Legal interest expands from tobacco to obesity.

McDonald’s breathed a sigh of relief in January when a US District Judge dismissed a suit blaming the fast-food giant for the obesity and health problems of two New York teenagers. The company could not be held responsible for customers’ excesses, said Judge Robert Sweet, but it could be so for any harm caused if the food were substantially less healthy than it appeared. The New York Times quoted from Judge Sweet’s 65-page opinion in which he calls Chicken McNuggets a ‘‘McFrankenstein creation’’ laced with dubious ingredients such as TBHQ, a flavourless ‘stabilizer,’ and dimethylpolysiloxane, an ‘anti-foaming agent,’ and containing twice as much fat as a hamburger. The plaintiffs’ lawyer has amended the suit following the judge’s advice. Legal experts had thought for a long time that the food industry was immune to litigation efforts like those waged against the tobacco industry, eventually with considerable effect. But the recent spate of lawsuits is changing some minds. Many think now that it’s just a matter of time before dietrelated litigation starts succeeding.