Why Fast Food?
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Many schools are overcrowded
Lunches are served to many more students than the kitchens and cafeterias are designed for
Fast food, especially when it is supplied by third parties, is the only way to serve the crowd
Will banning fast food result in better lunches or just encourage schools to let students leave campus to eat?

Physical Activity of Students
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Many schools do not require students to have organized physical activity each day
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PE was cut as budgets were cut
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PE was cut to make more room for substantive courses
School increased homework so students do not have time to play after school

What Should We Learn From Past
Mistakes?
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Think before you legislate - the science does not support a lot of the common sense solutions
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Look hard at the underlying reasons for current behavior and address those causes directly
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Analyze the possible unintended consequences of new laws
Develop a long term strategy, including money

What are Potential Unintended
Consequences?