banzhaf News

The IIHS provides vehicle ratings based upon several safety factors, and the federal government other safety ratings, but it's very difficult for potential car buyers to learn the one factor which might be more significant than any one of these

A report recommending that parents consider purchasing an SUV for their teen drivers, based on findings that electronic control systems now minimize rollovers, is incomplete and potentially misleading because it omits life-saving information

While Texas's efforts to pass a law to fight groping by TSA employees may have been derailed by federal threats to shut down its air space, law suits based upon existing tort law theories have now been shown to be viable new weapons, says expert

The announcement by IARC that cell phones "might possibly"cause brain cancer, and that children might be at "particular risk," must be viewed in context with cancer and other risks from 2nd and 3rd hand tobacco smoke which are very well established

Neil Cavuto reportedly "lost it" when debating a lawyer who said he's like to legally kill off Ronald McDonald, just as he helped kill off Joe Camel, as he told his opponent that he (Cavuto) would arrest John Banzhaf if he were in his studio

Now that McDonald's has rejected calls backed up by a very expensive advertising campaign asking the company to retire Ronald, perhaps it's time to use legal action to kill him off, just as antismoking activists did with Joe Camel

At a shareholders meeting today, McDonald's will consider a proposal to retire their mascot Ronald, someone who is a legal, public relations, and even religious liability, says the man behind two law suits against the golden arches.

Full-page ads in major newspapers around the country are demanding that McDonald's retire Ronald because of his role in the epidemic of pediatric obesity, a role which goes beyond enticing impressionable children and constitutes misrepresentation

Toyota suffered a loss when a judge refused to dismiss sudden acceleration lawsuits, and upheld claims based upon economic loss, but an earlier lawsuit and a major study strongly suggest that the plaintiffs will need new theories of legal liability

More than 10% of doctors in a recent survey refuse to accept patients who are too fat. While some doctors decline to perform operations on patients who refuse to quit smoking, the two situations are different from a legal point of view, says expert.

The obesity epidemic has pushed Pepsi, the largest food and drink company in the U.S., into a strange new world of robots which can taste food like humans, to drinkifying snacks and snackifing drinks, and to resizing the salt on its junk food snacks

The President's decision not to release photographs of the corpse of bin Laden may allow him to have his cake and eat it too, since it is likely that Freedom of Information Act [FOIA] demands already pending could force their release in the future.

A new study shows that kids exposed to secondhand tobacco smoke have statistically higher levels of mental health problems, including "major depressive disorder," ADHD, and "conduct disorder," noted the man behind the nonsmokers' rights movement.

Some Members of Congress are apparently willing to force a government shutdown over a difference in proposed spending cuts of less than $30 billion, while both sides totally ignore a drain of almost $200 billion a year which could be slashed easily

In France, apparently for the first time, a nonsmoker has successfully sued her employer and won money damages for being exposed to tobacco smoke in the workplace. This victory follows a long string of successful legal actions in the U.S.

A tenured law professor has been suspended, and now faces firing, because he used hypotheticals in which he "killed" his dean as well as many of his teaching colleagues to illustrate basic legal principles - PC run amok or a hidden agenda?

The U.S. Travel Association has issued a report calling for an elimination of the "one-size-fits-all" policy in favor of a "risk-based" approach to airline security, but its a misnomer and requires that passengers surrender their privacy, says expert

Despite a comprehensive settlement to end illegal sex discrimination against women in the pricing of shirt laundering, it appears that several D.C. dry cleaners are continuing to engage in the illegal practice, and one may be a repeat offender.

Norwegian law students, as well as younger students from different countries, will be urged to use legal action as a weapon against public health problems such as smoking and obesity by a "Radical Law Professor" from the U.S.

Law suits against Toyota can continue, even if electronic glitches didn't cause sudden accelerator problems, under two alternative legal theories, says expert.

The law suit charging Taco Bell with false advertising regarding its beef is reminiscent of a suit against McDonald's over its beef claims which McDonald's originally derided as "frivolous," but which it was forced to pay $12.5 million to settle

Two Florida hospitals have joined the growing number of hospitals that want a drug-free workforce - a category which increasingly includes the addictive and deadly drug nicotine - both to save up to $12,000/yr per worker and to protect their image

Laurent Huber, 45, who has served as International Director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) for more than ten years, will become its new (and second) Executive Director on January 1, 2011.

The best gift any smoker can give his spouse, children or grandchildren, nephews or nieces, friends or coworkers, is to quit smoking, says Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).

Santa Claus will deliver toys this year without his pipe because of growing concerns about his health, the health of Mrs. Claus and children everywhere, and the growing number of court orders and even laws prohibiting smoking in homes with children.

A new study shows that persons who move into apartments previously inhabited by smokers are exposed to tobacco toxins even if the dwellings had been vacant for months and cleaned and repaired - more evidence of the dangers of thirdhand tobacco smoke.

Congress wrestles with tax and deficit issues, and agonizes over some of the costs, but it ignores a much larger expense which could be slashed at no cost to anyone, says Action of Smoking and Health (ASH).

The Deficit Reduction Commission totally ignored the major controllable cause of health care expenditures and completely spared the cause, even while proposing sacrifices for innocent bystanders like doctors, hospitals, medical students, patients.

Although it admitted that "federal health care spending represents our single largest fiscal challenge over the long-run," the Deficit Reduction Commission ignored the largest and most easily controlled cause.

The U.S. House of Representatives will finally provide potty parity for its female members. This follows a formal legal complaint from the man dubbed "The Father of Potty Parity" which prompted a response from the Architect of the Capitol

The WHO reports that 165,000 children die annually from secondhand tobacco smoke. While most occur in poor countries, many people refuse to recognize that parental smoking kills thousands of children yearly in the U.S., largely unprotected by law.

As more companies refuse to hire smokers - to save over $10,000/yr per employee, and because employing smokers sends the wrong message - the major argument in opposition doesn’t attack the practice, but bemoans that it will spread to the obese.

"The public overwhelmingly supports profiling" by the TSA, reports the Washington Post, but that percentage would almost certainly be far higher if the public understood the difference between "racial profiling" and "terrorist profiling."

Recently the Anna Jaques Hospital in the Merrimack Valley of Massachusetts followed the lead of the Massachusetts Hospital Association in refusing to hire smokers, a move also copied by Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau, Missouri - ASH

Lawsuits have been filed, police have been called, a toddler screamed during patdown, and a slow-down protest of TSA screening procedures is planned for the Thanksgiving Day travel rush, but there may a partial solution which the TSA is overlooking,

Professor John Banzhaf asked the first question at this morning's announcement by HHS's Secretary Kathleen Sebelius about her agency's "Tobacco Control Action Plan, Here are more questions which might help to put her announcement into perspective.

Today's announcement that HHS will fight the almost $200 billion/yr tobacco epidemic primarily only by requiring bigger and more graphic warnings on cigarette packs and ads is too little, too late, and wrongheaded, says ASH

New antismoking initiatives - aimed at America's number one preventable cause of death, disability, and unnecessary medical expenses - will be unveiled this morning by HHS Sec. Sebelius and FDA Comm. Hamburg at GWU

The Aberdeen City Council - concerned about legal liability for health problems - is reportedly about to join the majority of agencies and counsel in Scotland that will no longer allow smokers to adopt children, notes Action on Smoking and Health.

New antismoking initiatives - aimed at America's number one preventable cause of death, disability, and unnecessary medical expenses - will be unveiled at the George Washington University, notes John Banzhaf, a law professor there.

The Massachusetts Hospital Association is the latest in a growing number of business and governmental bodies refusing to hire applicants who smoke - a move which could save them more than $10,000 a year for every nonsmoking person they employ

Two new studies show how communities can cut the number of heart attacks - and slash unnecessary medical care expenses - at virtually no cost, confirming many earlier similar studies, says Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)

This Halloween millions of parents will warn children about the dangers of motor vehicle accidents, or of eating poisoned candy. But most will fail to warn about the biggest risk, which may kill more children than all of the others combined

Folklore says that vampires, the most frightening of all Halloween monsters, gradually enslave people by biting their necks, and eventually causing them to suffer a long and lingering death -- but REAL monsters Are far worse

It may have taken the threat of a sex discrimination law suit by the "Father of Potty Parity," but Jon Stewart's threat to use "unenclosed toilets," and to provide shovels to rally participants needing to relieve themselves, has ended.

Jon Stewart's threat to have unenclosed toilets at his "Rally to Restore Sanity" has been met with the threat of a law suit by the "Father of Potty Parity," says a law professor whose acts brought more gender-neutral potties to the Obama Inauguration

Residents of France who continue to smoke are imposing huge costs on the great majority of the French who do not smoke, notes Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) in response to a new report that about 50% of all the unemployed in France are smokers.

Today's report that shoplifting costs the average American family about $425 each year is nothing compared to the costs imposed by smoking, which are almost five times higher, and about which something can easily be done, says ASH.

E-cigarettes are "just as bad" as conventional cigarettes, says the Malaysian Health Ministry, noting that "there is concern this nicotine delivery to the human lung might result in stronger toxicological, physiological and addictive effects."

The trade association for the electronic cigarette industry reportedly has been advised by a law firm claiming to have a patent covering all e-cig products that it intends to prevent the sale of such products which are not licensed, notes ASH.