The state’s highest court should consider New York City’s first-of-its-kind effort to cut down on big, sugary soft drinks, city lawyers argued in a request made public today.
The request had been expected after a mid-level appeals court ruled last week against the measure. It would put a 16-ounce size limit on non-diet sodas and other high-calorie soft drinks sold at many eateries.
The four-judge panel of the state Supreme Court Appellate Division last week said the Board of Health was acting too much like a legislative body when it created the ban and said it didn’t believe sugary drinks were “inherently harmful.”
A judge had blocked the size cap in March, shortly before it was set to take effect at restaurants, movie theaters, food carts and some other establishments.
The city sees the regulation as a needed, if novel, step in fighting obesity and related diseases.
“This is a pressing public health matter that deserves careful review by the state’s highest court. The Board of Health must be able to combat the growing obesity epidemic, and there is clear precedent for the board to have that authority,” the city’s chief lawyer, Michael Cardozo, said in a statement Monday.
“Yeah, it’s disappointing. There are an awful lot of people dying from the effects of overweight. It is the single biggest, fastest problem in this country. It’s particularly a problem among poor people,” Bloomberg said last week.
Read more at 1010 WINS NY.
{Matzav.com Newscenter}
If the price of the 16 oz drink was proportionately the same as the 64 oz size, people would not need a law to buy the smaller bottle.